|
Massaging seated clients is as old as massage itself. You can still
see ancient drawings of Chinese "an-mo" practitioners massaging
customers on low stools next to their bath. However, most professional
massage, through the ages, has been done on the floor or on a table.
The modern era of chair massage began in the early 1980's when
a few pioneering bodyworkers began experimenting with marketing
massage to seated customers, primarily in the workplace. One of
these, David Palmer, who at that
time was the Director of The Amma Institute
of Traditional Japanese Massage in San Francisco, began exploring
chair massage in 1982 as a way of providing jobs for his graduates.
David's chair massage company achieved broad national recognition
for its work at Apple Computer and Pacific Bell.
Although his initial interest was in creating more
jobs for his graduates, David soon discovered that chair massage
was the best way to introduce the value of professional touch to
the general population. In 1986 David began teaching chair massage
to table massage practitioners in continuing education workshops
throughout the United States. This became the foundation for TouchPro
Institute. That year also saw the introduction of the first specialized
massage chair for seated clients developed by David.
In 1996 a national credentialling program to certify TouchPro Practitioners
was initiated along with a practitioner referral service, the TouchPro
Registry. TouchPro organizations now exist in the United States
and the United Kingdom.
Since 1986, the TouchPro Institute has trained over 10,000
Chair Massage practitioners in the United States, Canada, Europe,
and Australia. And, as a result of TouchPro's pioneering efforts,
most massage schools throughout the U.S. now include information
about Chair Massage in their core curriculum for new students.
|
