Spot Predatory Clients

Editor’s note: This article is the second in a series on how to adhere to the safest standards of care in massage therapy. Developed by the Massage Ethics Council, a volunteer group dedicated to sharing clear, ethical standards for the profession, this article focuses on how to handle predatory clients. 

Nearly every female massage therapist—and many other massage therapists regardless of gender—report at least one incident involving a client who crossed a line.

Yet formal reporting remains rare. Therapists stay silent because they fear not being believed, worry about retaliation from employers who prioritize client retention over staff safety, or simply don’t know that reporting is an option. The reported data almost certainly understates the true prevalence.

In reported cases, most of the time, the client is a man who wants something sexual to happen during their massage with a female therapist. There are also reports of female predatory clients, but in much smaller numbers. So, who are these people? Why are they doing something so inappropriate?

Research suggests most sexual predators are emotionally troubled individuals who have distorted thinking. For the predator, it’s about power and control to dominate, not about sex. They are good at compartmentalizing, meaning they don’t consider the consequences of their actions on others or themselves. Predators are often charming and skilled at lying and manipulating others. Most predators believe that anyone they find desirable will be attracted to them, and they seek out potential targets.

Four factors have been identified as features of sexual predators:

• The ability to have power and control over others
• The belief that they are uniquely attractive
• The capacity for deception
• The ability to compartmentalize—they are aware of what they are doing with no regard to the consequences.¹

What red flags should massage therapists and bodyworkers look for? What are the ways practitioners can ensure a safe and therapeutic environment? And what do they do if a client does become predatory? Let’s take a closer look.

Testing Their Targets

First, predatory clients test the boundaries of their chosen therapist to see whether they have weak boundaries and defenses. Sometimes it starts with a compliment or an invitation to meet outside of the professional setting. At other times, it’s creepier, with moaning sexual sounds on the table, the offer of a big tip for doing something more satisfying, or an explicit ask to massage the “full body,” which is code for “I want something sexual.”

What happens inside the massage therapist’s mind and body when this overture arrives? It could be a freezing response, anger, embarrassment, or confusion about what to do. This is where good training comes in. 

A massage therapist has three opportunities to screen out predatory clients: before, during, and after the session. The best time to spot a predatory client is during the booking process. Always talk to a new client on the phone. If you use online booking software, always schedule a screening call with a new client. Predators prefer anonymous online booking. A client who won’t take your call and only wants to communicate via messaging is a red flag.

Before the Session

The first opportunity to identify a bad actor is during the booking process, which is why you need to have a phone call with all new clients. During the call, ask why the prospective client wants a massage, what their goal is, why they chose you or your business, and what their experience with professional massage has been. The answers to these questions will usually help you screen out predatory clients; they don’t want a professional massage, they want something sexual.

Therapists should also be aware of the coded language predatory clients use when looking for prostitution and not massage. Some terms include full-body release, full-body massage, full service, extras, generous, roses, happy ending, and Nuru massage. Other red flags to be aware of include: 

• Refusing to provide a last name, address, or phone number
• Insisting on cash payment or asking to be seen “off the books”
• Requesting an after-hours or unusually urgent appointment
• Asking for a photo of the therapist
• Leading the conversation with questions about draping (e.g., “Do I have to use a sheet?” and “Can I just use a hand towel?”)
• Flirting or expressing sexual or romantic interest during the booking call

Other deterrents include requiring clients to submit intake forms in advance, requiring prepayment by credit card for new clients, and clearly posting a zero-tolerance policy both online and at the office. Illegitimate establishments rarely do any of these things.

During the Session

If a predatory client makes it to your office, they rarely begin with explicit misconduct. They start small and do deniable things: make an off-color comment, deliberately shift the drape, ask an overly personal question about the therapist’s life. Then they watch the reaction. If the therapist accommodates, minimizes, or says nothing, they escalate. 

The number and intensity of boundary violations increase in proportion to the apparent tolerance of earlier ones. Addressing a small transgression early is almost always easier than addressing a larger one later.

In-session red flags can include: deliberately removing or kicking off the drape after the therapist repositions it; drawing attention to sexual arousal or engaging in pelvic movement; requests designed to guide the therapist toward the genitals (e.g., “Can you work a little lower?” and “Can you work higher on my inner thigh?”); nonconsensual touching of the therapist; and sexual jokes, explicit requests, or persistently invasive personal questions.

Addressing this behavior immediately is essential. When something in your gut feels wrong, trust it. That instinct is not an overreaction. It’s a neurological signal, and therapists who routinely override it to avoid awkwardness pay a high price over time.

When you need to act, the “Intervention Model” developed by Daphne Chellos, MA (a pioneer in massage therapy and sexual ethics) gives a repeatable, effective framework:

1. Stop the treatment. Remove your hands. Make eye contact. Use a firm, grounded voice—assertive, not aggressive.
2. Re-drape the client fully. This restores a literal boundary and removes touch as a stimulus. Do it calmly.
3. Describe the behavior factually. Name what occurred without editorializing: “I noticed you’ve shifted the drape twice after I repositioned it,” or “I notice that you have an erection.” 
4. Clarify intent. Ask a direct question and wait. “Tell me what’s going on.” Don’t answer for the client.
5. Respond to what you heard. For a first-time, ambiguous incident, educate: “Sometimes clients experience arousal as a physiological response to touch. That’s a normal body response, but it’s never my intent for a session to create sexual arousal.” For a client who has made their sexual intent clear, end the session.
6. End the session when necessary. Say something like, “I’m not comfortable with what’s going on here, and it’s time for you to leave.” Leave the room. Through the closed door, instruct the client to dress and exit. No further explanation is required.
7. Secure your exit. Always position yourself between the client and the door. If you feel physically threatened, leave the room immediately and call 911. No session is worth jeopardizing your physical safety.²

After the Session

Whether a session ended badly or a pattern of boundary-testing only became clear in hindsight, document what occurred.

Document Immediately

Write down the behavior, your response, the client’s response, the time, the date, and any witnesses before you end your day. Do not rely on memory. This documentation is your primary protection if the client later files a retaliatory complaint—a common response from clients who have been refused.

Notify Your Employer or Manager 

If you work for someone else, notify your manager or supervisor as soon as possible, and definitely before the end of the workday. A written record of the incident in the employer’s files protects both you and the next therapist who might encounter the same client. If you work independently, talk to a trusted colleague so you have a verbal witness to your experience.

Dismiss the Client Clearly

Therapists have the legal right to refuse or terminate service for reasons of inappropriate conduct. Declining based on behavior is lawful, and no proof is required. Keep the dismissal brief and neutral. For clients who have been abusive or sexually inappropriate, there is, of course, no professional requirement to provide a referral to another therapist.

If you send a written notice, keep it factual and restrained—and consult a lawyer before doing so. Here’s a workable template: “The reason I will no longer be providing massage therapy treatment is due to inappropriate behavior that occurred during your appointment on [DATE]. This behavior is not acceptable in a therapeutic setting.” Do not overexplain or apologize.

Block the client from rebooking and notify the front desk and other staff (if applicable) so they aren’t quietly rescheduled with another practitioner.

Know the Right Reporting Channels 

Nonconsensual touching of the therapist is sexual assault in every US jurisdiction. These are crimes, not policy violations, and they should be reported accordingly. For client misconduct, the correct authorities are the police for solicitation and assault. 

Reporting requires therapists to clearly put into words exactly what happened, which can be difficult if the incident is traumatizing or ambiguous. This method places a lot of trust in the justice system. Unless it’s a case of rape, police documentation practices (keeping a reported client’s name on file) can’t always be counted on. Your state attorney’s office can also prosecute solicitation.

State massage boards regulate massage therapist licensees—not clients. Your state board is not the appropriate place to file an assault complaint. 

Additionally, lesser types of sexual assault might not be taken as seriously. Police need further training on the nature and frequency of these incidents so they can respond appropriately to reports from legitimate massage therapists.

Do not name the client publicly on social media. Defamation liability is real, and public posts rarely stop predatory behavior and often create legal exposure for the therapist.

Your Rights 

The ethics codes governing massage therapy give practitioners far more authority than many realize. The NCBTMB Standards of Practice require that when a client initiates sexual behavior, the practitioner must interrupt the session. If the behavior ceases, the practitioner may, at their own discretion, continue or terminate. The word “discretion” is significant: No code requires a therapist to give a predatory client a second chance.

Associated Bodywork and Massage Professionals (ABMP), other similar associations, and most state codes are categorical: Practitioners must refrain from sexual conduct “even if the client attempts to sexualize the relationship.” The moment a session is sexualized, the therapeutic contract is void.

And even further, one sexual abuse expert suggested the only way to make an impact on this predatory behavior is to encourage all therapists to report every incident in detail to the police. 

The principle of do no harm—foundational to all manual therapy ethics—extends to the therapist’s safety. Ethics educators and professional associations are unambiguous: massage therapists are entitled to a workplace free of sexual harassment and abuse and have the right to make themselves safe and report abusers. Tolerating misconduct to preserve income is not professionalism. By the field’s standards, it’s an ethical failure.

What the Industry Still Needs to Do

Individual therapists should not be managing this problem alone. Responsible employers should post and enforce written zero-tolerance policies, train staff on screening and intervention, and make it clear that therapists have an unconditional right to end any session without fear of retaliation.

In fact, if your employer (with 15 or more employees) refuses to address predatory clients or retaliates against you for reporting, you might be working in a hostile or offensive work environment, which is illegal in the US.³ 

Physical deterrents matter too. The “Attention Button” (piloted by Hand & Stone and produced by BEC Integrated Solutions) summons front-desk staff to a treatment room within 15 to 20 seconds of activation. Locations that deployed it reported measurable reductions in client misconduct incidents.

When evaluating a potential employer, ask directly: “What is your policy if a client behaves inappropriately toward a therapist?” “Can a therapist end a session without management approval?” An employer who minimizes the question or doesn’t answer it to your satisfaction is telling you something important about how they will respond when the situation is real.

Priscilla Fleming, massage therapist, author, and teacher, writes:

Massage related to sexuality has been around for centuries; in fact, ancient Greek doctors used to prescribe it as part of health care. Erotic massage has since moved away from the realm of health care and is illegal in most places. (It is legal only where prostitution is legal, such as in certain areas within Nevada in the US.) The term “happy ending” was born in 1999 when a Weekend Australian article described massage parlors as giving “guaranteed happy endings,” in reference to orgasm.

That happy-ending stigma lives on in pop culture today. We often see the trope associated with massage therapists in movies, TV shows, and other forms of media. As a society, when we discuss massage therapy, we often hear jokes about happy endings; however, these jokes are not harmless.

Establishments that engage in illicit sexual services and offer happy endings (i.e., prostitution) are often engaging in human trafficking. These jokes, and the frequenting of these institutions, contribute to modern-day slavery and put a lot of lives—both the people trafficked and legitimate massage therapists—in danger. Human trafficking is usually an aspect of organized crime syndicates, according to the International Criminal Police Organization.

According to the Polaris Project, a social justice movement fighting sex and labor trafficking, illicit fronts claiming to be massage businesses are among the most common venues for sex trafficking. In the US, sex trafficking is a $32 billion industry. There are estimated to be 9,000 active trafficking organizations disguised as massage parlors today, according to the Polaris Project.⁴

Conclusion

This framework—screen before someone arrives, intervene while they’re in the treatment room, dismiss and document after the session—is not complicated. But it requires preparation: knowing the code words, rehearsing the scripts, and understanding that every professional and legal right needed to act is already in place. The ethics codes don’t ask therapists to tolerate harassment—they prohibit it.

Ending a session with a predatory client is not a failure of professionalism; it’s not an overreaction. It is, in the most precise terms the field offers, doing no harm.

Author’s Note: We hope this article serves as a call to attention against this widespread, systemic issue that disproportionately affects female therapists in the industry. If you have additional ideas on how to combat predatory clients at the industry level, we encourage you to reach out to the Massage Ethics Council’s contact form. 

Notes 

1. Stanton E. Samenow, “The Thinking Processes of Sexual Predators,” Psychology Today, December 15, 2017, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/inside-the-criminal-mind/201712/the-thinking-processes-of-sexual-predators.
2. Ben E. Benjamin and Cherie Sohnen-Moe, The Ethics of Touch, 3rd ed. (SohnenMoe Associates, 2003), 149-51.
3. US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, “Sexual Harassment,” accessed October 2026, www.eeoc.gov/sexual-harassment. 
4. Priscilla Fleming, Niel Asher Continuing Education, “Safety and Solicitation,” https://nielasher.com/products/ethics-safety-and-solicitation.

Resources* 

Joyce Gauthier, ABMP CE Course, “Ethics: Create a Zero-Tolerance Practice,” www.abmp.com/learn/course/ethics-create-zero-tolerance-practice.

Ben E. Benjamin, ABMP CE Course, “Ethics: Preventing Sexual Misconduct,” www.abmp.com/learn/course/ethics-preventing-sexual-misconduct-massage-therapy.

Polaris Project, “Understanding Human Trafficking,” accessed October 2026.

*All courses listed are NCBTMB-approved and widely available online.

A Deeper Dive—Research Highlights

• Two recent studies in Canada address the need to better understand the rates and nature of Canadian massage therapists’ experiences of sexual harassment and assault in the workplace. This data provides a vital window into the professional challenges and safety concerns facing the massage therapy community everywhere today. 
  • From 2021–2022, the Canadian Massage Therapist Alliance and the University of New Brunswick conducted the first of these studies, the Sexual Harassment and Assault of Canadian Massage Therapists National Survey.¹ 
  • The most recent study, in September 2025, was conducted by the Registered Massage Therapists’ Association of Ontario (RMTAO). This study surveyed 2,495 Registered Massage Therapists and students in Ontario about their experiences with sexual harassment and assault.²Respondents were primarily women. 
    • Nearly 75 percent of respondents reported experiencing sexual harassment during their training or practice, most often verbal, followed by physical, phone, and online harassment.
    • In the survey, 21 percent of respondents reported experiencing sexual assault by a client. Among those assaulted, physical assault was most common (89 percent), followed by verbal assault (53 percent); 65 percent of respondents experienced between 1 and 3 assaults, while 12 percent reported 10 or more in their professional lives. 
    • Many reported lasting effects from the incidents, including changed interactions with patients, students, or instructors, increased stress or anxiety, consideration of leaving the profession, and a need for mental health support. 
• A National Study on US Massage Therapists’ Experiences of Sexual Harassment and Assault by Clients is being conducted by Morgan Richard and Lucia O’Sullivan, the same two who conducted the Canadian surveys. The results will be published in early 2027.

Notes

1. Morgan E. Richard and Lucia F. O’Sullivan, Canadian Massage Therapy Alliance, “Sexual Harassment and Assault of Canadian Massage Therapists.” 
2. Morgan E. Richard, Registered Massage Therapists’ Association of Ontario, “Sexual Assault and Harassment Survey Summary.”