Some major questions that arise are how long are your massage sessions, and how long will the massage actually be.

How long are massage sessions? An overview:

This is an interesting question. There is no hard and fast rule. One of the biggest issues is whether or not the sessions are based on a clinical hour or actual hands on time (We will discuss this later). A typical massage can be as short at 10 minutes, or as long as two hours. Most often, you will hear people asking for a half hour, hour or ninety minute session.

Check out: Our session ranges below for our services.

Sections

• Our Therapists
• Time Range & Spaced out appointments
• Clinical Hour vs
• Full Hour
• Facility Types: Spa vs Medical
• Amazing Hands: A hybrid facility
• Our sessions: how long do they run
• Our Session Ranges: described
• Quick n Dirty: How long will my massage be

Our Therapists

Our therapists are independent, and often either come from different paths or are currently splitting their time working at another facility.

These paths and facilities may include:
• A spa,
• A gym,
• A medical facility (such as a chiropractor’s office, hospital, or other medical office), and
• Their own facility

Each of these types of facilities has different standards, and each facility within a category has it’s own definition of an hour. Thus, for a therapist coming back and forth, their pace and timing might differ slightly

At Amazing Hands, everyone is an independent contractor. This means they are their own business, and set their own schedule and services. Being independent, the therapists often work in various settings, so the time range works well as they often follow standards and habits following from their other settings.

Time Range…

At Amazing Hands, we don’t publish a strict time for your massage, but a narrow range. This better fits your custom session. Sometimes you want to relax more, other times, you need deeper work, and occasionally, your therapist expends a bunch of extra energy going a little deeper. Needing to go deeper might mean that they might occasionally go a little longer. At other times, all that extra work means your session is a little shorter. Going shorter also allows you more recovery time.

As mentioned, your therapist may work at a facility with different hands-on time requirements; therefore, our focus is on providing a great massage rather than quoting or adhering strictly to session length definitions.
(SEE: Quick n Dirty below)

It is also easier to understand how long your session might be when you consider a typical clinical hour, and how we’re actually longer than that.

Thus, instead of saying Half Hour, Hour, and Ninety Minute, we’ll say Brief/Targeted Massage, Therapeutic Massage, Extended Therapeutic Massage, and Short Hour. 
— See what we mean by these times below (Our session ranges)…

Our sessions are spaced out

With each therapist being independent, they greet their own clients. That means they need to check out, turn over the room, and greet the next client themselves. With that, they need time to do those tasks. Hence, no back-to-back sessions.

That means your session will typically closely resemble a full-hour session.

Either way, it is important to note that even with spaced-out sessions, the sessions end with the therapist needing to greet their own clients. No receptionist to greet their clients, and checkout their own clients.

What’s the difference between the full hour and a common clinical hour? Let’s first find out what a clinical hour is.

Conclusion: There is no receptionist to allow therapists to work back-to-back. Here, that’s beneficial for you, since it’s impossible to turn over the room at the top of the hour; we space out our sessions, and you essentially get a full hour of massage.

Clinical hour

What is a clinical hour?

Short and sweet, a clinical hour refers to the “room time” allocated to your session, and thus, knowing the actual hands-on time only takes up a portion of that room time.

In the strictest sense of the word, the room must be ready for the next person at the top of the hour. Thus, you must be dressed and out of the room, and then, the room must be cleaned and prepped for the next person to enter at the :00 minute mark.

What’s that mean for me? Typically in the massage world, we say that we allocate about 5 minutes for disrobing and getting on the table, and another 5 minutes for getting dressed at the end. Many places book sessions at the top of every hour. 1, 2, 3, and 4 pm. That means that once you’re out, the therapist needs to quickly get the room ready for the next person.

Thus, at many facilities, your actual hand-on massage time can be 45 minutes or less.

That’s not what we do. At amazing Hands, you’re going to get very close to a full hour of actual massage time

Conclusion: When you hear clinical hour, it means that you get the room for X time, and your actual hands-on time is less.

(See Our Session Ranges below to see how OUR clinical hour is essentially a Full Hour)

The full hour

A full hour:  Many places advertise a “Full Hour”; we do not do this, but unless a lot of extra tiring work is done, your therapist aims for the longer end of the range.
i.e. get you walking up front right at the top of the hour.

By quoting a “Full hour”, some studios might be doing cookie-cutter sessions or adding froo-froo work to fill time.

We get super close. Because we do space out our sessions, we are able to essentially offer a “Full-Hour” hands on.

What’s super close/the longer end of the range? If you’re walking out of the room within about 2 or 3 minutes of the top of the hour, and not before the top of the hour, we’ve timed it perfectly.

• If you’re not running into the next client, we’re good.
• If we’re able to check you out and have the room ready for the next client when they arrive, then we’re good.
Hence, the DO NOT COME MORE THAN 5 MINUTES EARLY request.

Facility Types: Spa vs Medical Office

Ok, there’s a little crossover; they all generally aim to start a new client every hour and typically try to maintain a schedule.

Okay, many doctors’ offices are often behind schedule. But then, that’s why they want to keep each patient starting at the top and bottom of the hour.

With both, people are often worked hard. Often, that ‘worked hard’ really means overworked. I see this more often in high-volume spa settings. The frequently quoted rule of thumb is that a therapist should be hands-on only about 20 hours a week, with a maximum of 5 hours in a day.

Below: Spa, Medical, and then our setting.

Spa Setting

We mentioned the clinical hour; in some spas, the hands-on hour can be as short as 45 minutes. Yes, some spas tout a “full hour”, but that more frequent in a sole proprietorship.

The most significant difference is in billing. In many spas, therapists earn their income through tips. That doesn’t always mean they are cheaper; it just means they might be covering the therapist’s insurance and taxes.

Like restaurants, therapists have sidework where they are not paid or are paid very little, but the bigger issue is overworking the therapist. Therapists are often seen working from 10 am until 8 or 9 pm, often with few or random unplanned breaks. Remember, a 15-minute turnover does NOT count as a break. It’s essentially an Anti-Break; you’re highly stressed and rushed as you switch clients and turnover a room.

Being seen before lunch will likely result in a higher-quality session.

Medical/Doctors office

Medical offices may allocate a room for a typical time, such as a 30- or 60-minute session.

If a medical office bills for massages, it generally codes them using CPT billing/insurance standards. (See “Medical” on another page). These are done in 15-minute segments, allowing a 7-minute leeway at the end. These medical offices might give you three fifteen-minute segments and allow a few extra minutes in the room, but they will still escort you out with enough time to let the next patient start at the top of the hour.

Though many will squeeze clients in by utilizing the 7-minute window:
QUESTION: 7 minutes, is 3 minutes enough to get on the table and off again at the end? It’s probably fine for the spot work of a 30-minute session, but they are probably rushing the hour-long sessions. 3 minutes; that time is also allocated for you to get in and out of the room.

What is your actual hands-on time in that ” Clinical-Hour “?

Amazing Hands Massage Therapy: A Hybrid Office

We offer a personal touch. First and foremost, we are a small office. Each therapist is an independent sole proprietor, and with only 1 or 2 rooms, we are our own receptionists. The therapist is the person who greets you, checks in, performs the massage, checks you out, and prepares the room for the next person.

Because of this, we ask that you ARRIVE ON TIME.
Yes, we space our sessions out. Often, that’s only a 15-minute gap:
• 5 Minutes to check out the previous person,
• 5 to turn the room over, and
• 5 to greet you, update your history, and get you on the table

Arriving early WILL NOT get you extra time. If anything, you may have to wait as we either finish our lunch or prep the room for you. IF we do start early, we will be checking the clock and ending equally early, so that your therapist can have recovery time after your massage instead of before.

Not only is arriving early an issue for your therapist, but it could also be rude to the previous client if you run into them, and a nuisance for you if the door is locked and you have to wait for it to be opened. After all, we requested you to arrive no more than 5 minutes early.

We’re a hybrid: That actually benefits you! By spacing our sessions out, we’re able to get hands-on time that’s pretty close to the scheduled full-room time. We just don’t guarantee a time. Our goal is to have you walk out right at the end time, or maybe a few minutes later. Just a minimal few minutes later.

NOTE: If you require additional time getting on or off the table, please request it when scheduling.

Our Sessions: How long do they run?

Our Session Ranges

Generally, modifying our general rule of thumb of 5 minutes each to disrobe and get dressed again, we say 5 minutes for each 30-minute segment of session time. Thus, as they appear on <<our schedule>>:

• Brief/Targeted Massage, i.e., Half Hour:
  Gives you 25 minutes +/- of hands-on time
• Express Massage/”Short Hour”: Hands-on time of 30-45 minutes. This still blocks off the room for an hour, but allows you time to get a massage over your lunch break that is longer than a quick “half-hour massage”.
• Therapeutic Massage: Ideal for most people requesting a one-hour massage, this is what many places refer to as a one-hour massage. We say hands-on time of 50-55 minutes +/-
  i.e., two 25-minute segments. This gives you about 5 minutes each to dress and undress. Striving to get you out of the room as close to the top of the hour as possible, the therapist typically pushes this to 55 minutes or so. This time depends on how long it takes to change and the amount of work involved. This is a basic full-body massage. Often, the whole body can’t be worked on in an hour time slot.
  <<See: time of a massage>>
  (Conclusion: About 50-55 Minutes hands-on)
• Extended Therapeutic Massage: An hour is often not enough to work all the necessary muscles; the extended massage allows the therapist to address more issues and give a higher-quality, less rushed session. With three 25-minute segments, this gives you about 75+ minutes hands-on. Being an extended session, you get an extra 5 minutes to relax before you need to get up and get dressed. The therapist often pushes this into about 80 minutes of hands-on; hence, the goal of having you walk out right at the end of the scheduled time.
• The Two-Hour Session: Some people request a two-hour session. This is NOT 2 one-hour sessions. We consider this a premium service. The typical hour massage is only 50-55 minutes long, and is spaced out not by 15 minutes between sessions. This two-hour session is priced higher because the therapist spends about 110 minutes hands-on without a break. This still gives you about 5 minutes each to disrobe and get dressed again at the end. As a premium service, we categorize this under our flat-rate service offerings.
• 100 Minute Session/Double Therapeutic Massage: Even if you want two one-hour (50-minute) back-to-back sessions, your therapist is still doing that without their typical 15-minute break.

NOTE: Our schedule is designed for 60-90 minute sessions; therefore, 30-minute, Double Therapeutic, and Two-Hour massages can impact the day’s schedule and cause unusual gaps and timing issues affecting the ability to schedule other appointments. Granted, some of those gaps are necessary for your therapist to recover from a longer session.

Chair massages

These are a beast of their own. It deserves its own page. For now, a few points. These are generally said to be harder yet less effective than a traditional table session.

As for times, usually you get 3, 4, or 6 sessions an hour. That translates into:

• 3 twenty minute sessions @ 16-17 minutes hands on
• 4 fifteen minute sessions @ 12 minutes hands on, and
• 6 ten minute sessions @ 8 minutes hands on

I Need XYZ worked on how long should I schedule?

See: Times of a massage

Conclusion (The Quick ‘N Dirty Break Down):

• 25 Minutes hands on (Half Hour)
• 30-45 Minutes Hands on (Short Hour/Brief Massage)
• 50-55 Minutes Hands on (Therapeutic Massage/One Hour Massage)
• 75-80 Minutes Hands-on (Extended Therapeutic Massage/Ninety Minute)
  An extra 5 minutes for you to recover
• In reality, our goal is to have you out in the lobby within about 2-3 minutes after the end of the hour, and never before the top of the hour. Yes, that means stopping 2-3 minutes before the time is up.

NOTE: Without making you feel rushed, if you’re typically out sooner than later, I’m more likely to run longer. If you take a long time to come out, next time, I’m more likely to stop early enough that you’re out with enough time for me to clean up before the next client.