Towel / Drape Technique

[Taevan]

This is just a "I was wondering" thread. But do you feel that your initial massage training taught you enough about towel / drape techniques and the best possible ways of doing it? Or have you found courses that have shown you better ways since, or just found your own way of doing it?

Mat xxx

 

[Arlanymor Mountain Man]

this was covered really well in our ITEC course.. especially as it is worth so many points in the exam... we learnt every thing there is to know about how to fold a towel, protecting modesty, how to get people on/off the couch etc.
really good teacher, Laura, at Clapham College last year.

 

[Smorby Claus]

Draping was taught very well on my sports massage course (SPS @ Cardiff). Good amounts of emphasis on modesty whilst turning/moving the client into various positions.

 

[Maren Sokol]

My experience of an ITEC course was that the tutor was far more concerned about correct draping than about ensuring that the massage was effective !
But one thing that wasn't covered on my ITEC course was draping a naked client, when you can't tuck the towel / drape into the client's underwear. There is a very good demo of how to drape a naked client on the Sean Riehl video 'Deep Tissue and Neuromuscular Therapy'.

Alan

 

[Lucian Luna]

Yes, there was A LOT of emphasis on draping on my most recent course. The positive side of this is that it makes a good icebreaker with new clients as I make a little joke about "towel technique". I'm also brilliant now at helping clients off the couch "maintaining their modesty and dignity".
The downside on my course was that there was always a lot of fussing over towels. One time I was told off for allowing underwear to show. I had to reply by pointing out that I'd had three goes at tucking the towel into my model's thong and three times it had fallen out - and it didn't seem appropriate to spend all evening fiddling with her underwear!

 

[Penny]

I’m reviving this thread because of Cola’s comments about draping on the ‘gluteal’ thread. My impression is that most American colleges teach the use of sheets for draping (as recommended by Cola, and shown in the Sean Riehl video which I’ve already quoted). However, every course which I’ve attended in the UK has used towels for draping (with the exception of my two ‘lomi lomi’ courses where draping was minimal). My experience of receiving massage is also that virtually all UK therapists use towels rather than sheets. Quoting from the London College of Massage website as an example:



I’d be interested to hear if anyone who trained in the UK has been taught to use sheets rather than towels for draping. I’d also be interested to hear from any UK therapists who were trained to use towels but have switched to the American method of using a sheet (one such therapist has already contributed to the thread [link=http://www.healthypages.net/forum/tm.asp?m=294091]Towel Coverage and Towel size [/link]).

Alan

 

[luxyfoxy]

i was trained using towels but at the spa we used sheets and fleece blankets. In my private practice I started to use sheets and blankets but I've now gone back to using one very large towel. I find when using sheets I can't mop up excess oil as easily compared to a towel. I might just use sheets/blankets for reflexology treatments.

 

[arrogant.pigeon]

My original massage training used towels, but I found them very bulky and too much washing - not good environmentally.Luckily I did my lomi lomi training before I actually startedmassaging professionally - they usedsarongs and lengths of fabric - I went with the lengths of fabric option, I can fit a lot more into a washing machine than full sized sheets or towels. I use polar fleece blankets if the client is cold, and againit's a lot easier to wash than a wool or cotton blanket, and much much much faster to dry. I will sometimes use a full size sheet as the sheet the client lies on if they need to be cocooned, either because of the treatment, weather, or they're a bit fragile, but not very often.