How to Give a Neck and Shoulder Massage

Massage therapy is a growing profession in which neck and shoulder massages are common. It's easy to learn how to give a neck and shoulder massage. Follow these steps to see if you enjoy it enough to enter a completely new profession.

Instructions

• 1

  Find a friend who is willing to exchange massages with you. Place a professional massage chair in an area where you can move around it without running into other furniture. If you do not have access to a massage chair, have your friend sit in a regular, straight-back chair.

• 2

  With your friend in the massage chair, place her head in the cushioned hole. If you are using a regular chair, have your friend sit in the chair.

• 3

  Begin massaging the lower shoulder area. Make the fingers and palms of your hands rub across the shoulders in a circular motion.

• 4

  Use your elbows to do a circular massage movement across the shoulders. Apply a crawling pattern with your thumbs and elbows.

• 5

  Start the neck area massage by kneading the muscles toward the shoulders. Move your fingers in a circular motion and move upward slightly with each circle. Move from the base of the skull up the neck. Go back in the other direction, using the same motions.

• 6

  Repeat these motions in different directions until you have finished the massage and covered the entire neck and shoulder area.