How often do YOU get a Massage?
I would ask my LMT friend to do it, but she is more interested in leaving the time open for people who will pay for a massage rather than book a "free" trade massage. ย I can't say that I totally blame her, though.
Okay... enough shoulda/coulda/woulda's... ย I am going to book a massage this week with the therapist in my chiropractic office!
At the first bodywork school I went to, the teachers each year said, "don't do trades, they never work in the long run." Trades can be very tricky. Such as one person may be feeling they aren't getting the same quality of massage as they are giving, or both people charge different rates. I notice some people are very relaxed and easy going about trades. Why do trades at all? To avoid the complicated task of exchanging money for a service? A trade implies an obligation to exchange in kind. If you simply pay in cash, the obligation ends there.
Also the pitfall of being bumped for "paying" clients. Many times I have arranged a trade and wow, I'm really looking forward to that massage, I need it, my back hurts. Only to have the therapist call me a day or two ahead and cancel because they have a cash client who can only come in my appt slot. That sucks big time.
I treat trades the same as cash. They are written down in my appt book and I won't be cancelling with them for a cash client. In essence, the trade IS cash, because I would've been paying cash for a massage anyways, but paid in a service instead. I charge $65 for an hour massage and $90 for 1.5 hours and I use that as cash in my trade. That is, if I am trading with say a plumber who charges $45 an hour and he does 2 hours worth of work (no parts) for me, then my trade would be $90, an 1.5 hour massage. I know it sounds *Royal*, but it keeps boundaries clear and I have found people like that and I do too. If I'm trading with an MT who charges $60 vs my $65, I don't count that, but I would if they only charged $40 or $45.
The goal of all this is to be an equal exchange. Fuzzy boundaries, especially when one or both parties involved are unaware of the fuzzy boundaries is foster for resentment, feeling jipped, cheated, betrayed, abandoned...etc. Add all those sticky feelings (likely unconscious feelings) in the hands of the giver and what kind of massage would that feel like?