08/13/2025
How do you explain to people the difference between Thai massage and Next Level Pain Relief®?
There are 2 answers to this, based on who I'm talking to and trying to convey information:
1) the public
2) massage therapists
The public usually has little idea what Thai massage is to begin with and adding Thai means it's exotic, asian, and on the unfortunate far end of the spectrum..it might be s*x work. I'd say less than 10% of the public that I speak with has any idea what Thai massage is and if they do they'll say that it has stretching in the session.
Massage therapists need something they can give to the public that solves their problem. It's not selling How we solve it, it's selling the solution itself.
Next Level Pain Relief®? What is that?
It's pain relief that's next level. :)
When the public demands NLPR sessions then the work is done. Brand is built. Notice that NLPR doesn't say How we solve the problem. It's not mat, table, suspension, abdominal. It just says that NLPR therapists use the tools at their disposal to solve a specific issue, pain.
The issue over the years wasn't is the work Thai or not, at least not to me. The issue was what does Thai massage become in America? In Texas? In your hometown?
I'd no issues adapting work but as I changed things everyone seemed to become uncomfortable and began pushing back. "This isn't traditional."
When I would ask what the tradition is half way around the world people would become uncomfortable because well, we don't have exact distinctions and definitions of what tradition is and is not in Thailand, much less interpreting that information half a world away.
Thippawan and Somporn are Thai nationals. They came to a class or Thai Massage Jam and got inordinately excited because, "this is just how we do it in Thailand!" My work itself, my explanations are western. I'm a westerner. I was delving deeper into a traditional art but borrowing where I felt a practice was created that helped clients in pain.
They'd pull me aside and essentially politely ask me, "Robert, how do we sell this to these westerners?"
It's the same issue but from a totally different perspective. They needed a new box that didn't create confusion, they needed something that was clear. Next Level Pain Relief® was born.
Without the influence of Thai massage, pain science and yoga therapy my work wouldn't exist. Somporn told me in class (I've video footage of this) that she felt bad. When I asked why she said, "you're a white guy and you've done more to promote my people's work than I have."
I smiled and said, "Somporn your people gave me my life back. Without your people's bodywork I'd be long gone from an op**te addiction. I give homage and honor to your people because their cultural heritage allowed me to become free from pain."
If I'm successful at giving the public a service it wants and massage therapists a new package that makes them stand out amongst their colleagues more people will go study Thai massage. My intention has never been to detract it's to be creative and help ease suffering.
I grew up an hour north of New Orleans. If you have some oil, some flour, some okra, some andouille, some chicken and the trinity, well, you make gumbo. Is gumbo european? Is it indigenous? Is it african? The answer is yes. I take the ingredients given and start improvising.
Jazz is a uniquely american art form. I've stood in NOLA and shed a tear at Congo Square because sometimes the pain, sometimes the suffering of a people is transmutated into art that lifts all of humanity up on wings, wings that help us aspire to more justice, more healing and more creativity.
Traditional arts are amazing. Go study them. Then what do we do with them? Next Level Pain Relief® isn't the end, it's people pushing forward to help end the op**te epidemic and help repair the holes in the medical system in the U.S.
It's got to appeal to the public, appeal to therapists and evolve so that everyone realizes what a great idea it is. We're busy showing the world what healing can look like.
