Massage Intake Form

A successful massage therapy begins as soon as the client sets up an appointment. An appropriate intake form will help set clear expectations, improve the efficacy of your therapy, and alleviate any client concern. The information you collect on the form might show the client's preferences as well as any potential issues that may develop during the massage. This degree of comprehension, along with an excellent massage, will have your clients returning for more.

The massage intake form can also help to avoid legal complications if the client has a pre-existing medical condition or injury that is aggravated by massage. You can create a tailored form based on your client's needs, or draft a massage intake form template that you can easily share with every new client before starting the massage therapy.

But what are the specific aspects you should cover in your massage intake form? Read on to find out.

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Essential Elements to Include in Your Massage Client Intake Form

Aside from obtaining the client's full name and basic contact details (including emergency contact information), your massage intake form should focus on gathering essential health and medical history. At the same time, asking about the client's preferences and lifestyle will allow you to set clear expectations and provide a more effective treatment plan.

Let's take a closer look into each of the vital elements you must cover when creating your own client intake form.

Reason For Visit

To begin your massage intake form, try to determine why the client is seeking your services. Is it to alleviate stress, or is their illness more chronic? Identifying their requirements is a multi-step process, but you must start somewhere. People frequently seek massage therapists late in the process, rather than as soon as feasible, so you may be assisting people who are already experiencing significant disruption in their daily lives as a result of a common injury.

Ask how their injury (if any) is affecting their life and find out what results they'd want to reach at the end of the massage sessions.

Medical History

Next, determine whether there are any pre-existing medical conditions or anything that might put them at danger when employing particular techniques. It's critical to know whether your client is taking any drugs that might interfere with their massage experience or change the style of massage that's best for them.

People frequently fail to tell things that seem apparent to you, so it's crucial to discuss the fundamentals before you begin therapy, such as if your client is allergic to anything. The last thing you want is for your customer to get a rash because you used an oil to treat them that they are allergic to.

Lifestyle

Knowing which muscles your clients rely on on a regular basis allows you to choose which primary muscle groups to target. Inquiring about their lifestyle will give you a good insight into how they sit, stand and move about their days. Do they take breaks at work on a regular basis? Are they able to use ergonomically proper seats or tools? Inquire about any sports and interests they may have, and how they accomplish any other duties you believe might be relevant.

A client's lower back discomfort might be caused by a variety of reasons. If they spend all day lugging heavy boxes around a storage facility, you might be able to eliminate some of those possibilities and create a technique to repair the damage while also preventing it from happening again.

Preferences

Every client has different preferences regarding the atmosphere during massage sessions. You should never presume that the customer enjoys the same music as you, or shares your preferences for the scent of the message lotion. What works for one client may nor work for the next. Perhaps the client dislikes scented oils or doesn't even want to listen to music while getting a massage.

If the client has seen a massage therapist before, ask how the experience went and what if they disliked anything about it. It's important to include a set of questions to find out how you can make this experience as satisfying as possible for your clients.

Consent Form

While some massage therapists provide consent forms in a separate document, the informed consent clause can easily be added to your client intake form. This section should provide enough information for the client to be fully aware of the different sorts of massage that you might utilize, any massage alternatives available, risks that they might be subject to, and explicitly state their full right to ask any questions or stop the procedure at any time.

Create the Perfect Massage Intake Forms With Bonsai

With Bonsai's lightweight form builder you can create your massage intake forms and any other documentation you need for your massage therapy practice. You can fully customize every aspect of our forms to include as many questions as you need, choose your preferred answer format and even add your own branding elements to make your intake form unique and easily recognizable.

Once you're done customizing your documents, easily share them with your clients online via email, URL link, or have them embedded into your business website to help boost lead generation. To check out these and many other excellent administrative tools, sign up for your 14-day free trial today! Bonsai helps you save time and streamline your paperwork so you can focus on your passion.