Pressure with Purpose: The Evidence That Grounds Our Barefoot Massage Training

May 15

Why Research Matters in Barefoot Massage Continuing Education

Let’s be real… there’s a lot of fluff in massage education. We’ve all sat through classes and webinars that repackage old myths and fake news with zero updates from what science has learned in the last 50 years… That’s not what we’re trying to do here at the Center for Barefoot Massage.

Backed by Science, Rooted in Experience: The Research Behind Our Barefoot Massage Classes. My project this year has been to check the FasciAshi strokes, theories and information taught at the Center for Barefoot Massage against any recent (preferably within 15 years) evidence we can find that applies to what we present our students. Science is, has always and will always be evolving, so as new information comes to light the Center for Barefoot Massage will be working to embody and impart that knowledge to our students.

This is the post where Jeni lays it all out

Modern Massage Education Starts with Evidence.

HERE IS OURS.

Take a look at the current research behind our courses, with why it matters for your clients—and your career. This is a l-o-n-g read, so start with the classes you’ve taken or want to take, and see what research I found that applies to them. Enjoy!!!

OOooOooooOh, this is about to get juicy: share this article with your nerdiest massage friend, and geek out together with us!

FasciAshi Fundamentals – Slide & Glide: Where Science Meets Sustainability

This is FasciAshi Fundamentals: where you can feel for yourself how gravity can work for you—delivering deep, therapeutic pressure while protecting your body. Through smart weight distribution and fluid, varied movements, you'll create lasting relief for your clients who are living with persistent pain. This science-backed approach to Barefoot Massage focuses on reducing strain on muscles and promoting myofascial health, making your sessions not only more effective for those underfoot, but also safer for you.

🧠 Client Benefit #1 Highlight

Underfoot your clients will experience lasting relief for persistent pain: FasciAshi’s deep, therapeutic pressure gives weight and waits for tension and nervous system guarding responses to melt, reducing sensations of long held pain for long-lasting results.

📚 Research & Science Resources

1. Pain Science Education:
Pain is more than tissue damage—it's a protective response from the nervous system. Education helps reframe persistent pain in clients.

🔗 Pain Revolution – Pain Facts

2. Fascia & Myofascial Release Study (Full Text):
Fascia responds to slow, sustained pressure—ideal for barefoot techniques. This study explores how fascial layers adapt during manual therapy.
🔗 Fascial Manipulation Article: Somatic dysfunction and fascia's gliding-potential. Chaitow, Leon, Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies, Volume 18, Issue 1, 1 - 3

📸 See the Instagram post I made summarizing this research here

Ready to transform your practice and enhance client outcomes? Enroll today!

📍Class details, pricing, CE credits, and schedule:
👉 https://centerforbarefootmassage.com/fasciashi-fundamentals/

Fijian Barefoot Matwork – Stable. Simple. Strong.

Rooted in island tradition but refined with western clinical intent, Fijian Barefoot Matwork is a floor-based bodywork method that uses focused pressure applied with varied parts of the foot while the therapist is seated or standing on the mat. Without the need for oil or draping, this clothed-session approach is ideal for mobile massage, chair massage alternatives, or working in less traditional spaces. This class offers efficient body mechanics and a simple setup—perfect for events, athletic recovery, or environments where time and access are limited.

While the style looks minimal, the neuromuscular effects are anything but. The targeted variations of elastic-barrier movement, chaos wiggles to confuse, complete removal of pressure to reduce stimulation, complimented by deep unmoving pressure encourages the body to respond with improved proprioception, increased circulation, and a reduction in protective muscular bracing.

🧠 Client Benefit Highlight

This style of barefoot massage isn’t passive—it’s powerful. With no sliding or stroking, the variable approaches to pressure helps reduce muscle guarding, activate proprioception, wake up circulation, decompress tight muscles, and bring immediate relief through changes in sensory stimuli. Great for clients who need grounding and fast results with minimal setup.

📚 Research & Science Resources

1. Pain Science Education:
A fast, clothed massage doesn't aim to "fix" tissue but to change the nervous system’s perception of threat. Compression applied quickly and consistently engages pressure-sensitive receptors in skin, fascia, and muscle, providing strong but non-threatening input that can decrease sensitivity over time.
🔗 Pain Revolution – Pain Facts

🎁 epseo15 is the discount code for the Embodiment in Pain Science webinar happening 6/13 @ 2pm Central from the NOI group affiliated with Lorimer Mosely.

2. Manual Therapy & Proprioceptive Benefits:
Short, targeted, and deep compression offers novel input to an overstimulated nervous system—helping recalibrate what’s “normal” without overwhelming it. The quick pace can override ruminative thoughts or guarding, giving the brain a fresh, non-threatening sensation to interpret. This is especially useful for clients stuck in a chronic pain loop.
🔗 PainScience – Does Massage Work?

3. Neuromuscular Reeducation via Varied Pressure:
Although I haven’t yet found what I’m looking for to check Fijian Matwork techniques against, research supports that manual pressure can reestablish joint position sense, down-regulate overactive motor patterns, and affect the nervous system even in the absence of gliding or stretching. If hands can do that, so can feet. When we find relevant research that directly speaks to something we specifically do in the Fijian Matwork technique, then I will update our resources and add the citation: stay tuned

Stop scrolling and start enrolling: step on your clients on the go after this class!

📍Class details, pricing, CE credits, and schedule:
👉 https://centerforbarefootmassage.com/fijian-barefoot-massage/

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Available in the Substack app and on web

Intermediate FasciAshi – Sustained Pressure: Deeper Dive, Smarter Strategy

The Intermediate class deepens your skills in barefoot massage by teaching you how to work on clients in supine and side-lying positions. You’ll learn to navigate the ribcage, neck, hips, and shoulders with precision and sensitivity—bringing both movement and stillness into your sessions in all-new ways. These techniques go beyond relaxation to influence the nervous system and reduce persistent pain, making them ideal for clients with chronic tension, postural issues, or complex pain patterns.

Backed by fascia research and pain science, this training helps you refine your touch and adapt your sessions to a wider range of client needs, all while protecting your own body.

🧠 Client Benefit Highlight

Supine and sidebody positions give you access to some of the most commonly restricted fascial zones—and allow clients to feel grounded while you're working with their nervous system, not against it. These techniques are ideal for decompressing the spine, restoring rib and shoulder movement, and down-regulating protective tension.

📚 Research & Science Resources

1. Pain Science Education:
Helping clients reframe their pain experiences starts with your understanding of how pain works. This class includes strategies for creating safety and awareness through touch.
🔗 Pain Revolution – Pain Facts

2. Fascial Remodeling Study (Ultrasound Imaging):
This study tracks fascial tissue changes after myofascial work and shows how hands-on care can influence mobility, hydration, and function in the tissue.
🔗 Ultrasonographic Changes in Fascial Properties Study (2019) Katsumata Y, Takei H, Sasaki Y, Watanabe K (2019) Ultrasonographic Changes in Fascial Properties over Time after Myofascial Release. Integr J Orthop Traumatol Volume 2 (1): 1–6. DOI: 10.31038/IJOT.2019214

Flip your barefoot massage over and turn it on its side: It’s time to level up!

📍Class details, pricing, CE credits, and schedule:
👉 https://centerforbarefootmassage.com/fasciashi-intermediate/

Range of Motion / Stretch Therapy – Resisted Movement is Medicine

This class blends dynamic and resistance stretching with barefoot massage techniques to enhance mobility, reduce protective tension, and support tissue adaptability. You'll use your feet to guide clients through multidirectional movement, traction, and elongation—while applying deep, consistent pressure. The result? A session that feels like mobility and massage had a baby.

Grounded in current research on neurodynamics, fascia, and stretch tolerance, this approach helps clients build trust in their own movement and gives therapists an effective, body-saving way to improve joint function and reduce sensations of stiffness.

🧠 Client Benefit Highlight

ROM work helps clients who feel “stuck” in their bodies—physically and mentally. By actively engaging tissue and encouraging safe movement at end ranges, this method can reduce movement fear, improve proprioception, plus restore natural fascial and joint glide.

📚 Research & Science Resources

1. Pain Science Education:
Movement is one of the best ways to reduce pain. ROM sessions use pressure and motion to reassure the nervous system and improve tolerance to stretch.
🔗 Pain Revolution – Pain Facts

2. Stretching and Nervous System Response:
This article explores how stretching doesn’t “lengthen” muscle in the way we used to think—it changes the nervous system’s sensitivity. A must-read to understand why ROM sessions feel so transformative.
🔗 PainScience – Neurodynamic Stretching Article

3. Effects of Massage on Range of Motion:
This clinical review supports how massage and stretching combined can improve joint range—especially with repeated treatments over time.
🔗 PMC – Massage Therapy and ROM Study

Make your clients work for their session: resistance is the future!

📍Class details, pricing, CE credits, and schedule:
👉 https://centerforbarefootmassage.com/range-of-motion-rom/

FasciAshi Advanced – Myofascial Efficiency: Pressure with Purpose

The Advanced class expands your barefoot massage practice into deeper territory—literally and figuratively. You'll refine your pressure delivery with precision and control, using one or two feet where appropriate, apply longer holds and slower glides, and explore advanced fascial mobilization techniques across prone, supine, and side-lying positions. This is where the work becomes profoundly individual and tissue-specific.

With a strong emphasis on modifications, body mechanics, endless options on how YOU can comfortably achieve the “why” of each stroke, this class helps you create slow, intentional sessions that support a variety of clients with complex pain patterns, scar tissue, or high stress loads—while preserving your own energy and longevity as a therapist.

🧠 Client Benefit Highlight

By slowing down and staying deep, Advanced-level barefoot massage can unwind longstanding restrictions in the fascia, reduce nervous system hypervigilance, and help reestablish healthy movement patterns. These sessions are ideal for clients with persistent or post-surgical pain, dense tissue, or trauma-informed needs.

📚 Research & Science Resources

1. Pain Science Education:
Clients in persistent pain benefit from consistent, calm, and predictable inputs. The Advanced class teaches how to “listen with your feet” and help reduce sensitization through slow, safe contact.
🔗 Pain Revolution – Pain Facts

2. Deep Tissue Pressure & Myofascial Effects:
This clinical review confirms that slow, sustained, deep-pressure manual therapy can positively affect myofascial structures and reduce perceived pain and stiffness.
🔗 PMC – Systematic Review on Deep Tissue Myofascial Release (2023)

Whether you need to use 1 or 2 feet, this class gets you deeper.

📍Class details, pricing, CE credits, and schedule:
👉 https://centerforbarefootmassage.com/fasciashi-advanced/

Hot Ashi (Sensory Track specialty course)

Hot Ashi is a table-based barefoot massage method that uses weighted, heated pillows placed on the body to deliver deep, calming pressure through the therapist’s feet. There’s no skin gliding or oil—just sustained compression and slow movement through the warm pillows, creating a deeply grounding sensory experience. Adapted with permission and training from Karen Kowal’s Pillossage method, and based in Diane Jacobs DermoNeuroModulation, Hot Ashi channels the therapeutic benefits of heat and pressure while preserving your body mechanics.

This class teaches you how to layer thermal input, fascial decompression, and nervous system regulation—making it a powerful integration into any Myofascial Ashiatsu session. It’s especially suited for clients experiencing stress, trauma-related tension, or chronic pain.

🧠 Client Benefit Highlight

The combination of heat, weight, and stillness speaks directly to the nervous system. Hot Ashi helps melt protective tension, increase tissue hydration, and re-establish sensory safety—without overwhelming the client’s body or mind.

📚 Research & Science Resources

1. Pain Science Education:
Predictable, warm, and non-threatening touch can down-regulate the nervous system and reduce pain. Hot Ashi gives you a structured way to deliver just that.
🔗 Pain Revolution – Pain Facts

2. Effects of Heat on Fascial and Neural Tissue:
Heat increases tissue pliability, boosts circulation, and calms sensory nerves—especially when paired with consistent, non-invasive compression.
🔗 PainScience – Heating and Pain Relief

3. Sensory Integration & Trauma-Informed Bodywork:
This modality supports clients with sensory sensitivities or trauma responses by offering safe, soothing input through indirect touch. Inspired by the original Pillossage method developed by Karen Kowal.
🔗 Pillossage Overview

Hot foot it on over to our class schedule, because your clients “knead” this!

📍Class details, pricing, CE credits, and schedule:
👉 https://centerforbarefootmassage.com/hot-ashi-relax-track/

Vibing on this? Buy Jeni a coffee

Clinical Neck (Clinical Track specialty course)

Clinical Neck is an advanced barefoot massage class designed to bring precision and clarity to one of the most sensitive and complex regions of the body. You’ll blend slow, intentional footwork with thoughtful hands-on work to address the head, neck, jaw, and shoulder girdle. This class focuses on assessment-driven bodywork—combining alignment reading, trigger point theory, and fascial mobilization strategies to support clients dealing with chronic tension, headaches, whiplash recovery, TMJ dysfunction, and more.

Learn how to navigate the cervical region with confidence, using both feet and hands to create safe, effective protocols that meet your clients where they are. Perfect for therapists who want to work smarter, not harder, with a research-informed lens on myofascial dysfunction and referred pain.

🧠 Client Benefit Highlight

Neck work shouldn’t be aggressive or guesswork. This approach gives clients a sense of safety and support through precise, grounded touch that helps reduce hypervigilance, decrease referred pain, and improve postural awareness—especially in complex or chronic conditions.

📚 Research & Science Resources

1. Pain Science Education:
Chronic neck pain is often maintained by protective patterns in the nervous system, not just tissue dysfunction. Clinical Neck helps retrain the system with calm, consistent input.
🔗 Pain Revolution – Pain Facts

2. Referred Pain & Myofascial Dysfunction Research:
This clinical review explains how pain can be projected from trigger points and fascial restrictions—making accurate assessment and appropriate technique essential.
🔗 PMC – Referred Pain, Myofascial Dysfunction, and Assessment (2022)

3. Trigger Points & Muscle Tension Science:
Understanding the nature of trigger points helps therapists distinguish between pain sources and symptoms. This in-depth tutorial challenges outdated views and supports an evidence-based approach to myofascial pain.
🔗 PainScience – Trigger Points Explained

Never stop learning: come down this nerdy rabbit hole with us!

📍Class details, pricing, CE credits, and schedule:
👉 https://centerforbarefootmassage.com/clinical-neck/

FYI, ICYDK, Jeni is a nerd for this stuff.

Feet First, Evidence Always: Why This Matters

Grounded in Research, Delivered with Sole. The techniques we teach at the Center for Barefoot Massage aren’t guesswork—they’re grounded in the latest research and taught through feet-on, in-person training so that while you get a literal feel from the sole of this work, you will also really feel the SOUL of this work in our theory, intention and integrity.

Deep Pressure, Deeper Thinking: Why Our Classes Are Built on Research, Not Repetition. Historically our strokes are the traditional massage, bodywork and manual therapy techniques past down from generations before, we’ve just figured out how to replace the handwork with footwork. We’re not reinventing the wheel—we’re just making sure our FasciAshi approach rolls with science, sustainability, and a whole lot of skill.

The future of massage is a foot. We plan to be here for a long long time while we continually extend massage careers and disrupt the industry averages: so wherever you are in your LMT journey, you can always “Get Centered” and bring your practice into the future with us at the Center for Barefoot Massage.

Ready to train smarter? Find your class at CenterForBarefootMassage.com

Do you know of any FASCIAnating published research papers, case studies or peer-reviewed journal articles that you think are a no-brainer support of Barefoot Massage? Tell us in the comments below!