The original Hands Free Massage Training

Using the forearm and elbows to save the practitioner’s hands

NEXT WORKSHOP: See the Diary for workshop dates, cost, locations etc

Hands Free Massage uses the forearm and elbow for applying firm pressure in massage.

You can ‘give your hands a holiday’, while being more effective in applying pressure with less effort.

This will enable you to maintain your career as a massage practitioner by saving your thumbs and wrists, the most common areas of work-related strain.

The Hands Free Massage courses focus on techniques which can easily be blended into a ‘normal’ oil massage.

In addition to learning specific techniques, you’ll be taught how to

  • use these ‘tools’ in a skilful, responsive way rather than using them to ‘mash’ the client – monitoring and adapting to the client’s responses
  • use and move your body to support the work of your forearm and elbow – how to be most effective with least effort
  • blend Hands Free techniques smoothly into massage treatments

I teach 3 levels of Hands Free Massage

Introduction to Hands Free Massage – 1 day workshop

This 1 day workshop introduces participants to the background and basic concepts of Hands Free Massage, and gives you the practical skills for using your soft forearm on the client’s back for broad sliding pressure strokes.

Foundations of Hands Free Massage – 2 day workshop

This 2 day workshop introduces participants to the major concepts of Hands Free Massage. It covers the practical skills of using the soft forearm for broad sliding pressure strokes on the client’s back and on the limbs, and some focused work on areas of tension. (The first day of this workshop covers the same material as the 1-day Introductory workshop – above.)

It also includes a short introduction to the other main Hands-Free tools – the ‘hard forearm’ (the edge of the ulna), and the areas around the Elbow.

Advanced Hands Free Massage Training – 8 days

  • a range of forearm and elbow techniques that can substitute for and extend ‘classic’ massage techniques for varied pressures
  • how and where to best use them
    • the soft forearm (the fleshy inner forearm) for applying widespread general pressure – this is firmer and uses less effort than using your palm
    •  the hard forearm (the ulna) and the bony areas around the elbow for applying focused pressure in an appropriate, skilful way in order to save your fingers, thumb and knuckles
    • the whole forearm for mobilising parts of the body and for applying stretches
    • all of these tools for both oil and non-oil massage
  • how to moderate the pressure applied
  • how to adapt them to different client builds, tensions and responses
  • how to blend them smoothly into massage sessions
  • how to support this with good bodyuse, rather than working too hard with your arms and shoulders

“My clients often comment that they’re amazed at how deep I can get without it hurting.”

DB, Massage Practitioner, South Wales.

When massage practitioners take these techniques back into their massage treatments, regular clients often remark on

  • how much deeper the massage is, without any sense of extra effort or strain by the practitioner
  • how much more extensive the strokes feel, especially on their back and legs
  • and how they feel that their tensions have been ‘ironed out’ by these techniques

A Note about the Forearm and Elbow

The forearm and elbows are strong, powerful tools, which can deliver bruising pressure to clients if they are used without care. Therefore, using them skilfully and learning how to adapt each technique to a range of builds, tolerances and reactions is a core part of the training. Darien reserves the right to dismiss students from the course who consistently misuse these tools in an unnecessarily ‘gung-ho’ manner.

“I just did two full days of massage that, in the past, would have left my hands and body aching, but I didnʼt have any aches….. My clients also commented on how much deeper the massage was.”
LS, Massage Practitioner, Bath.

Why I created this course

I have been using my forearm and elbow in massage treatments since the 1980s (without which I would have been unable to maintain my career).

For over four decades, I have been a pioneer in focussing on the practitioner’s bodyuse  as an integral part of massage training, including using the forearm and elbow to save the practitioner’s hands. In the late 1990s, I was the first person in the UK to use the term ‘Hands Free’ Massage for this approach when I pulled together techniques that I’d been teaching for a decade into a stand-alone workshop.

“I really love how your work [helped me deal with] the problems I was having with my hands and arms, ….. and I wish I had discovered it earlier.”
RS, Massage Therapist, Bristol.

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Using your Forearm and Elbow to save your Hands

NEXT WORKSHOP: See the Diary for workshop dates, cost, locations etc

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