If you are a massage therapist, you understand the importance of a structured approach in your massage practice. To achieve a structured approach, you need to incorporate effective methods for proper handling of customers’ needs.
Massage therapy SOAP notes are one of the most recommended approaches to manage your client’s sessions. SOAP (Subjective Objective Assessment and Plan) involves the following four main methods:
Subjective
It is the initial stage in any massage therapy session. It involves the first client encounter with the therapist. In this initial stage, the client explains to you what they expect from the massage session. For instance, the customer can offer detailed information about the nature of their pain and the muscles and joints they want to be addressed by the massage therapist.
Objective
You, as the therapist, have fully understood the client’s complaints and concerns. You need to access the nature of the problem visually. You can also use your hands to palpitate various areas to determine the intensity of pain and the quality of muscle tension. In this stage, you should have detailed information about multiple muscle groups and joints.
Assessment
It is the stage where you are investigating the ideal massage technique for your client. In this stage, you can ask the customer the method that they will be comfortable with. Also, you need to investigate if they have any skin allergies.
Plan
You have all the essential details to start the massage session. In this stage, you devise a technique you will use now and in the future. The plan needs to be useful for that specific client depending on the problem identification and various assessments.
Advantages of the massage therapy SOAP notes
- Recording of essential notes – if you have an innumerable number of clients, it is impossible to remember their specific problems. Using this strategy, you can effectively record the important client’s data that you can refer to in future sessions.
- Satisfactory services – by recording important information on the SOAP notes it ensures you offer unique services to every client. Different customers have different complaints and needs, and the SOAP notes assist you in better determining an actionable technique for each client.
- Act as reminders– you can refer to your SOAP notes as a reference for the action to take with a specific customer. The app will also send you alerts to remind you to add new information about a client you have recently attended.
- Acts as a communication tool- if you have numerous massage therapists in your practice; you need the massage therapy SOAP notes to communicate. A therapist can obtain crucial information about the client who, in the previous session, was attended to by another professional.
Bottom Line
SOAP notes help to guide massage therapists in their determination of an incredible massage technique for their clients. The records also help to store crucial data for future reference. Through the notes, various therapists can instantly get all the clients’ information, thus enhancing seamless service delivery. Therefore don’t hesitate to incorporate right massage therapy SOAP notes in your massage parlor.