Complaints filed against masseur over 'inappropriate' massages - 1News

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Two women have lodged formal complaints against a male massage therapist after they were left feeling “uncomfortable” and “distressed” during a full-body therapeutic massage.

The Health and Disability Commissioner (HDC) received complaints about the services of a massage therapist from two clients two months apart in 2020.

Both women alleged that the therapist behaved unprofessionally and touched them inappropriately while performing the therapeutic massage.

The first complaint provided to the HDC was received on June 6, 2020, when one woman felt uncomfortable during the full-body massage, despite having received massages in the past with many different therapists.

"This one made me feel uncomfortable in a way I had not experienced before," she said.


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She felt concerned that aspects of the massage were inappropriate and felt sexually motivated.

The massage therapist told the HDC that the woman "mentioned a full body for the time of 90 minutes" and had “assumed the fact that she had already received lots of massages and that she would know that full body meant: head, neck, shoulders, arms, hands, back, glutes, thighs, legs and feet”.

The woman said she was not asked if it was okay for the therapist to touch her inner thigh and did not consent to massage that area.

Following the woman’s complaint, the therapist reviewed his consent form and now asks his clients whether they want specific body areas to be massaged and records that in writing.

A second complaint was received on August 11 when another woman was concerned that the massage inappropriately concentrated on the gluteal and breast areas and that her underwear was removed during the massage.

She was further concerned that she was at the clinic for 2.5 hours after booking a one-hour massage.

In her initial statement to police, the woman noted that her front was massaged, “paying a lot of attention to the breasts and around that area”, which made her feel uncomfortable.


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She further outlined feeling very uncomfortable when the therapist touched her “bum” and said he focused on this area for “way longer than he should have”.

The therapist told the HDC that massage strokes are longer when someone is naked, and the masseur’s hands do not need to disconnect from the body by “jumping” to the side of the underwear.

He also discussed this with his client and noted she had ticked a preference for nude massage but had left her underwear on.

Following the woman’s complaint, the massage therapist reviewed his policies and removed the option of nude massage from the consent form.

In his response to the provisional opinion, he stated that the option of consumers being nude was added to the consent form only because he had experienced that some clients chose to remove all their clothing despite being asked to keep their underwear on.

Further issues were raised within both complaints, questioning the massage therapist’s ethics.

Health and Disability Commissioner Rose Wall said the massage therapist failed to communicate adequately with the consumers prior to their massages.


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“A consumer cannot give informed consent without first being adequately informed as to the proposed massage sites," she said.

“It is not sufficient to assume that a client has given informed consent because they do not object to specific actions at the time.”

The massage therapist has since provided written apologies to both women and has taken steps to engage with a mentor and improve his informed consent process.

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