January/February 2005 Alternative Health
Ashiatsu - a better way!

by Janette Marie Gianatti

When I discovered Ashiatsu Oriental Bar Therapy (AOBT) I had been working as a consultant and occasional staff massage therapist for a spa in Telluride, Colorado. The owner, a massage therapist herself, realized the gamble in starting a boutique spa in a small ski resort town. Our target clientele would be the young spa-savvy crowd, world travelers, quality body work lovers and the mountain athlete. She had seen an article about Ashiatsu Oriental Bar Therapy in a massage publication and immediately knew that she had to have this amazing modality as the "signature treatment" at her spa. The article stated that the massage was deep and luxurious, effective and innovative - perfect therapy for her target audience.

Ruthie Piper Hardee, the founder and innovator of Ashiatu Oriental Bar Therapy, came to us during the Thanksgiving holiday. The new employees, my daughter - also an employee hired as the "skin expert" - the spa owner, Ruthie and I all had Thanksgiving dinner together. Dinner was very festive, with views of the mountains, snow and the golden aspens. I had no idea what I was in for the following three days.

I knew that AOBT's roots were based in the traditional Asian healing arts that use the bare foot as the body work tool. That's where those Asian roots ended. During the days leading up to Thanksgiving, the spa owner had hired a carpenter to install four pairs of dowel rods through the open beams of her log home. She then placed massage tables directly underneath the bars to create four separate work stations at which the therapists and I would spend the next three days, learning to give a Swedish-style massage to our patients with our bare feet!

Using what little gravity there is left at 10,000 feet and with the decreased oxygen level at that altitude, I quickly learned that the 30 pounds I had gained after a reconstructive knee surgery would soon be gone. Hanging onto the bars with a client under my feet I got the sense that I was in control of the situation. I discovered I could easily maneuver my gliding feet on my client's bare skin and accomplish the same things that my aching hands and thumbs had been doing for years.

During that weekend I went from being a part time staff therapist and spa manager to being a full time therapist and healer once again. That's where my true ambitions had always been, but with the years of doing professional body work my body had begun to break down and I doubted my ability to stay in the massage business. And at what capacity would I be? The first time I stepped out onto one of our guest client's levators with both feet, one foot on each side of the spine, and felt the perfect alignment take place all the way to the lumbar, I wondered why I hadn't learned this in massage school.

During class, Ruthie told us that when traveling to the orient as a child she had seen small female therapists working on clients with their feet with the client lying on the floor. Later in life, as a therapist on a television production site, that memory came back to her and Ashiatsu Oriental Bar Therapy was born!

After that three day training, I became the primary AOBT therapist at the spa. The comments about my massage were typically, "Where have you been? I've spent thousands of dollars on massage and what have I been getting? or "When are you going to start working with your feet?" I discovered that I could do 5-6 treatments a day without experiencing the pain I had been in from my years of doing traditional Swedish and other hand technique modalities. We quickly found that my time at the spa was best spent doing AOBT. The modality was originally designed to be used for the larger male client, but when the word got around about this deep barefoot massage, the petite women were signing up too.

Although a challenge to work on, with my increasing upper body strength I was able to adapt my pressure to suit most any body type. That was four years ago. Since then my goal has been to spread the word of Ashiatsu Oriental Bar Therapy as an instructor and therapist to as many consumers and body workers as I can. This is the "smart way" for me to do deep tissue massage, stay in shape and be a therapist until I'm 90!

Janette Marie Gianatti, LMP, NCBTMB is an Associate Ashiatsu Oriental Bar Therapy Educator from Telluride, Colorado. Workshops for Ashiatsu Oriental Bar Therapy will be held on February 4, 5, 6th and for Hot LavaStone Massage on February 7, 8 in Post Falls, ID. Contact Barbara Lee - blee3@adelphia.net, 208-640-9524 or 208-773-7822.