I am studying to be a Massage Therapist. In my neurology class today, we talked about Sympathetic and Parasympathetic reactions. In the Reproductive System, a Sympathetic reaction can cause orgasm, and a parasympathetic reaction can cause arousal. Neither is uncommon during a normal massage.
As a client of a massage therapist, what would make you the most comfortable in this situation? My professor said we should stop the session and broach the subject to explain to them the neurological reaction, rather than let them think that you are doing something to cause arousal.
How do you think that the therapist should proceed in this situation?
When my female clients become aroused nothing needs to be said, as long as she’s comfortable and happy. When my male clients pitch a tent, the same criteria apply although if the client is new I might reassure him that it’s completely normal and then check in to be sure he wants to continue.
My SIL is a massage therapist and she has had this happen a few times…The first, was a bit of a wonder for her, because she was new and he was not. He was a frequent customer, and aparently the other massage therapists new it was going to happen and gave him to my SIL.
She did what MSWAS said, she explained it was normal and asked if she should wait to coninue. He said no go ahead. He eventually calmed down.
The next was a newbe and he was very embarrassed. And ended up leaving…
Philosophr See the second type of customer is the one I am concerned about. How to do it as delicately as possible so as not to offend those who might be insecure about it.
I generally ignore it, unless the client is obviously uncomfortable (which your hands will tell you long before your eyes and ears). If that’s the case, I will gently stop (never stop suddenly when doing tissue work) and tell them I need just a minute to get a drink of water or more oil or a towel. I give them about 3 minutes to sort things out. If they haven’t taken matters into their own hands, so to speak, or gained control some other way, then I’ll simply mention (casually, while very obviously taking a drink of that water I went to get) that erections are very common and don’t bother me a bit, and should we get back to work or call it a day? I’ve only had one client choose to stop.
You should also know that it’s possible for a man to get an erection and even to ejaculate without feeling arousal, so don’t get squicked out that your clients all want to bang you. It’s even possible (although only happened to me once - well, not to me, but to someone I was working on) to ejaculate without ever getting an erection OR an orgasm. He was a good friend of mine and a bodyworker himself. I actually do believe him that he literally felt nothing, yet there was the ejaculate all of the sudden.
I’ve had quite a few clients get off the table at the end of the session to reveal “oil” marks on the sheets where I didn’t put oil. Yes, I wash the sheets between clients, with lots of disinfectant.
You might have believed him, but, as a male, he sounds like he might be fibbing a bit. I’m not saying that the 2 situations you described above aren’t possible, but I’ve never heard of an ejaculation that wasn’t the result of some sort of arousal and wasn’t accompanied by an orgasm. Even nocturnal emissions (wet dreams) contain both those elements.
In a dramatic roll reversal for me, I came to this thread to post a joke and wind up asking a serious question instead. Will wonders never cease?
Anyway, I’m just curious about the cause of the arousal during the massage. Is this a result of the massage therapist (I started to type “masseuse” only to learn that the term only applies to females…huh!) doing something right, something wrong, or is it completely random?
Or, let me try this another way (although this might be a slightly different question). It doesn’t surprise me that a person may be aroused by the touch of another person (particularly if that person is of the recipient’s favored sex), but is that the sole cause of the reaction, or is there something specific about the massage itself?
I have never been sexually aroused during a professional massage, given by either a male or female therapist. But maybe that’s because I’m not there for sex!
Neither right nor wrong. Engorgement of the genitals can be accomplished by the brain alone (consciously) or reflexively by stimulation of the dermatomes associated with T10-L2 of the sympathetic nervous system and S2-S4 of the parasympathetic.
Because of the wide variation in sensitivity among individuals, there is always a pretty high probability that there will be some degree of engorgement whenever a thorough massage is administered, particularly when detailed pelvic work is involved. And that’s a good thing therapeutically as well as emotionally if there is a positive, trusting connection between the client and the therapist.
Nevertheless, some male clients get flustered by having a boner, so much that they can’t really relax into the massage. For those clients we try to avoid the triggering dermatomes.
You’ve obviously never had an electric shock delivered right to your prostate. You will ejaculate, yet you won’t be aroused (unless you have very exceptional tastes ). Addicts in acute opiate withdrawal frequently experience spontaneous ejaculation also, and as they will testify, they were not in the mood!
As the OP notes, certain stimulations can and occasionally do cause tumescence and/or ejaculation completely without erotic connotations.
I only had a message once and made the mistake of telling her to ramp it up. I think shrinkage would have been a better term. She was brutal. Apparently it’s possible to apply all 90 lbs in one spot.
I was kind of curious as to why she wanted to do the whole body thing. It was really only my back that hurt. The temple message felt good but everything else was a waste of time.
I frequently get massages to treat recurrent pain and cramping in my neck, shoulders and upper back. I’ve never been sexually aroused while it’s going on and I doubt I ever will; I’m usually preoccupied with gritting my teeth and enduring the pain. It does make me breathe heavily, but sex isn’t the only thing that does that.
She may have just been a crappy masseuse, but there are reasons to give a full body.
For one the fascia connects the entire body in a weblike pattern. Muscles also pull each other in different directions, so a tight muscle in an area where it doesn’t hurt can cause pain in your back. For instance, I have been working out a shortness of my psoas muscle. It connects your lumbar spine to your femur, and Illiacus connects your pelvis to your femur. If these are short it can cause an anterior pelvic tilt which can pull your Quadratus Lumborum out of alignment (low back) and as a compensation you can stoop your shoulders forward causing adhesions in your Trapezius muscles (mid/upper back and neck).
I was going to pipe in with the same thing. I’ve never sported wood during a massage with an RMT of either gender. I don’t know what I’d do. It’s never come up before.
I was at my chiropractor’s in Japan a few years back, getting a massage for some lower back pain. The masseuse was the chiropractor’s wife, mid 30’s, and she was extremely attractive. Her trainee assistant was a younger girl, early 20’s, and she was extremely attractive. So I’m lying on my back, two gorgeous Japanese woman working one to each thigh for some deep tissue work{while the husband of one of them was in the next room working on my female boss}, and all the while I’m trying desperately to think of crushed ice, vinegar and all the most unarousing things I could. I was glad I was wearing baggy track pants that day.
). Addicts in acute opiate withdrawal frequently experience spontaneous ejaculation also, and as they will testify, they were not in the mood!