Living with inflammation-related pain is the curse of the profession and few in the industry are spared.
Another common problem for therapists is that of absorbing the stress, inflammation, and pain from clients. This absorption is a negative transfer that drains stamina and strength. These realities of daily work life and a lack of effective relief prompt many therapists to leave their profession prematurely due to burnout.
Now, however, effective relief from a surprising source is catching on throughout the professional spa and body industry. Specifically, growing numbers of therapists, spa owners, and massage therapy schools have discovered that grounding the bodyworker’s table with a conductive carbon pad can discharge a client’s stress instantly and significantly reduce or eliminate the inflammation and pain affecting
the therapist.
Among those already applying this simple strategy is Gloria WahrenBrock, who runs two busy massage franchises.
WahrenBrock is keenly aware of the vulnerabilities of her 35, mostly full-time therapists. “I have repeatedly heard complaints about the hands, wrists, forearms, elbows, and shoulders tiring and becoming inflamed and painful. What is also common is a negative kind of energy that therapists absorb from clients. [This energy] can be quite substantial. They call it client stress. They say they feel the stress in clients, from some more than others, and then feel it in their own bodies. I hear this comment frequently. People come for bodywork treatments and the burden of stress and pain they bring in their bodies gets transferred. Of course, they aren’t aware of any such transfer. They come out feeling better, often like a million bucks. They feel relief and rejuvenation. For the therapists, who give of their energy hour after hour, it is a different story.”

How Grounding Protects the Massage Therapist
It is a well-known scientific fact that the Earth’s surface brims with energy in the form of free electrons. Connecting to the Earth by going barefoot outdoors, for example, allows the body to absorb these electrons. This energy explains why many people experience a subtle tingling or warmth in their legs when walking along wet sand at the beach or on wet grass. This feeling is the pulse of the Earth’s natural frequencies of energy, as well as the inflammation draining from the body.
For more than a decade, researchers at several universities have published more than a dozen peer-reviewed studies showing that grounding the body and equalizing it to the Earth’s energy generates remarkable health benefits and that such grounding can actually prevent chronic inflammation like nothing else known to science.
Today, most humans are disconnected from this natural resource due to insulated plastic-soled shoes and the fact that they rarely go outside barefoot. Modern living and working conditions, elevated and off the ground (sometimes many stories high), further separate people from the Earth.
This is a departure from virtually all of history, where humans have gone barefoot or used conductive hides for footwear and bedding. The growing research indicates that people benefit significantly when they are in contact with the Earth’s energy or when they are grounded. Among these surprising benefits are reduced inflammation and pain, improved blood flow, better sleep, and greater energy.
These days, people can be grounded and receive the same benefits comfortably and conveniently indoors, where they live and work, thanks to the development of simple products that allow them to connect directly with the Earth.
The great news for massage therapists is that such products now include a special grounding pad that can be used on massage tables. When the pad is placed under the table’s cover sheet, the client, who lies on the table, becomes instantly grounded, thus draining his or her inflammation. This drainage prevents the therapist from becoming charged with the client’s stress and inflammation.
When these mats were tested by WahrenBrock and the therapists in her office, they had a lot of positive feedback. Therapists with cranky shoulders, arms, and hands said they were not getting the same soreness as before with overexertion. One therapist said that she requires less sleep than before and has experienced a reduction in hip and lower back pain as well. Another therapist has suffered with forearm tendonitis and an inflamed elbow and was previously using a support band on her arm. But, within weeks of using a grounding pad, her pain was gone and she no longer has a need to wear the band.
Mel Braxton, D.C. is a C.M.T. and has been using a grounding pad on his massage table for over a year. “Previously, after working intensely on some clients, whether they had a sciatica problem or some shoulder injury, my body would start to ache in the same area where I had been working. In talking to other bodyworkers over the years, I have found that this transfer is a common experience. Some of the client’s energy and some of the pain is being absorbed, as if we pull it from them. The client gets off the table and feels better, yet we start to hurt. Many times after leaving a client, I could feel the soreness building up, along with energy drain.” After putting a grounding pad on his table, the situation significantly lightened up. “The experience of body transfer of negative energy and pain has gone down a good 75 percent. Also, I am not as fatigued throughout the day as my energy level stays high. This is definitely the result of grounding at work.”