Dealing with clients lying :(
Hi all, I’m a newer LMT who currently works at a Massage Envy(I know I know I’m looking for another job). A couple weeks ago I had a male client come in for a 60min deep tissue with a focus on his upper body but “still wants focus on legs”. I begin the session and he immediately asked for more pressure, like within a minute of moving the sheets down his back. I informed him I’m warming the tissue up and I will add more pressure shortly but I’ll listen to what his body is telling me. Anytime I added extra pressure he was guarding pretty hard and I was taught to not push past it. Maybe I should’ve idk. He was quiet afterwards, never voiced any dissatisfaction so I went on with the massage, adding pressure with the table as low as I can have it and only using my elbow/forearms/fists.
He was silent the rest of the session, I worked full body and tried my best to hit every focus point he wanted but it is *hard* to do a real deep tissue in 50min. He comes out of the treatment room and asked if I even gave him deep tissue. I explained that I did, and also used different techniques to try and relax his body. Suppose he interpreted that as I didn’t listen to him at all and just did a Swedish massage (??) so he went up front to complain. My manager still charged him and told him next time he is able to end the session early if it is not up to his standards, he left upset and we thought it was over.
Nope. He left a lengthy review and name dropped me on google, lied and stated that I never used any pressure and only did soft relaxing strokes. I know I shouldn’t care about this especially when the majority of my clients leave happy but I can’t shake this feeling of guilt and shame about my massage and technique. Suppose I just wanted to rant and hear others opinions.