Before Seeking Massage Therapy in These Times

We miss you and want to work with you again. Much more than that, though, we want you to be safe and healthy. We want the same for ourselves.

Photo by Luis Dalvan

At the moment, no benefits of massage outweigh the risks to you or to us.

Some of you may be considering flouting official orders, risking your life and others’, and trying to find someone willing to give you a massage. Please heed the words of respected massage therapist, pathology expert, author, and educator Ruth Werner:

. . . what is your plan to deal with COVID-associated uncontrolled blood clotting complications?
Note: These patients may have no fever, no cough, and no other obvious symptoms—except deep muscle aches. Maybe like the kind that might prompt them to seek massage.

We know some of you are hurting and suffering the effects of extreme stress and touch deprivation. We are very sorry and wish you relief and ease.

But massage is not essential medical care by any definition—no one will die for lack of having received a massage. Many questions must be answered before we can even begin determining when and how we might resume treating you. As care providers, we will not put you or ourselves at risk of a known threat. Even our practitioner liability insurance excludes coverage for communicable-disease-related claims.

For now, we must comfort ourselves and each other in whatever safe ways are available to us.

Please take in this heartfelt message of love from our Australian massage therapist colleagues.