After the end of our Massage Practitioner Training 2021 we decided to ask the participants to answer some questions about their experiences, challenges, their growth during the program and to give us some feedback. We will publish these interviews in the next weeks and hope they can give you some insight on what it’s like to participate in the training in case you’re curious about it. Registrations for the 2022 training are open, and we start in May!

The first interview is with Michael and Rodrigo; it’s a lengthy one so we will publish it in two parts. Click here for part two!

Rodrigo: How did you decide to book the massage practitioner training? Was your motivation more in the private or professional sphere?

Michael: I have been doing yoga, i.e. naked yoga for men, for several years and clients asked me if I also do massages. I always said no for a long time and at some point I thought “mmmm maybe I’ll try it once”, but I didn’t want to do something arbitrary or the first thing that came along, but rather something solid. Then I looked around and saw what was available in this area and then I remembered that I had done a workshop with you 10 years ago and that was very nice. 

Then I looked at the Gay Love Spirit website and discovered the Massage Practitioner Training, which takes place over several months. I thought that was actually quite good, I didn’t just want to do a weekend course but something more demanding and then I signed up with you. Many people have told me this, and it’s true. 

I have been teaching yoga to gay men for many years. Through yoga, people come to me who have an aspiration to do something good for themselves – and I find that professional tantric massage fits in very well alongside yoga.

The typical profile of the people who come to me: between 45 – 50 years old, all stressed out from work, no time for themselves anymore, no sport done and now they have become aware that they need to do something for themselves and just get out of the daily rhythm. You are then also very receptive to the idea of Tantra.  

R: Are you satisfied with the course of the training? Have you improved your knowledge and skills in each module?

M: I think it’s great that we do the training over several months and that you always have time in between to digest. When we have training 4 days in a row, you can’t absorb and implement everything straight away. A few weeks in between to feel and reflect, and of course to try things out and make your own experiences, that’s what makes a good training.

In the group we also talked about how nice it is that we are a group of similar, like-minded men. As we grow together, a deeper exchange is also possible. It is not only about massage techniques but also about many other aspects, for example my intention, and we also learn intensively how to communicate with the massage clients. My own ability to express myself in these topics has increased with the closeness to the other men in the course and also with the closeness to the trainers.

The trust builds more and more over time, and then you can be more confident to come out of your shell and say things that you wouldn’t normally say so quickly. There are people who can do that immediately, who sit down and tell you their whole life story. Others need a bit more time and I think that’s actually quite good, that you get to know each other little by little. When the process of getting to know each other continues over several months, a very close-knit atmosphere develops.

You kind of grasp the basic structure after the first module, but then applying it yourself is not quite as easy as it looks. Of course, you always lose a bit of the demo, some details that are also important are then forgotten.

That’s why it’s good that they are refreshed again and again, then all the grips and techniques become part of your own repertoire. 

It is also important to learn how the massage feels when I receive it. Knowing how it feels gives you the confidence to apply it correctly.

R: How did you feel about massaging a total of 9 men during modules 2,3, and 4 and at least another 5 outside under the conditions of the protocol? Were there many surprises?

M: Well, I found it very interesting, – for example, I have now massaged 15 men myself, but they are actually all people I already knew more or less well. I had one yesterday whom I hadn’t known at all, but most of them I actually already knew a bit through my yoga classes. These experiences were very complementary to the encounters in the training, where we simply met people you had never seen at all before, and where there was no chat contact beforehand either. In this situation, you learn how important preliminary talks are. All this was exciting, but we also felt very safe because it was all embedded in the safe framework of Gay Love Spirit. The receiving men were all briefed by you in detail beforehand and therefore the framework was very supportive.

There were surprises … Well, I found it a bit challenging at the beginning when I had to massage a few people who told me they had already had a lot of massages or they were masseurs themselves and I felt a bit strange. I was a beginner myself and then these men have special expectations that I can’t yet fulfill. The people I have massaged privately have never had a real tantric massage and the ones who have been with you have often been men who have already dealt with it and some of them have already had a tantric massage themselves…   

On the other hand, it was also a very good experience because these men gave us very good and interesting feedback, which also helped us to move forward, which was certainly the case for me. 

R: How were these experiences discussed and integrated within the training group?

M: Yes, I thought it was really important and we took a lot of time to discuss it in the group. After each experience, we went through everything in the group that was important to each of us in the respective massage session. It was important to share the experience with everyone – it was sometimes a bit long because we discussed everything in German and English.

It was important that we do that. Some are a bit more synthetic, some talk longer, but it is still interesting to get to know the men in training… how they express themselves… Some take a little longer to say what they want to say, and that’s also good if you give them the time to express something. 

R: How did you find the men for your own trial sessions? How did you draw attention to yourself outside of the training?

M: I have now written on my Gay Romeo profile that I do this training with you and through this I have already received 3 enquiries. 

I have already massaged 2 of them. That also worked out quite well.

On my Gay Romeo profile I also have the link to my yoga page and people have said that they have also written to me because they have also seen that I do yoga, and as I describe it, they felt quite good. It’s just a bit combined, but people never knew me before.

I have a small website where I describe my yoga course and I was thinking about adding another page with the Tantra offer to this website.

R: Was the feedback from the clients and the trainers helpful?

M: Well, I find the feedback very interesting. It is the most important thing in Tantra massage to talk before and after. Sometimes you get feedback on what you already know (what you can do better or what people found pleasant), but it is also very important to hear people’s needs and possible restrictions beforehand and the feedback afterwards. It helps me a lot to become more conscious in the massage.

I happened to experience this again yesterday. I had a preliminary talk that lasted 45 minutes, and the man told me that he hadn’t been touched by anyone else for 10 years. Then, of course, I adjusted my massage… I didn’t really massage him, I just touched him gently. Afterwards we talked for half an hour and that was just as important for him as the massage itself. 

I also learned that in our training. That talking about the intention is sometimes just as important. 

Feedback from the trainers – I don’t think we had much direct feedback, I don’t feel that we had that kind of feedback… it was always more like group feedback from the trainers. Probably that was the way it was meant to be. 

I found it remarkable that you three trainers, probably after consultation, but especially Thomas, always found the words to address things directly when you noticed something in the group that needed to be corrected somehow or needed food for thought. So it was always interesting for everyone, including myself, even if it didn’t affect me directly. You always put it across directly, mostly in a positive way, but still always straight to the point, and that’s not so easy. I find it very helpful for me too, the way you discussed it. The words you found for it… that was very well done. 

I had a bit of an exchange with Joao once, because we both speak French, but it wasn’t really directly about my massage practice, more generally about being a massage practitioner.

I feel like it was often general feedback but still it was all very, very interesting and very, very rich what I got out of it. 

R: How has your personal learning curve been?

M: Well, I discovered more and more the holistic side of Tantra massage. I actually came for the technique and the practical aspects in the beginning and then I realised more and more in my own learning process that the other levels are at least as important, if not more important, and now I find myself more and more in this process.

Where at the beginning I was actually only on the physical level; now there is another, let’s call it mental, psychological and spiritual level. 

It doesn’t happen overnight because it takes time. When all the techniques of touching gradually become established, then you can discover the other levels and grow into them.