Posted on March 17, 2020

Dear clients, friends, & family:

We appreciate your loyalty, concern, and trust.

As many of you may already know, we take our profession and practice very seriously and have been keeping informed about the COVID-19/ Coronovirus pandemic.

You may have seen that we participated in the Mutter Museum “Spit Spreads Death” parade and event commemorating the 1918 Spanish Flu Epidemic last fall. We know how important it is for all of us to do everything we can to not let something like that happen again. In the last two weeks, we have canceled all classes, teaching, and conference trips until May 1st. We will continue to monitor the situation and continue to withdraw or postpone these to keep everyone safe.

Chris ceased providing massage therapy at the tech company and gym as well, for the time being.

Xerlan has also ceased providing massage therapy at the hospital.

As you know, our private practice is minimal and specially curated. No one shows up on our appointment schedule without a referral. We shut down online booking over a year ago. We are grateful to use our skills with those we feel we can best serve safely and effectively. Many of you are immune-compromised, in cancer treatment, are elite athletes, or may be recovering from surgery or injuries. Because of this, we understand you may consider us as an “essential healthcare practice.” We appreciate that very much. Our sessions with you are our focus, and we enjoy working with you.

We have always understood, practiced, and taught other massage therapists about universal precautions and safe practices. While these are things we usually do, we thought it might be reassuring to let you know again.

– We schedule 30 minutes between every session. We want to make sure we have time to clean and time to do appropriate and in-depth check-ins before every session.

– We always wash our hands properly using a variety of songs, long quotes, and poems before and after each session, and before and after cleaning the room between appointments.

– All linens, sheets, face cradle covers, and blankets are laundered after each use.

– We always wipe down the table and bolsters after each session.

– We use cold and warm packs with medical-grade covers that can be safely and appropriately cleaned after each use.

– There is always an appropriate sanitizer in the session room. We use it in addition to handwashing, before, during, and after each session. We usually keep some out for you to use at any time as well.

If we have felt ill or even thought we might have a cold coming on, some of you have received that call letting you know it is in all our best health interests to cancel and reschedule your massage therapy appointment for a later date.

We have always asked that you give us the same notice, and we have not charged anyone for canceling for this reason.

Now, this COVID-19/Coronavirus situation creates many more concerns for all of us. We could reserve the right to ask if you have symptoms, we could have a forehead thermometer to check you when you arrived, we can request that if you have returned from a recent trip, please let us know before you schedule an appointment so that we can schedule it safely in the future.

That may not be enough, though.

Unfortunately, the Coronavirus brought this awful plot twist with it. Anyone can be asymptomatic and still be contagious.

In a perfect world, a small private massage therapy practice should be one of the safest places to be. Where else do people practice standard universal precautions while providing therapy to individuals, one at a time, a very few each day.

It should be safer than going to the library or a walk in the park. But they just closed those in our area. All of us have been informed that “social distancing” and voluntarily staying home is the recommended approach for at least the next two weeks. It could be longer. That is going to create a challenge for many massage practices.

Since we do not have a supply of hazmat suits, nor could we imagine anyone getting a massage by someone wearing one, we have already been slowing down our private practice. While this does present financial challenges, we know we are not alone in facing those right now.

We understand that many of you depend on us for pain and symptom management. So, while we are suspending our, in person practice for a few weeks, please do not hesitate to call if you have any questions, are stressed, anxious, uncomfortable, or in pain. We can discuss your options for future sessions and/or provide some online support for stress management, lymph involvement, neuropathy, and pain management. What we do not want is to create any form of obligation to pay for or keep an appointment because it is just not safe now.

We appreciate those of you that offered to pay us for staying home or needing to cancel an appointment. We will counter with ‘you may purchase a gift certificate for a future session’ if you like. In the meantime, we will be working on some projects, listening to music, reading, researching, writing, and generally staying in, and we recommend that you do the same.

This really isn’t easy for anyone, but we are glad to be your Massage Therapists, and we look forward to seeing you again once this challenge has passed.

Xerlan Deery, LMT, BCTMB
Christopher Deery, LMT, BCTMB
Anatriptic Alchemy / Phoenixville Massage & Bodywork