31 October 07
Massage Envy
They recently opened a branch of this outfit here in Davis after the last of the local hobby/scrapbooking shops closed. The paper was offering coupons — $39 for an hour — way back in August; I clipped one and stuck it on the fridge, waiting till the place opened. (I’d first heard about Massage Envy when we volunteered at the Princess Promenade, where they were providing free massages to the gals who finished the ride: it made a good impression.)
I’ve had a lot of experience with massage and bodywork, and wish I could afford to go every week. Every month, even. The flip side of that is that I need my therapist to understand my body issues, who can tell I’ve been doing too much digging in the garden and can feel the consequences (of course I tell them this, but I had no idea, for instance, that the lateral ligaments on my left ankle were so very, very tight — only they can find those hidden things).
It wasn’t a bad massage, this evening. But the place is SO corporate. Suggested gratuities tastefully set in italic palatino above where you leave your clothes. A full lecture afterwards about payment plans and membership options (the last thing I want after I’ve had a massage is to be given a sales pitch by a 19-year-old with a nail through her forearm — is this something that the massage gods would approve, I wonder? does she take that thing out to get a massage? It was red and looked very sore).
It WOULD be affordable, their payment plan. But the place lacks soul. It has as much soul, in fact, as most of the local manicure/pedicure places. And massage is about connection and healing. (If you’ve been reading Mole, you’ll know what this means. Soul in spades.)
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Suggested gratuities? That’s pretty tacky. They’re a decent employer, I hear, but it’s kinda the bodyworker equivalent of working at MacDonald’s. But it might be a cheap way to “browse” bodyworkers & find someone you like who also works elsewhere. I think some, maybe most, of the people working there would have a private practice on the side. Or at least want one :-) If I remember right Massage Envy doesn’t make people sign no-compete contracts.
Thanks for the link. I wish you were here! I want twenty clients just like you :-)
Dale: and I wish I lived close enough to be a client. I do want a massage therapist who doesn’t mind my unfaithfulness to the practice, who will be there no matter what. There are lots of them in Davis; most recently I was seeing a guy who was good, very reasonable ($100 for 2 hours), but we got into a rut of talking about philosophy and baseball. Once that pattern gets set, it’s hard to break out of, and it’s not healthy when you’re trying to heal…
Hmmm – I don’t think it’s somewhere which would get any gratuities from me. I like to be relieved of my money by people who are concerned about the quality of their service they are providing to me not how much money they can extract from me.
Have you ever tried checking out reflexologists in your area? I’ve heard good things about them from time to time although have never tried one myself.