What to expect from a Hot Stone Massage

I wanted to share with you a little bit of information about what to expect when you’re receiving a Hot Stone Massage. It’s surprising how many people I hear from that have had bad experiences, or even students that come to me that think a hot stone massage is just about placement of the stones on the body. It’s actually so much more than that. It’s really important, your client knows, and you know what is involved in hot stone massage.

 First of all, when you go somewhere to receive a hot stone massage, it is important that your therapist makes sure that you fill out a form that explains the treatment well to you. Because as a client, you need to feel okay to say “that feels too hot for me or that pressure is not comfortable for me”. Your client signs off on the form so that you know, they understand because you need to check that they do not have any contraindications to the treatment. That’s a very important step. 

The other thing with Hot Stone is when a therapist is working initially with you and they are putting the placement stones on they should make sure that put a towel between you and the placement stones because Hot Stones directly onto the skin will burn and it will hurt. So you need to make sure that never happens to you. 

The other thing that is really important is that when your therapist first starts working with you, they need to check in making sure that temperature feels okay. And the pressure feels OK, as a therapist, you should know to start the hot stone massage on the fattier or fleshier parts of the body. Why? Because fat absorbs heat. And that is really important when you first start working with the stones. Because as that stones are diversifying the heat through the body, you can actually hold it in your hand more comfortably. We don’t want to burn a hand as a therapist. 

It’s really important to understand that we never massage bones with Hot Stones. We don’t put stones on the shoulder points as we always soften things before we move through that area. And there’s other parts of the body where you don’t really want to massage with the stones. Along the shin bone being the most appropriate one and on top of the feet on top of their heads. Because that again can really hurt your client and be very uncomfortable for them.

I hope you enjoy your Hot Stone Massage when you receive one from a trained Therapist.