Professional Massage Therapy for the Test of Your Life
Posted by Jennifer Shaw on Mon, Nov 23, 2009 @ 12:30 PM
By Robert Sierra, Graduate Clinic Massage Therapist
Coffee supported all-nighters, information overload, anxiety, getting techniques learned, strategizing for the test of your life…College finals? The Law Bar? The presidency? Pregnancy and parenthood!
As a professional massage therapist, pregnancy massage can be intuitive if you’re a female massage therapist and have gone through this particular transformation in your life. It can make you apprehensive if you don’t have a regular client base with this need or it can seem like a sea of information and technique that you don’t ever quite have the confidence to pull together to make the session a successful on for you or a worthwhile one for the mother that is looking for that supportive, nurturing and relieving touch.
In 2009, I reached a nexus that brought these worlds together. I’m a massage 
therapist and my wife is delivering our first child in December of this year. Between knowing Swedish, Sports, Shiatsu and Deep Massage, my “bag” of techniques was helpful but didn’t quite reach the comfort zone that a pregnant woman (my wife) needed in order to have a lasting effect. Needless to say that it was frustrating for both of us (I’m speaking for her.)
Naturally, when Bodywork for the Childbearing Year® was offered at Lauterstein-Conway by Kate Jordan Seminars, I signed up. The information supported everything that I had been seen women in pregnancy experience and the techniques and procedures that Kate Jordan has brought together for the seminar reach beyond the implied clientele.
After the seminar, my confidence in working with a woman in the child bearing year has heightened. I now see that working on a client in side lying position allows a massage therapist access to areas where relief can be longer lasting by utilizing the proper techniques. I have expanded my reach by letting my guard down and moving beyond my own comfort zone.
Robert Sierra's, LMT, professional massage work, independently and through the Lauterstein-Conway Massage Clinic, has been ongoing since graduating and becoming a State of Texas Licensed Massage Therapist in October 2006. Robert's style of massage is interactive by focusing on client goals whether specific (for that session) or longer term (several scheduled sessions). He incorporates various modalities into a single session to be as effective as possible, but he can also concentrate on any of these specific techniques: Swedish, Sports, chair, Deep Massage (the Lauterstein Method) and Shiatsu.