Hi all! My last day seeing clients was August 18th and I am moving on to my next adventure. If you’re looking for a massage therapist, here are some recommendations, all vetted by me:
Body Mechanics (Manhattan)
Garden City Prenatal Massage (Long Island)
My last day in the office will be August 18th, 2022. In July and August I will be offering somewhat expanded hours, extending my Mondays a bit and adding Friday morning/afternoon hours. As always, you can check my booking site for my availability.
Hello world,
I will be closing my practice this August. When I have an exact date I will update this post. It’s been a pleasure providing massage to the people of Astoria for the last 12 years. 🙂
Hi all, I’ve made the decision to stop seeing new clients for now. If you’ve been to see me before, please check for an email that I sent on July 20th that will include the passcode that you need to book appointments through my site. I will remove this post when I open my schedule up to new clients again.
Hello! Thanks again to everyone who has come in since I reopened back in August- you’ve all been very cool about following COVID protocols and I really appreciate it. And if you’re still holding off, I still totally get it and look forward to seeing you down the road 🙂
The updates:
- I will be adding a few hours to my schedule while Polina is on leave. Starting Monday April 12th I will be in the office on Mondays from 10am-4pm, until whenever she returns to work. (Anna will still be working, and will be increasing her availability as well on Wed/Fri/Sat, if you’re interested in booking with her.) Also, if you’re interested in being notified of any last minute cancellations, I have a separate email list that you can sign up for here.Â
- New rates will go into effect starting May 1st 2021. As usual the amount will include tax. For now I am still not going to offer 30 minute sessions. The new rates will be:
- 45 min $90 ($86.12 + tax)
- 60 min $120 ($114.83 + tax)
- 90 min $160 ($153.11 + tax)
- And last but not least, I am on my way to being fully vaccinated! I’ll be receiving my second dose on April 5th, which means that on April 19th I will be considered fully vaccinated.Â
In my last post back in August I detailed what I planned to do to make your massage experience as safe as possible for both of us. Now that I’ve been back in the office for almost three months, I wanted to share my exact routine so you know precisely what I do here, especially in light of the increasing COVID numbers in Astoria and the rest of the city.
Actually, first I want to say thank you to everyone for being so awesome about mask compliance. I’d just like to ask that if possible, please wear a proper mask, preferably with ear loops- no bandanas or gaiters, please.
The first thing I do when I arrive at the office in the morning is turn on the HVAC, open the window and door, and turn on the air purifiers. (I have two air purifiers now- the first one I bought only cleans a room this size roughly twice an hour, so I purchased a second one that stays near the head of the massage table that cleans the room every 9 minutes or so, according to the company’s specs.)
I’m up on the third floor so I get pretty good air flow with the window open. The window and door stay open until I leave the room for you to get undressed for your massage. (Though if you’d like me to keep the window open during your session and the weather allows, I’m happy to do that too!)
When the appointment is over, I ask my clients to leave the door open on their way out and I open the window again until the next client. I use Nu-Foamicide to wipe down all the surfaces either of us touched while you were here (mainly the massage table, my lotion bottle, the bench and side table, and the doorknob). Then I spray the headrest and top part of the table again and let it marinate in those juices for at least 10 minutes. Once the table is dry, I wash my hands or use hand sanitizer before putting a clean set of sheets on the table for the next client.
Other stuff:
-I do sometimes remove my mask in the office. If my mask is off, the window is open. I wait at least 20 minutes after a client leaves, and put the mask back on about 20 minutes prior to my next appointment. (I figure that gives the air purifier two full cycles at 9 min per cycle). This is also partly why I ask that you arrive on time for your appointment, to make sure my mask has been on long enough before you come in.
-I am seeing fewer clients than I used to pre-COVID to make sure I have enough time to air out the room between clients. Usually this results in me seeing 4 clients a day, though occasionally I will see 5, if there are a few 45 minute sessions and time allows. There is never less than 45 minutes scheduled between appointments, usually it’s an hour or more. It’s not great for my bottom line, but safety takes precedence right now.
-I am getting COVID tested regularly, and have gone four times since returning to practice. Given the increase in cases, I am going every 2-3 weeks now. At the end of August my antibody test came back positive (no surprise given my COVID experience back in March), and I will get tested for antibodies again in November. Even with antibodies, I am still acting as a whole as though I can get and transmit COVID again, which, you know, maybe I can. Who knows.
Hopefully this is everything you wanted to know and more- if you have any questions please feel free to shoot me an email (info at sonialmt dot com).
Hello! I will be back to work on Sunday August 2nd. I will be back to my regular hours, Tuesday and Thursday from 10am-8pm, and Sundays from 10am-6pm. If you’re not ready to come back yet, I totally understand, and look forward to a time where we can all feel totally safe doing things like getting a massage again! If you are ready, here is the link to my booking site.
That said, I am doing my best to make our encounter as safe as possible, so I want to be transparent about the changes that will be happening with your appointment and my office practices. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any further questions.
First and foremost, masks! They are required by state law to be worn by both of us for the entire time you are in my office. (If you do not have a mask please let me know prior to your appointment and I can provide you with a mask upon your arrival for $5.) In addition, I will be wearing a face shield or goggles. You will be able to take off your mask while you are face down during the session if you’d like- we’re going to be doing this little thing with the headrest and the pillowcase that acts as a little hanging mask. Polina did a great video demonstrating this if you’d like to see it here.
My HVAC guy has confirmed that the system brings in outside air, so I’ll have the HVAC set to “on” whenever I am in the office. In addition, I have purchased a Medify air purifier which filters the air in a room the size of my office in under 15 minutes, so the air will be continuously cleaned. I will also be opening the windows between clients to get some fresh air in the room.
I will be wiping down the massage table and anything you or I touched with Nu-Foamicide after every session, and then spraying it again and allowing it to sit for 10 minutes for a proper cleaning. There is also a no-touch hand sanitizer dispenser for your use.
In order to make sure I have enough time to clean and have a breather between clients, I will be starting and ending sessions on time. Please arrive at your scheduled appointment time. If you require a longer discussion of your session goals, please reach out to me ahead of time so we can discuss over the phone prior to your appointment.
A few other things:
- If you are early, I ask that you wait outside my office until your appointment time.
- We can’t touch the area covered by the mask, so no jaw/TMJ massage for the time being.
- I encourage you to prepay for your appointment if possible (you can do this when making your appointment).
- If possible, please bring your own water, tissues, etc.
- For the time being I am no longer offering 30 minute sessions, and am seeing a maximum of 4 clients a day.Â
Even more so than before, if you are feeling unwell (or even just unsure), please let me know and we will cancel your appointment.
I think I’ve covered everything here! Again, please get in touch if you have any further questions. It’s been a long 4+ months and I am looking forward to returning to work and seeing you all again.
Sonia
Hello all,
Phase 3 is scheduled to begin this Monday July 6th, but I have decided to wait a few weeks and keep an eye on how the continued reopening of the city goes before I return to practice. If all goes well, I plan on starting up again in the first half of August. Will post again when I have a return date!
Hey folks! I don’t know about you, but I could really use a massage! 🙂 The good news is massage therapy has finally been assigned to Phase 3. That doesn’t give us a solid reopening date, but at least gives us something to work with. For now, my practice remains closed…
According to the governor (and rightly so), I am a non-essential business, and therefore I am closed until Cuomo says I can open again. Who knows when that will be? In the meantime I am keeping my booking site open so that people can book up to two months in advance, but know that for now none of these appointments are happening. (Sorry if that’s confusing- contact me at info@sonialmt.com if you have any questions.)
Sonia Maksimovich 