Energy Work in the Post Covid Era

For those that believe in or have had massage work before you might have heard or had a session of energy work. For those of you that don’t know a lot about it let’s go over what energy work is (for those that do it will not hurt any to work ahead) and what it’s not because, there is some mis information out there as to what it is and what it is not. Energy work is generally defined as set of practices that recegized organic fields of energy coming from the body or from the area around the body. Energy work in the context of how it is generally practiced in the professional massage session goes beyond recognizing to manipulation of energy fields with little no physical contact with the other person.

Before Covid 19 in the United States the frequency of energy work in a massage session was basically limited to those practitioners that provide the service in in-person sessions. To the best information I have it shows (to the extent it is possible to get a number on something like this) its about 1% of total massage sessions taking place. Many sessions are the same length as a standard massage session and cost around the same amount as a standard massage session. Many people who get these energy work sessions fully clothed over a sheet.

During the pandemic many of the massage therapists either did not have sessions with clients in person or (whether anyone ones qualified or not, depending on what you believe) do phone calls or “intention sessions” over meeting software. To the extend it can be measured many of the people I work with said that the work was not the same as an in person session and really just wanted clients to feel connected in some way to the massage world even in lock down. As the lock downs have ended and the world has reopened the massage and bodywork industry as a whole is still trying to figure out what people are going to do so we can adjust our industry to a post pandemic world. The most basic think that the industry is trying to wait and learn more about is how people view time management and work life balance throughout a whole calendar week. 

So let’s talk about the demand for energy work so we can then talk about what some of the changes are going to be (or at least what I project it will look like soon). I think the demand for energy work will see a sort peak in demand again in the fall of 2022 as the temperature outside tends to fall and the cold and flu season is again upon us. Unlike other forms of bodywork this one requires limited touching and mask wearing will be more effective than full contact massage. The idea of wearing a mask in the treatment room and also using open windows or enhanced air filtration will be the big change people will see. But Zoom kind of energy work will most likely fade fast because I think people who like the work still want the ability to be in the same room as their practitioner. The human interaction that happens in the same space is different for both people rather than a phone call. Think about this in your own life: would you rather pay someone who you can be in the same room with or the person you can’t?

If you have any questions like always please go to my website https://www.tonyschwartzbodywork.com/ and contact me with any additional questions you might have.