Trust me, follow MY LIST, and you will be doubly confident that you are My Perfect Client!
Melissa Strautman 2026
We are at the beginning of February 💜, and just about all of the New Year’s resolution hype has died down. Thank goodness. I can now get a treadmill at my gym without being stuck between the loud huffer-puffer-obsessive-heart-rate-checker and the over-stretcher in her new Lululemons. Bless ’em. They’re just excited about new beginnings and hoping for a change in health or appearance. I get it, but I’m not a fan of go-big-or-go-home or the fake-it-till-you-make-it tribe. I feel like it has an underlying message of, “You aren’t good enough. You need to conform to be what others approve of.” I hate that. Yes, you are good enough for many intentional actions. You are good enough to be kind. You are good enough to be generous. You are good enough to love. You are good enough to be my perfect client, regardless of your body.
1 Timothy 4:8
For while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.
Why is this an important topic?
Well, it all started with a client’s words that were a real slap in my face (in a good way). Not too long ago, a nice man came to get a massage. Within ten minutes of the session, he apologized to me for my having to work on “such an ugly body.” I was in the zone, focused on a tight Vastus Lateralis, and then in an instant, I was jolted into confusion. Thankfully, the Holy Spirit opened my mouth, and I uttered this truth, “Well, I don’t think like that. I believe that all humans are made in the image of God.” Which is a beautiful thing. Your body is miraculous. How you care for your hair, nails, skin, and body mass index is just a transitory reality; it would be of the utmost arrogance for me to form or hold an opinion based on an irrelevant personal preference.
The Truth About Your Body
When I put my hands on a client, I am a child of God, who gave me the training, talent, and passion to help ease the pain of God’s created human beings, made in His image. I ultimately work for the Lord, and the client secondly. My hands are His common grace to you. I respect the hard-earned money that you exchange with me to help ease your pain. That money is recycled within God’s common grace, providing for my coworkers and me. I’m not going to blow smoke up your skirt about your muscles to milk you for unnecessary visits. I take you, the real you, the ugly-perfect you, seriously. I don’t have the time or energy to think about what you or I might consider “imperfections” unless they involve muscles, tendons, or fascia.
- Genesis 5:1 … When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God.
- Genesis 9:6 “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.
- Genesis 1:26-27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
- Colossians 3:10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.
- Ephesians 4:24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
- James 3:9 With it (gossiping tongue) we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God.
- Romans 8:29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
- 1 Corinthians 15:47-49 The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man (Jesus) is from heaven. 48 As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. 49 Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.
Embarrassment Averted
Lastly, I do completely understand the self-consciousness of being less-than-dressed in any situation. With that in mind, I put a tremendous amount of effort into developing our Massage Etiquette and Protocol so that you have the best shot of being comfortable with your body during a massage. The items on this list come from my actual experience during massage sessions over the last 27 years. I feel like it is a pretty exhaustive list of items that, if you pay attention to, your therapist will be very happy about, and nothing uncomfortable/offensive will come to their attention. Trust me, follow MY LIST, and you will be doubly confident that you are My Perfect Client!