Hands Free Massage
Are you having problems with your hands – or want to avoid reaching this stage!
Upcoming Course Dates
No Events
About this Course
Basic Hands Free Massage – 2 day workshop
This course taught by Darien Pritchard is designed to help massage practitioners who are new to Hands Free massage to save their fingers, thumbs and wrists (the most common areas of strain for practitioners) while applying firm pressure – You will learn new effective skills that can be integrated into your massage sessions.
Don’t wait for the first signs of injury or strain – act now – Give your hands a holiday and save your career!
Course Duration
2 Days
Entry Requirements
To attend you must have a minimum nationally recognised level 3 body massage qualification such as Swedish Massage, Sports, Aromatherapy
Course Audience
Massage Therapists
Remedial & Sports Therapists
Also open to Osteopaths & Chiropractors.
Location
Holiday Inn Express, Lakeside Drive, Newport, NP10 8BB
Enrollment & Tuition
£225
Points Awarded
10 CPD Points
Syllabus
This 2 day workshop introduces participants to the concepts of Hands Free Massage, and gives them the practical skills for using the soft forearm for broad sliding pressure strokes on the client’s back and on the limbs. These skills can easily be incorporated into familiar massage routines. You’ll learn firm, sweeping strokes and more specific work for the back, the arms and the legs
Unfortunately, because the forearms are such powerful massage tools, it’s too easy to brutalise clients by using them without skill or sensitivity. Therefore, this course focuses on HOW you use them. It covers:
- Learning how to feel with the forearm – in order to monitor and adapt to the client’s responses
- How to moderate the pressure applied
- How to blend these techniques smoothly into massage sessions
- How to support this with good body-use rather than working too hard with your arms and shoulders
The course includes a short introduction to the other main Hands Free Massage tools – the ulna (the ‘hard forearm’) and elbow tools – which are used to save the thumbs and fist in specific pressure techniques.
Darien Pritchard has been using his forearms and elbows for 25 years (without which he would have been unable to sustain his career). He was particularly inspired by receiving deep tissue and Hawaiian massage treatments, and adapted these massage ‘tools’ to deliver ‘Swedish Massage-style’ and deep tissue massage techniques. He began calling it Hands-Free Massage when he started teaching it as a separate course 16 years ago.
In addition to the course booklet all students will access to an online video tutorial covering the techniques taught by Darien
See our Terms & Conditions for our full cancellation policy
Course Tutors
Darien Pritchard
Darien Pritchard has been a body-worker for over four decades. He trained massage professionals for 25 years, and has taught Professional Development courses for massage practitioners since the early 1990s. He is writing a book on Hands Free Massage and is preparing new editions of the student text Anatomy, Physiology and Pathology for Massage (2001/04) and his career-maintenance reference book Delivering Effective, Strain-Free Massage (2007)
Darien has been a pioneer in focusing on the practitioner’s bodyuse as an integral part of massage training in the UK. He pioneered ‘Hands Free’ Massage – the skilful, sensitive use of the forearms and elbows to save the practitioner’s hands. Darien has also been developing RhythmMobility® bodywork in his practice since the 1980s. He combined and extended elements of massage and the Feldenkrais Method® with his love of rhythm (enhanced through dancing and playing music).
