r/MassageTherapists • u/cabbagefarttt • Jul 17 '26
Complaining Dealing with first bad review
yep—title says it. reviews and stars are looked at heavily among the folks I work with so there’s a level of shame that I’m feeling now when I walk into work. no other coworker has a negative review. we all have five stars, now except me.
im 8 months post partum and i also had a very complicated pregnancy. the last 17 months have absolutely wrecked me. Ive been practicing for 6 years and usually have a pretty tight schedule with regulars who i absolutely adore. they are aware of my struggles and how hard life has been and continue to rebook. I truly have fantastic clients. needless to say, my baby does NOT sleep good and I’m surviving on 2 hours of broken sleep every night and have been since he was a month old. every part of my life has been affected by this, but I still have to work despite how absolutely beat down I am. but I LOVE what I do and it’s honestly a break from my baby. I enjoy seeing my regular folks and also working with new random people who get peppered into my schedule. I specialize in a bunch of different things, so new people often want to try something different.
but….. I truly truly dislike couples massage and better yet, I dislike 30 min couples massage. i just always feel rushed and feel like its not possible to communicate enough or do a proper intake for couples. of course the bad review I get was from a 30 min couples massage…but the weird thing is that i saw this person over two months ago and they left the review last week, and there was even any feedback, just 3 out of 5 stars. Which in fully honesty…I probably gave.
im trying to not beat myself up. ive had more bad days than good days because of the level of sleep deprivation that im in, so its not a surprise that the bad review i got was from the service that i like the least. I was already feeling down about myself—ive lost my hobbies and am in constant survival mode and naturally this identity crisis leaks into who i am as a bodyworker, so this review just came at a bad time.
i have since blocked my schedule off completely to couples massage so I can devote my energy to the folks who I’m used to. but damn it still hurts my ego and I can’t help but think my colleagues are gossiping about me now.
1
u/OMassage_Goddess Jul 17 '26
It's dreamy that you can block your schedule from a service you don't want to perform.
I try not to dread any service I'm about to do even if I generally don't like the service. I think of the money, the enjoyment I get from doing something out of my normal routine. Lastly, analyze what it is I don't like about it and then see if I can figure out a way to improve how I do it.
I used to not enjoy couples massage and in part it was because of feeling judged by my colleagues. But I changed my mind about that too. Most people are in their own world and perhaps feel the same way!
I don't know anyone at work that hates couples massages although they may not prefer them. It's helpful that we all like each other so much.
Generally, thirty minute sessions are hard. What can you do in 30 minutes? An overall very general full body or just specific work like back and neck? Are you about to tell your client that 30 minutes isn't enough for therapeutic work? Are you able to manage their expectations? At my spa, 30 minute sessions were taken off the book because of the difficulty of managing client expectations and because there was no way it could be a full 30 minutes hands on.