So what is pressure anyways?

Pressure is completely subjective, it can mean a lot of different things to different people.  

I had a client today who requested a deep pressure.  I thought to myself, "Oh, gee.. here we go..."  You see, many people think that the more pressure, the better.  They think that you have to hurt to feel better.  This is not the case one bit.  Many clients seem to feel this way because they met with a therapist in the past who was too light or too broad.  She wasn't getting the right spots so they felt the need for more pressure.  The therapist applies more pressure... but she is still too broad and too vague.  She finally gets to the point that she is literally jumping on this guy's back to give him enough pressure and he is barely content while she is killing herself to get deep enough.  

It doesn't have to hurt... in fact, it shouldn't hurt.  It should be precise and pinpointed to feel relief with only a middle to moderate amount of pressure.  The therapist shouldn't be trying to kill themselves to get the pressure right.  If they are, something is wrong.  

So I'm with this client today and she wants a lot of pressure...  I'm assuming she's one of these "no pressure is ever good enough for me" clients and I'm about to find out.  I start working on her shoulders and I finally think it's time to break out the elbows.  One firm swoop with the elbow and we have deep, broken apart breathing and a lot of wincing.  Eek! "Is it too much?"  She says in a holding-her-breath kind of way, "No, not at all."  

She's full of shit.

She was one of those clients..  I spent the rest of the session applying a nice middle of the road pressure and it was nice for everyone involved.  I didn't kill myself, and she wasn't in pain.  O, happy day!