Lana Foladare calls seated-chair massage the massage of the 90s.
It’s quick – 10 or 15 minutes; it’s non-threatening – you don’t take off your clothes and it’s done in an open place; and there’s no oil used.
“It’s an introduction to skilled touch,” said Foladare, a Los Altos massage practitioner, whose business is called Balancing Touch.
Instead of a doughnut and a coffee break, consider a chair massage, said Bruce and Sharon Richmond who own the Los Altos business called Personal Best Performance Clinic.
“It’s a good, quick healthy way to relax,” said Bruce Richmond, who is also a Los Altos massage practitioner.
“What surprised us the most,” said Sharon Richmond, “is that people don’t think 10 or 15 minutes can make a difference. But it makes a HUGE difference.”
Bruce Richmond, who began offering seated-chair massage in 1989, said “bosses worry that people will be too relaxed and lethargic and unable to work. So you keep it upbeat, stimulating and you don’t want to make it hurt.”
He began doing chair massage at a tax meeting during tax season. “I was totally booked,” he said. He is also a sports massage therapist and a certified athletic trainer.
He was in Atlanta for the 1996 summer Olympics as part of the sports medical service staff for the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games.
“I worked with athletes from all countries,” he said.
The seated-chair massage industry began in San Francisco in the late 80s. Its first big client that made it popular was Apple Computer, Richmond said, who talked as he gave a chair massage to a colleague.
This type of massage has become a growth industry, with the chairs and practitioners appearing in quiet corners at street fairs, shopping malls and corporate offices.
And in airports. In Reno, away from the throngs of passengers heading to departure gates, Carin Lorenzen worked on a client at her massage chair.
A sign announcing “Shoulder work ahead” pointed to the seated-chair massage booth. For a 10 minute session customers pay $9. For 15 minutes, the cost is $13.
“Yield to relaxation,” reads her T-shirt. A sign above her stand proclaims “massages received 5054.”
In the Los Altos area many practitioners offer the 10 minutes of bliss.
“It’s part of corporate services,” Richmond said, that his company offers, along with ergonomic consulting and training.
“You can drop an amazing amount of stress in a very short time,” said Terry Lilian Segal, a Los Altos healing arts practitioner who also offers chair massage in corporate settings.
“It’s preventative for repetitive stress syndrome, as well as stimulating your circulation and improving one’s productivity,” Segal said.
At the end of the massage Richmond gave to his colleague, his wife asked, “Do 10 minutes make a difference?”
“Totally.”
If you are interested: Foladare may be reached at 941-4187. She is pregnant and limiting her business at the moment. The Richmonds are located at 160 Main Street and may be reached at 941-1379. Segal’s studio is in the Village Court complex at San Antonio Road and El Camino Real. She may be reached at 949-3942.
