Yellowknife (Mar 26/03) - The lights are dim. The music is soft and soothing.

Slowly you take off your clothes and lie on flannel sheets in wait of sweet relief.

Before you start thinking this is an X-rated story set in Yellowknife, Jennifer Stranart is about to set you straight.

This is massage therapy. Some people even find it the most terrifying thing ever.

At the Athletic and Therapeutic Massage Clinic, where an hour long massage costs $65, Stranart has built a devoted clientele.

She has been doing massage long enough to know when people are nervous about being touched.

"People, if they're nervous, they will talk a lot," she said.

"Now, there's a bit of an overlap. You tend to know a lot of your clients as well. So you do a bit of catching up.

But you just encourage them to focus on their breathing, relax and let go and experience the massage."

But when a person is nervous about a stranger -- even one who happens to be a skilled a massage therapist -- touching them, sometimes what they need to do is just talk, said Stranart.

"That's what they need to do, to settle in."

If you are timid about having those hands on your back or your neck or your arms, it's important to let the massage therapist know, Stranart said.

"It's not necessary to take off your clothes," she explained.

"Basically, if someone is that uncomfortable, a massage can be done seated, it can be done right through the clothing. It might not be the ideal way of treating a problem.

But if a person is so uncomfortable they are unable to relax to get the benefit of the treatment, they might as well stay clothed and just work it around that."

Ask questions. Added Stranart: "A therapist should ask questions. They should be explaining what's happening, you know, 'I'm going to leave the room for a few minutes, I'll knock before I come in,' so they don't think someone is going to walk in on them."

Often people are reluctant to admit they're scared at first, Stranart said.

But in Stranart's experience, once the client has had a massage, "they know what it's about, they're much more relaxed and it's not an issue. I've done treatments with people who are fully clothed."

When asked what it's like treating someone who is scared of the therapist's hands, Stranart replied, "There's different kinds of tension. In the English language there's not even the vocabulary to describe all the different kinds of tension that you can feel."