You’ve probably heard the old riddle: “If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” That question isn’t really about trees. It’s about whether reality exists on its own or only when it’s perceived.
Now swap the tree for a massage technique.
If a therapist performs a stroke, but the client doesn’t feel it, did the massage really happen?
From a mechanical angle, yes — tissue was moved, circulation nudged, fascia stretched. The “sound waves” are there. But massage isn’t just biomechanics. If the client’s nervous system doesn’t register the touch — if it doesn’t connect, resonate, or even get noticed — then in the client’s reality, nothing happened.
Massage is like language. You can be fluent in strokes, rhythm, and protocols, but if no one understands what you’re saying, it’s noise, not communication. Touch that isn’t received as meaningful is like words spoken into a void.
Here’s the hard truth: massage isn’t defined by what you do, but by what registers. Your hands may speak with precision, but unless the client hears the message through their body, the session is silent.
This doesn’t mean mechanics are irrelevant — just as sound waves exist whether or not someone hears them. But massage is not a physics experiment. It’s a dialogue. And dialogue requires a listener.
So the real question becomes: What kind of massage are you speaking, and what kind of massage is your client actually hearing?
That gap between action and perception — that’s where massage lives.