Hours

COVID ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Hours listed at the bottom of this page.

June 2023

To our wonderful Clients—

Thank you all for your patience and your cooperation with our COVID-19 policies, which were implemented during the emergency phase of the pandemic to allow us to work together as safely as possible.  We have maintained these policies in line with our understanding of COVID-19’s changing behavior and shadowing the regional healthcare community.  Masking has been one of these important protective layers, and it has served us well by helping to minimize exposures—which in turn minimized our down times due to exposure quarantines. 

Currently, COVID-19 transmission metrics are low enough in Connecticut that we feel that masking can now be considered optional for our clients.  We do strongly encourage mask use during sessions, so if you would like to continue wearing a mask during your session, please feel absolutely free to do so! 

Please keep in mind that we therapists remain vulnerable and subject to multiple potential exposures per day—any one of which may cause us to have to shut down for a quarantine.   Therefore, to decrease the chances of our losing work time to see you (as well as income) and to remain supportive of our most vulnerable clients, we therapists will continue to wear masks during every session. 

While masking is now optional for our clients, under the following circumstances we do ask that you continue to wear an N95/KN95 mask during your session:  if you are asymptomatic but have been flying or on a cruise within the 14 days prior to your session, or your session is within 14 days of an exposure to anyone with known COVID-19 or an upper respiratory disease (cold, flu).  If you do not wish to wear a mask under those circumstances, please reschedule your session farther out.

We will continue to ask that you reschedule your session if you are:  testing positive for COVID-19, not feeling well for any reason, or feel you might be coming down with “something.”  There is still no penalty for late cancellation when due to illness.

We are hopeful that masking can remain optional for our clients.  However, should any of the COVID-19 transmission parameters increase in the future, we may need to reinstitute masking for that duration.  Please continue to call or text us when you arrive for your session, as our waiting room will remain closed for now.

We so appreciate your past and present cooperation as we look forward to assisting you with your wellness goals.

To your continued wellness,

Jeannine Smith, LMT           Heidi Seaton, LMT

May 21, 2021

Dear Clients of Jeannine Smith, LMT and Heidi Seaton, LMT:

Wishing you all a Happy Spring!  Once again, we hope that this finds you all healthy and looking forward to some sunshine and warmer weather.  Thankfully, it now appears possible that the end zone of the COVID-19 pandemic is in sight, due in large part to vaccination efforts.

We have made use of this pandemic down time to consult many resources and to make changes towards our goal of reopening our practices as safely as possible.  We are happy to report that we are both now fully vaccinated against COVID-19.  And, although overall COVID-19 levels have not yet reached Low status in Connecticut, the community transmission rates appear to be declining steadily within CT. This is hopeful news!  Having said that, this pandemic is not over yet; we realize that this trend could change at any moment, and should levels rise again we will need to re-evaluate. However, today we are excited to announce that we will be able to accept some clients back for massage beginning in June.

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) recently announced that because emerging data appears to show that a vaccinated individual has much lower risk of contracting and spreading COVID-19, fully vaccinated people are able to have more latitude when it comes to returning to activities involving proximity to others.  However, both the CDC and the CT Department of Public Health (DPH) remind us that not everyone around us is fully protected (vaccinated or not), and some remain vulnerable to the impacts of COVID-19.  We are committed to the health and safety of all our clients, and our practices endeavor to follow evidence-based information.  Because we often work with potentially vulnerable clients and distancing is not possible during massage, we feel it is best that we reopen conservatively by asking everyone to continue to mask within our office space and by seeing only those clients who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 at this time.

“Fully vaccinated” means that at least fourteen days have passed since your second Moderna/Pfizer dose, or your Johnson & Johnson vaccination.  We believe our interim plan to be the best way to protect the health of all our clients, until more information is known about the relative risk that we therapists pose to those clients who remain unprotected.  We will continue to evaluate the rapidly evolving science on this subject, and we are hopeful that sooner rather than later we will be able to welcome everyone back, regardless of their vaccination status and with less concern for passing on such a potentially dangerous disease.  Until such a time, it must remain our recommendation—as per CDC guidelines—that those who are unvaccinated continue to avoid close-contact, extended-exposure activities, such as massage sessions. 

If you are fully vaccinated but are taking a medication or have a condition that affects your immune system, please first check with your medical provider regarding whether the risks of receiving such close-contact work are acceptable for your current condition.  If you are not yet fully vaccinated, or you are unable to wear a mask, please wait and do not schedule an appointment at this time.  We will certainly reconnect with you once these risks are known to be minimal for you, too.

Evidence now shows that the virus which causes COVID-19 is primarily transmitted via airborne aerosolized emissions from breathing, vocalizing, and coughing/sneezing.  We sought information from public health, epidemiological, and ventilation specialists regarding risk mitigation for close-contact work and lowering exposure for indoor environments, and we have made the following changes to increase air quality and ventilation within our office space:  Masking for both therapist and client while in the office, as well as talking less during sessions—both help minimize aerosols within the room.  Enhancing ventilation with in-room air purifiers, a higher-rated filter for the furnace/HVAC system along with in-ductwork ultraviolet light sanitizers, and window exhaust fans.

We have also upgraded our sanitizing/disinfecting protocols to target COVID-19, exchanging softer surfaces for those that are more disinfectant-friendly and using only EPA-approved products proven to kill SARS-CoV-2 virus.  As recommended by the DPH, we will be spacing our appointments farther apart to allow for the additional time involved in disinfecting and ventilating the office spaces between every client.  Although every risk involved with COVID-19 cannot be eliminated, we feel good about these multiple safety measures helping to decrease exposure levels for us all.  We choose to take these measures—which are over and above the minimums required by the State of CT—out of an abundance of caution, because we may not always know every client’s vaccination status and community transmission is still occurring within our state.

Apart from changes to our office spaces, your massage session will also look a little different for the time being.  We have updated our Health Information and Informed Consent forms to reflect changes associated with COVID-19, and we will ask that you renew those before your next session.  When you arrive for your session:

Please stay in your car and call or text us that you have arrived.  Wear a 2 or 3-layer mask over your nose and mouth; please—no buffs or bandanas.  If you do not have such a mask, or prefer, we can supply you with a 3-layer surgical mask.  Both therapist and client will wear masks for the duration of the session.

We will greet you at the door and screen temperatures with a no-touch thermometer.  Clients with temperatures over 100.4°F will need to reschedule.  We will ask you some questions regarding COVID-19. 

In the massage room, we will discuss your goals for your session as usual but ask that further conversation generally be limited to short check-ins during the massage.

We trust you to also keep our safety in mind, as we do yours.  Towards that mutual goal and until this pandemic is truly over, we have suspended our 24-hour cancellation policy and we will not charge for last-minute cancellations due to any illness or COVID-19 exposure-related reasons.  We confirm that we will do the same things that we ask of you:

Please reschedule your appointment if you or anyone in your household has been ill with any of the following symptoms (even if mild):  Fever or chills, Cough, Shortness of breath/difficulty breathing, Fatigue, Muscle/body aches unassociated with exercise, Headache, Loss of taste/smell, Sore throat, Congestion/runny nose, Nausea/vomiting, Diarrhea. Even if feel you are “fighting off something” or are just feeling a little “under the weather,” please—reschedule.

Please reschedule your appointment if you know or suspect you have been exposed to COVID-19, are awaiting test results, or have been exposed to someone who is awaiting test results—whether you have any symptoms or not.

Please reschedule your appointment if you have been on a cruise ship or have traveled anywhere with a higher community transmission rate than CT within fourteen days prior to your appointment.  Updated information here:  CDC COVID Data Tracker (https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#county-view) 

Please let us know as soon as possible in the event that you are diagnosed with or test positive for COVID-19 within fourteen days after a massage session, so that we may quickly self-isolate if necessary.

Initially, we will be reaching out to offer appointments to those clients who had sessions cancelled in March 2020 and who are now fully vaccinated.  We would also appreciate your understanding; after this lengthy layoff, we will need to work our way back up to our previous session load—this may take a little time to avoid injuring ourselves.  We will do our very best to get you scheduled as quickly as we possibly can, and we very much look forward to seeing you again soon!

To your continued wellness,

Jeannine Smith, LMT                   Heidi Seaton, LMT