Massage therapist takes extreme action to address inappropriate behavior from a specific group of clients

An Australian massage studio made a decision to prohibit male customers due to receiving unwelcome calls and remarks asking about sexual services.

Eternal Energy Healing and Wellness owner, Kessley Ham, 39, announced on Wednesday the South Perth business would only cater to women going forward.

The owner mentioned that her young employees had felt uneasy, especially when working alone at night at the Charles Street location. The discomfort escalated to a point where some staff members reported feeling sick.

The studio owner revealed that the staff had initially dealt with the problem internally until she decided to address the situation. Men calling to make indecent comments and requests prompted an uncomfortable conversation among the employees, compelling the establishment to implement the new policy.

‘I’ve been receiving some pretty frequent calls and (men) just message you and ask for a sensual massage or, like not a lot of them say it directly, and they often come with a bunch of other questions first and then at the end say something inappropriate,’ she said. 

‘And you’re just like, ‘oh God, I just wasted like how long talking to this person when they were just after a rub and tug’.

‘From my website and Instagram, it’s pretty clear that is not the type of business that I have. Those types of businesses are really easy to find, I don’t understand why you would be contacting me instead.’

Ms Ham said she confided in another staff member earlier in the week after becoming fed-up with the calls and beginning to blame herself for ‘sounding too nice’. 

Her staff then informed her they had been made to feel uncomfortable in the studio during late-night sessions while the other businesses in her building were closed. 

‘There was apparently someone who groaned for the entire massage and like writhed around on the table, you know orgasm style,’ Ms Ham said. 

‘(He) kept making weird comments about his underwear being uncomfortable and being twisted and was just saying it over and over again.

‘(He) then wanted to speak to his massage therapist about his sex life – and this was at night time when all the other businesses in our building are closed and there’s no one else there.’ 

She said the therapists on Tuesday reported other unprofessional interactions which had taken place during massages and decided it had gone ‘too far’. 

‘You can enjoy a massage without making it sexual and it’s just it’s not the kind of thing that I want myself to have to deal with,’ she said.

‘It was literally the next day that I was like that’s it.’

She said the comments were ‘relentless’, and the allusions were the kind that just makes you ‘tense up’.   

Eternal Energy Healing and Wellness opened about a year ago.

It deals in specialised massage techniques.

The treatments include ASMR-style sessions and massages drawing on Ms Ham’s Ayurvedic background.

Ms Ham said she would still honour current bookings for male clients.

Gift cards that had already been purchased would also still be honoured.

Ms Ham announced the ban in a statement posted to social media. 

‘Due to the relentless inappropriate requests I receive online and some incidents in the studio that have made my staff feel uncomfortable and unsafe I have made the decision to make Eternal Energy a Women’s only establishment,’ it read. 

‘We are still welcoming of trans women and non-binary individuals.’