Thank you for joining us for an Ayurvedic Yoga Massage UK training! We hope that you enjoyed your training, please feel free to send us any feedback – what to keep doing, and what we can improve. We would also be extremely grateful if you could leave us a review on Google or on our Facebook page. Ayurvedic Yoga Massage is not very well known yet, and there is no objective measure for the quality of massage or therapist trainings, so we do rely on the kindness of our clients and students a lot!

I very much hope that you will enjoy practising Ayurvedic Yoga Massage! Feel free to get in touch if you have any difficulties or questions.

Love,

Despina

STAYING IN TOUCH

Everyone does better when they are part of a community of practice! Please join our mailing list to hear our news, including to hear about future workshops, any offers from therapists in your area, and therapist trainings. You can select which areas you are interested in, and you can opt out at any time.

Whatsapp AYM community groups

This is the main way that our community stays in contact, so it’s important that you join your nearest group. We will post anything that is of relevance to AYM therapists, e.g. relevant opportunities for free/good value CPD, future trainings in your area. Mostly these groups have been created to help you organise AYM treatment swaps and become part of our wonderful community of practice! In the larger groups (London and Yorkshire) please be careful about how many messages you send (e.g. saying “thank you” can be done by private message). If anything can be put in a private message then avoid messaging the group, but of course do message the group when you have something to say that will be relevant to several people in the group! Also do be mindful of the times that you send messages to the community WhatsApp groups (not too early in the morning/too late at night please!).

The groups also help us keep track of where we have therapists at the moment, redirect client enquiries, and connect you to therapists in your area (now and in the future). We will add you to your nearest group/s following your training. However, if you are somewhere where we don’t have a WhatsApp group yet, we’ll add you to your nearest and also create a group for you. If you have not been added to a group or need to change groups/be added to multiple then please contact Despina.

  • London
  • Yorkshire (most people there are based in Leeds):
  • Manchester
  • York
  • Glasgow
  • Edinburgh
  • Sheffield
  • Liverpool and North Wales
  • Bristol
  • Essex
  • SE England (we have people around Brighton, Surrey and Dorset so far):
  • North England
  • Spain
  • Netherlands
  • North Scotland

STAY CONNECTED WITH THE WIDER COMMUNITY OF MASSAGE THERAPISTS, YOGA TEACHERS, WELLNESS PRACTITIONERS.. AND TALK ABOUT AYM!

These people are our colleagues, our community of practice, and also our prospective clients and influencers who might talk about our work. Get to know your local wellness community in real life, join classes, workshops.. You can offer to exchange AYM treatments for yoga class passes, wellness workshops etc. Also use social media to stay in contact, for example you might like to join in the discussions on Facebook groups, e.g. Massage Therapists UK, Yoga Teachers UK.

HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR TECHNIQUE

  1. Practise AYM, and make sure you practise all of the techniques that you learned regularly, especially the ones that you find more challenging. Practising on friends and family is good, because then you can experiment with the techniques that you are less confident with, which you might not want to practise on your clients. Also try to practise on people who can give you good feedback, so that would be people who have a good awareness of their body (such as long-term yoga practitioners), and other therapists, particularly AYM therapists.
  2. Receive bodywork, and particularly AYM. You can use your local WhatsApp groups to organise treatment swaps with other AYM therapists.
  3. Stay in touch, stay part of the community in any way that you can. Join the weekly mentorship sessions, come to further trainings, organise swaps, organise events together with other AYM therapists.. It will help you stay focused, inspired and motivated, and you will always learn something from being in touch with your teachers and your peers.
  4. Practise yoga. This will help with your energy, breathing, concentration, strength, ease in different positions, and also it will help you understand what the massage is doing better.
  5. Practise breathing/pranayama (which might also be part of your yoga practice).6. Practise meditation (which might also be part of your yoga practice), particularly loving kindness meditation or anything that helps you focus and develop loving feelings towards others.
  6. Regularly review your notes and technique videos, particularly paying attention to how we adapt techniques for different client needs, and indications/contraindications for each technique.
  7. Keep studying, keep learning, keep staying inspired to become a better therapist.

PRACTICAL POINTS TO REMEMBER AND RESOURCES FOR STARTING YOUR BUSINESS

  1.  PLEASE RECORD YOUR SESSIONS! The client form can be found can be found on our shared AYM UK therapists One Drive folder, so you can print it or keep your notes electronically. Your notes will be an invaluable resource for improving as therapists, and also it might be useful to refer back to them if you have been seeing a client for a while. It will also make it easier for us to discuss your experience and for me to give you constructive feedback. Importantly, they will also help you keep track of how many hours you have practiced for. It will also be useful when you start your teacher training, to be able to prove how many hours you have practised for.
  2. Please send me your details when you would like to be added to our website. There is a small cost involved – £80 to be added (we can also make you a leaflet, business card and Google maps page if you don’t have them, and we also add you to our online booking system, so you don’t have to pay for a booking system separately), and also £25 per year to cover the web designers, maintenance, software, admin and advertising costs. You can send us your information to add to the website here, or ask Despina for help on how to write a bio, take appropriate photos, decide on prices etc. The mentorship sessions are a good space to discuss all this.
  3. Once you have massaged a few clients using the AYM method, ask them for testimonials for your publicity, and also send them to Roxy if you are on the AYM UK website. Testimonials are a big part of what will make new clients interested in trying a session with you.
  4. If you need some photos for your initial publicity then you can use some of mine. Ideally after a while you can swap someone some massage for some good quality photos of you massaging people. The photos that you can use are also on our shared One Drive folder.
  5. There is no time pressure, but do start thinking about saving some time and funds for more relevant training. I will keep you updated via WhatsApp and email re future dates for the L2-4, AYM for pregnancy and any other relevant training, and you can also occasionally check the website, join our mailing list etc.
  6. If you need insurance to start practising massage, there is also a document in the AYM UK Therapists One Drive folder that can help you find the best value insurance that covers your needs. We have also included some providers who offer AYM therapists a small discount. 
  7. Business accounts – everyone recommends the Starling business account at the moment, it has amazing functionality and it’s completely free! It categorises income and expenses so essentially does your accounts for you, you can send invoices and check/mark them as paid so you can keep track, you can also set up regular payment plans for your clients. Apparently people can also pay you instantly with a tap, so you don’t need a card reader!

  8. Client cancellations do happen, and it’s a good idea to have a clear policy in place, which clients agree to when they book. You can be lenient/make exceptions if you wish, but be aware of what is standard. Depending on the way you work/your client base, you might end up with lots of last minute cancelations, which can be damaging for your business. These are some thoughts/what most UK service providers usually require.

  9. If you don’t have a Starling business account (above), then get a card reader so that you can easily take payments from clients if they say that a bank transfer is not easy for them. The cheapest one that I’ve found for small businesses, which is the one I use, is this one. They give you a discount if you book through this link.
  10. Recording business mileage: if you use your car as a self employed person, the easiest way to deduct car related business expenses is to calculate your business mileage. So every time you do a business trip, you need to record the mileage at the beginning and end of the trip somewhere. I’ve found that the easiest way to do this is to use a free, ready-made Excel template for business mileage, such as this one. I’ve put the template in my Google Drive so I have easy access to it from my phone (you can also put a shortcut on your phone screen), so it’s really easy.
    But if you prefer, you can also use an app to record your mileage (search for business mileage app). Most apps will track your travel by tapping into your phone’s location, which I found excessive for my purposes.

Trainings that I highly recommend that you attend

For the best yoga anatomy trainings that we have found/can recommend (and discounts on our recommended trainings) see our recommended complementary training page and scroll down here to see our CPD for AYM therapists.

– As a massage therapist you need an up to date First Aid qualification. You can find free First Aid trainings online, for example this one.

Other massage related trainings that are free, good value and relevant

– You can look online on Coursera, there are many similar platforms so if you have another one that you use that’s perfectly fine. I found Coursera the easiest to find the right courses for me on. There are courses on Anatomy, Physiology, Pathology, Mindfulness, Psychology, Neuroscience and Marketing among other things. Marketing is the part that I was resisting/uninterested in until recently, but I highly recommend that you don’t do the same, it’s useful to think about. Basically it’s something you are doing anyway, and learning a bit of theory behind it might help you understand your business better – what kind of service do you want to provide (e.g. treatment room or not, focus of sessions, length of sessions, location, prices etc), what kind of clients would value this service, and how do they get to know about you.

– If you have clients who have cancer, I this is the free training on cancer awareness for massage therapists. She has a paid qualification on oncology massage too, but I think all we need as AYM therapists is to know a bit more so we can help any clients who have cancer with AYM, unless someone wants to specialise in oncology massage.

Massage related resources that might be of interest: massage and yoga anatomy books

One book that I found really helpful as a beginner is this one (basic clinical massage therapy, interesting introduction if you haven’t done massage courses before and very useful illustrations). You also want to look at some yoga anatomy books with good illustrations, you want to see what muscles are lengthened/shortened when the body moves in different positions. So ideally you want photos, with the muscles that are lengthened/shortened drawn on top. I have Lesley Kaminoff’s and David Keil’s yoga anatomy books, and I can recommend either of those. Also check Andrew MacGonigle’s new yoga anatomy book, Andrew is an amazing yoga anatomy teacher, and up to date with current research on anatomy.

You can use voucher code MCGONIGLE25 to receive 25% off Andrew’s book here: https://uk.singingdragon.com/products/supporting-yoga-students-with-common-injuries-and-conditions

Massage related resources that might be of interest: books and other resources on understanding the body, and body-mind connections

For anyone interested in wellness, we need to understand the links between what we used to think of as two separate things, the body and the mind. Like we mention in the course it’s important to understand this, so we can explain to clients how changing their mental attitudes can change what they feel in their bodies; and how massage, yoga, meditation and other practices can help them with their physical as well as their methal health. I very highly recommend Jo Marchant’s book Cure: A journey into the science of mind over body. It’s a summary of research on how the mind influences how our body feels, emotions and pathologies. There are many more resources to that end, and particularly you can look into: how pain (and arguably other feelings) is created in the body, and what it means (see for example this excellent talk by Lorimer Moseley); links between psychology and chronic pain – here is an example of a study on back pain; and how our posture influences how we feel – here is an example.

I also really liked Blink, by Malcolm Gladwell, that talks about split second decision making. Our current understanding of how intuition works, including some insight into when to trust our instincts and when to hold back and seek more information. Very relevant to massage.

Whatever attracts you, you can find more resources and investigate further – let me know if you need any help or further advice/recommendations on this.

– Here is a video that shows the anatomy of neck muscles. If you click on it you’ll see there are lots more to watch if you are interested! This is what I use for quick fixes. Generally if you need to check the anatomy of a part of the body having a reference book/having done a comprehensive course is great, but I have usually found that going on YouTube and searching for “anatomy <part of body I’m interested in>” or similar usually produces lots of useful videos very quickly, and I like that they can help you think of the body in 3D, ie about how muscles/other tissues are superimposed on each other. See what works best for you. Apart from videos you can also find blog posts, David Keil and Stu Girling’s blogs are two that I’ve used in the past and found very useful, but generally if you google the terms that you are interested in you will find several blog posts. Reading how more than one person approaches the same issue is a brilliant way to understand better, and it makes it easier to remember the information.

– Another useful reference anatomy book is the Trail Guide to the Body (A. Biel). This is very detailed, and is not a resource that you need as beginners, but it’s useful reference material when you start getting curious about understanding the details of anatomy. If you look in online second hand book shops you can find various versions at various prices. You don’t need the last version right now for your purposes.

– Chronic pain infographic: this is slightly simplified, but describes some of the mechanisms through which pain can become more intense, or chronic. It might be a useful resource to give to clients who have not thought about the reasons why they are experiencing pain before.

BUYING A FUTON

When you are ready to buy a futon, we recommend buying a 4-layer single or double futon from Futon Pacifika. Should you make a purchase Gary, the owner offers our AYM therapists 5% discount from the advertised price so just mention this upon purchase. Single futons are small enough to be used for mobile treatments, if you have a car. Opt for a double if it’s just going to stay in your treatment room. For mobile treatments without a car you can bring one or two futons in a large trolley suitcase, or you can use the client’s duvet(s) and any exercise/yoga mats to make the massage bed.

OTHER EQUIPMENT AND SUPPLIES

A lot of our students are on low incomes when they start practising, so we try to find and provide the materials that you will need to get started for the lowest prices possible, and if we can’t provide them then we advise on how to access good value and practical equipment and supplies.

  • Calamus powder: We import this from India in bulk so we can keep the cost at £20 per kg for our therapists.
  • Lungis: Also imported from India in bulk. To cover the cost of postage, handling and import taxes we have Lungis available at £12 or £10 (depending on style).
  • Massage oil: At the moment I use Organic sunflower oil for my treatments. This is perfectly adequate for our purposes (it’s good for the skin, doesn’t smell, doesn’t have colour, and is easily absorbed by the skin). I have Sunflower oil to sell at wholesale prices should you need it. This is £30 for 5 Litres. If you want to bring your own bottle I can sell this in smaller quantities for you
  • Essential oils:
  • Massage oil: At the moment I use Organic sunflower oil for my treatment. This is perfectly adequate for our purposes (it’s good for the skin, doesn’t smell, doesn’t have colour, and is easily absorbed by the skin). I have Sunflower oil to sell at wholesale prices should you need it. This is £25 for 5 Litres. If you want to bring your own bottle I can sell this in smaller quantities for you
  • Hand sanitiser: I make hand sanitiser with 60-70% alcohol (ethanol or perfumery alcohol so it smells nice), aloe vera gel and essential oils. Prices are: £6 for a 50 ml bottle (pocket size, good quality atomiser spray bottle), or £12 for a 500 ml bottle for your treatment room. I can also refill your existing bottles, or buy your own bottle, and I’ll refill whatever bottle you have for £12 per lt. E.g. these bottles with a copper pump are £11 per bottle plus postage on Etsy, they are pretty decent quality, although the pumps are slightly leaky when filled with hand sanitiser, I think most bottles are made for more viscous liquids. The cheaper bottles that I buy (same bottle but with a black plastic pump) work better with hand sanitiser, but they are not as pretty.
  • Heaters: electric heaters tend to break, so definitely get a heater with a 12-24 month guarantee. Convector heaters are the quickest way to heat up a treatment room. You don’t want a heater with a fan, because although they are more efficient they are too noisy for treatment rooms. So you definitely want the option to switch the fan off. The ones I’ve found the best are these.
  • Electric underblankets: electric blankets also tend to break, so definitely get one with a guarantee Other than that, your only other consideration is the size. You want the bigger ones, as often the cheaper ones come in smaller sizes. Also, if you are going to use it in a treatment room and not move it around much then get a fitted one, it will protect your futon (or duvets) better. If you often roll up your mat then don’t get a fitted one.
  • Electric overblankets: I recommend getting one of those if your treatment room is not always over 18-20° C, or if you offer mobile treatments, as the clients might not be able to heat their space adequately.
  • Trays and bowls: You can just use your kitchen trays and bowls for dips, or I recommend the square plates from Tokyo Design Studio, such as e.g. this one, as they are a good size, and also the sides are high enough for your bowls not to slide off the plate too easily. I will have some spare bowls to sell whenever I go back to Greece next. You don’t want your massage bowls to be too big, as then it becomes difficult/more time consuming to pick up the oil with your hands, and you don’t want them to be too small as then you can’t dip your fingers in them.
  • Duvets: The best value ones that I have found are these.
  • Sheets: The best value ones that I have found, durable and easy to wash are these singles and these doubles.
  • Blankets: The best value ones that I have found, durable and easy to wash are these ones.
  • Bolster: Buckwheat bolsters are usually nicer for yoga than foam ones, but for AYM the foam ones are often more comfortable (especially when used with extra pillows on top), and they are easier to move around during your treatment, as they are lighter. They are also cheaper.
  • Foam blocks: I get recycled foam blocks from YogaMatters. I can give you some for £5 per block if you need some.
  • Eye pillows: I recommend the YogaMatters eye pillows, they are a good shape, size and weight.

Washing and drying massage sheets

I usually wash my sheets at 40 degrees, in a long wash with a pre-wash cycle and extra water. I add a bit of washing up liquid in with the laundry liquid. Make sure that the drum is not too full, so when it spins, the sheets are going to roll against each other, not stay bunched up. If the sheets are very oily, then I increase the amounts of laundry liquid/washing up liquid. I do use fabric conditioner as it’s good for cottons, and it makes the sheets smell nice. If your whites need it, you can also add a bit of eco-whitener. If adding it in during the wash is not adequate to whiten your sheets, then dilute some whitener in a bowl of water, and soak your sheets overnight before washing again.

To sanitise, I add some antibacterial laundry cleanser in the fabric conditioner drawer (follow manufacturers’ instructions). 

I avoid dryers if at all possible, as if there is any oil residue they will cook it into the cotton. They are also not great for the longevity of the sheets. If you don’t have enough space to hang washing, it might be helpful to get one of those laundry racks that you can hang from the ceiling. If you have to use a dryer make sure that it’s a good one, use a fairly low setting and make sure that it doesn’t keep heating the sheets after they are dry. 

I try to keep my sheets in rotation, so none of them spend too long in the cupboard, as if there are any residues of oil at all, they might start to smell. Baking soda is good for getting rid of smells, but also if your sheets are not coming out of the wash clean and are still oily, you will have this problem. If sheets get too oily and smelly and you leave them like that for too long/over several washes, then it might be impossible to get them clean again.

If your sheets are oily, it might be worth trying soaking them in undiluted or lightly diluted degreaser, but in the end, it might be cheaper and less wasteful to just accept that you need to replace them.

My sheets usually last for several years. They don’t seem to wear much at all if I keep washing them myself. The whites stay white, the lungi colours are maintained pretty well (less well for the Mysore ones, but those fade nicely, like jeans) and the sheets don’t get oily or smelly. I just use a good washing machine, avoid overloading the machine, make sure that there is enough laundry/washing up liquid, and enough water for the liquids (and the oils that they have bound to) to be rinsed away. And I avoid dryers!

CHECKLIST FOR YOUR TREATMENT ROOM

  • Futon: Ideally get a double 4-layer futon from Futon Pacifika, otherwise make a makeshift futon with duvets and exercise mats. If you tell Gary at Futon Pacifika that we recommended you he’ll give you a 5% discount.
  • Electric underblanket: Definitely get an electric underblanket to fit your futon
  • Electric overblanket: If your treatment room is difficult to heat (e.g. single glazed windows, high ceilings, small radiator) then definitely get an electric overblanket too. I had a double in a treatment room that I used to use that took a long time/was difficult to heat up.
  • Pillows: I have about 8-10 pillows in my treatment room, so if I have back to back clients I don’t have to change pillowcases between clients. Sometimes I don’t need pillows at all (other than for sitting on perhaps), but sometimes I might use up to 4 pillows for a treatment.
  • Sheets, pillowcases, blankets that are easy to wash
  • Hand sanitiser
  • Tray and bowls
  • Base oil, essential oils, calamus powder
  • A chair or stool
  • A speaker or sound system
  • Bolster: A bolster always comes in handy, it is not essential if you have cushions, but if you can afford one and have the space, then get one
  • Meditation cushion for sitting on: You might want a buckwheat or other meditation cushion, whatever you find comfortable
  • Yoga mats: If you might slide on the floor you might want a yoga mat to sit on when you are not on the futon, or also if the cushion that supports the client’s head might slide away from them.

CHECKLIST FOR YOUR MOBILE TREATMENTS

  • Throw: Bring a double cotton throw to put under the futon, to make sure you don’t make your client’s floor, carpet or rug oily, and you don’t spread powder all over their floor
  • Futon: Ideally get a single 4-layer futon from Futon Pacifika if you will be driving to your clients, otherwise make a makeshift futon with duvets (you can bring your own in a trolley suitcase, or borrow some from your client) and exercise mats (borrow some from your client)
  • Electric underblanket: Definitely get an electric underblanket to fit your futon, it helps to keep your client warm and it also acts as a mattress protector
  • Electric overblanket: If you are going to a new client, or you know that your client’s space is difficult to heat (e.g. single glazed windows, high ceilings, small radiator) then definitely get an electric overblanket too. I would recommend a single, as they are more transportable.
  • Sheet, several lungis, a light blanket that is easy to wash
  • Hand sanitiser
  • Tray and bowls
  • Base oil, essential oils, calamus powder
  • A portable speaker
  • Pillows: See if there are any pillows around that you can use, and cover them in lungis to make sure you don’t make them oily
  • Ask your client for a sturdy chair or stool that you can use, and make sure you cover it well with a lungi so as not to make it oily

SPOTIFY PLAYLISTS THAT YOU CAN USE

Here you can find some of my own playlists and a collection of our community’s favourites to play during an AYM treatment