Stress undermines success – and employers know it.

ERIN TRIEB/Special Contributor

Therapist Mara Nicandro gives a chair massage to Mykal Dunne at the KLTY/Medical Center of Plano Fall Women's Expo and Holiday Bazaar in Plano.

Many are now providing workers with on-site chair or table massage to decrease fatigue and anxiety, prevent repetitive strain injury and promote productivity.

And that's comforting to massage therapists, who are increasingly selling their services in alternative settings.

"Ultimately, employees start feeling better," said Mara Nicandro, who owns Therapeutic Massage of Texas, a Plano-based business she founded in April 2004.

In late October, she gave chair massages at a women's expo and holiday bazaar in Plano.

Experts say chair massage has gone mainstream, luring people who were leery of a full-body relaxing rubdown.

"Chair massage is fast becoming the most popular form of professional touch on the contemporary bodywork landscape," David Palmer, creator of the San Francisco-based TouchPro Institute, noted on his Web site.

The group has taught chair massage to more than 11,000 professionals in continuing education seminars and, more recently, in entry-level training programs. It also offers certification.

"In airports, shopping malls, convention centers, corporate board rooms, supermarkets, street corners, dentist offices and hospitals, you can now find practitioners making chair massage as common and acceptable as a haircut," Mr. Palmer said.

And the occasions calling for massage therapists have multiplied. No longer is it unusual to see these practitioners at job fairs, health conferences – and even weddings and birthday parties, said Russell Rust, owner of Hands-On Approach School of Massage in Dallas.

Shorter massages lasting a few minutes are designed to appeal to the masses in health clubs, psychotherapy offices and a host of other settings. The hope is that some clients will come back for more.

"It's kind of our marketing tool. We're just giving them a sample – a taste – whenever we're doing that dollar a minute" at a fair or convention, explained Mr. Rust, 42, past president of the American Massage Therapy Association's Texas chapter.

"Some people are really apprehensive. They believe that they have to remove their clothes to get a massage."

Not necessarily so. The sessions help allay fears and dispel misperceptions perpetuated by X-rated massage parlors.

In the last decade, Mr. Rust noted, an influx of professionally trained therapists has lifted the image of massage, a practice dating back 3,000 years.

"When I do 15 minutes, I can really loosen up the neck, the lower back, the shoulders and the arms," he said.

Mr. Rust's company secures many contracts with businesses, charging between $65 and $90 an hour per therapist. His recent clients include Oreck Corp., manufacturer of vacuum cleaners and related products.

Oreck was hit by Hurricane Katrina at its national plant in the Gulfport, Miss., area and New Orleans headquarters.

After setting up a temporary base in Dallas, the corporation coordinated with five or six massage therapists from Mr. Rust's school. The therapists volunteered their time to offer massages to hurricane evacuees.

About 75 employees – three-quarters of those who were relocated – took advantage of chair massages in the office, said Lori Paige, Oreck's director of marketing.

Other companies offer massage as an occasional perk or on employee appreciation days, Mr. Rust said. He prefers that employers – not workers – pay because that increases participation, leads to better scheduling and maximizes use of therapists' time.

Although chair massage demands additional training, it's also a lot of fun. Just ask Dinah Hicks, 61, an instructor at Mr. Rust's school.

"I have done chair massage at the State Fair and some large corporations. It is one of my favorite modalities," said Ms. Hicks, a former registered nurse who has excelled as a massage practitioner.

"If I were to retire from teaching, I would work as a chair massage therapist in one of the bookstores."

But chair massage has been slow to penetrate the retail market.

TouchPro's Mr. Palmer, 57, is launching a well-funded start-up venture to address the lack of interest.

"Aside from a few airports and Whole Foods [Market] stores, this has been the biggest disappointment for me," said Mr. Palmer, who claims to have developed the first chair for seated massage in the 1980s.

His new business, Zubio, will unveil its flagship store this week in a San Francisco shopping center. Over the next year, he plans to open eight Bay Area locations.

Once Mr. Palmer proves the success of this business model, he hopes to expand nationwide.

"Our goal is to be nothing less than the Starbucks of chair massage," he said.

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