Ashiatsu Oriental Bar Therapy ®
A New Twist to Ancient Oriental Massage

Ashiatsu Oriental Bar Therapy ® is a combination of the traditional Oriental massage, ashiatsu, and Swedish massage. In this barefoot massage style, the therapist uses her feet to give you a relaxing, deep tissue massage. Don't worry about being crushed by her body weight though. She uses bars suspended from the ceiling to control the pressure of the massage.

Massaging with the feet has been practiced in the Philippines, India and Japan. It has also been practiced by Buddhist monks. For most traditional forms, the client is fully clothed and laying a mat on the floor as in shiatsu. The therapist moves around the client using the sole of his foot to apply pressure to various points on the body. It this traditional form of ashiatsu the primary goal is to unblock the lifeforce or qi (chi) in the body.

Many oriental forms of traditional medicine believe that there is energy that flows throughout the body on paths sometimes referred to as meridians. When this energy flows freely your are healthy. When it is blocked you get disease or dysfunction. Foot pressure can be used to help this energy flow freely again.

In its original ancient form, this Oriental massage follows the principles used in Thai massage, shiatsu and acupressure. The therapist uses foot pressure to unblock meridians. Recently a new form of this massage was created that focuses on relieving knots in sore tired muscles through the use of deep pressure. In Western society these days many times when you hear the term ashiatsu they are referring to this new Oriental Bar Therapy.

Oriental Bar Therapy is an offshoot of this traditional therapy that has become quite popular in the West. It was created by Ruthie Piper Hardee in the 1990's. She improvised the technique one day when she had to work on a large muscular client at the end of a busy day. She knew her hands were too tired to give him the massage he wanted so she decided to use her feet. She used the ceiling to balance herself on the client during the massage. After the treatment the client said that it was one of the best massages he'd received. Hardee decided to develop the technique and use it on her other clients. The style of massage that she originated became increasingly popular and she started teaching it to other massage therapists.

In this form of massage therapy the therapist uses compressive strokes along with deep effleurage. The result is a deep relaxing massage. Bars are suspended over the table from the ceiling. The therapists uses these bars to balance and help control the amount of pressure applied to the client. Though many people opt for Oriental Bar Therapy because they want a deep tissue massage, this therapy can be as deep or light as you like. The therapist has complete control over the pressure by using the bars over the table.

Here's an example of what it's like.