HoldSpace for bodyworkers

The session is over, the room is quiet, and you still know exactly where their shoulder let go. Three weeks from now, when they walk back in, you will want to know it again.

Most massage therapy software asks you to turn that into a clinical form. This one was built by a bodywork practitioner for the work you actually do: massage, somatic or manual work, and notes for your own memory, not for an insurer.

What you call the people you work with

Bodyworkers ask this out loud more than almost anything else, and it matters more than it looks. Call someone a patient and the software starts expecting a complaint, an assessment and a plan. You are in a clinic’s record before you have written a word.

Here they are clients, everywhere, with no setting to change. Not because the word is softer, but because it is true: you are not treating a disease. A record that pretends you are is a record you may one day have to defend.

Notes that are not a form

Here you just talk. In the few minutes after a session, while the room is still yours, you press the microphone and say what happened: which side was locked, what released, what they said at the door. Moments later it is a note on their card, ready for the day they walk back in.

When you want it tidier, ask for a structured version. It sits beside what you actually said, and every earlier version is kept. There is no subjective, objective, assessment and plan to fill in: the note is shaped like your session, not like a form.

One honest line: a note written for your own memory is not one you hand to a claims adjuster. If you bill insurance, you want software built for that — and ClinicSense is built for it.

And the sound is never kept. Dictation leaves text behind, not a file of a client’s voice.

Confidentiality when HIPAA does not apply to you

In the US, HIPAA binds covered entities — broadly, practices that send health information electronically for billing. Many bodyworkers are not one and never will be. Your duty of confidentiality does not depend on that: it comes from your board, your association, your agreement with the client and plain decency.

So your records live on our own servers in the EU, on an encrypted volume, and every access to client data is logged. We do not sign a BAA or claim HIPAA compliance. If a regulator or an employer requires one from your software, we are not the answer, and we would rather say so now.

Keeping records, and being able to leave

How long you keep client records depends on where you practise. Across US states it runs from one year to seven, and half set no number at all — the table by state and country has yours. Whatever your number, it assumes the records still exist and are still yours.

Here, export is one file you make yourself, without asking anyone: clients, sessions, notes with their history, intake answers, consent records. Your practice stays yours, including the day you leave.

Booking that asks nothing of a client

Your client opens a link, sees times in their own timezone, picks one, and that is it: no account, no password, no app. If you ask questions before a first session, they answer on the same page, and you walk in already knowing why they came.

They cancel from the email they already have, without logging in. That is the difference between a client who cancels at nine in the evening and one who simply does not come.

What it costs to try

The free plan does not expire and does not ask for a card. It has limits, not an end date, and the limits sit on the pricing page next to the paid plan. A practice with five regulars can stay on it for good.

Try it tonight. After your last session, press the microphone and say what happened, the way you would tell a colleague. Tomorrow morning, read it back. If it sounds like you, you will know what the rest of it is for.

Weighing us against the software most bodyworkers already know? ClinicSense, SimplePractice and Jane each have their own comparison, with the day their pages were read.

Questions practitioners ask

Do massage therapists have patients or clients?
Both words are in use, and the choice follows the frame rather than the law: a patient is someone whose condition you are treating, a client is someone who books your time. We use client everywhere, with no setting to change it, because software that says patient quietly expects a complaint, an assessment and a plan.
Are massage therapists bound by confidentiality if HIPAA does not apply?
Yes. HIPAA binds covered entities — broadly, practices that transmit health information electronically for billing — and many bodyworkers are not one. The duty of confidentiality comes from your board, your association and your client agreement regardless, and it does not soften because a federal statute does not name you.
Do you do SOAP notes?
Not as a form. You can write in SOAP order if that is how you think, but nothing asks you to, checks that you did, or formats the result for someone else to read. If you need SOAP as a deliverable rather than a habit — because you bill insurance or send notes to a physician — ClinicSense is built for that and we are not.
How long do I have to keep client records?
It depends on where you practise; across US states alone the range runs from a couple of years to indefinitely, and several states set no massage-specific rule at all. Whatever applies to you, it assumes the records still exist and are still yours, which is a question about your software rather than the law.
What happens to the audio when I dictate a note?
It is not kept. Dictation produces text and the recording is gone — there is no file of a client's voice sitting anywhere. Worth saying that this is not unusual: several competitors do the same, so treat it as a floor rather than a difference.
Is there a free plan, or just a trial?
A free plan that does not expire and does not ask for a card. It is limited rather than timed — the limits, and what the paid plan costs, are on the pricing page. A practice with a handful of regulars can stay on it indefinitely.

Try it with one client

The free plan does not expire and does not ask for a card. Add the client you saw this morning and write the note you would have written anyway.

Start on the free plan