How do I learn to feel where someone holds tension or pain?

You cannot yet feel where a person holds their tension or pain, and that can make you doubt whether you have the hands for this work. You do. Reading a body through touch is not a gift you are born with. It is a sense that develops slowly, the way an ear develops for music. Early on, your hands do not yet know what they are feeling because they have no comparison. A tight band, a held breath, a guarded spot, these only announce themselves once you have felt enough bodies for the difference to register. Right now everything feels similar because your touch is still gathering its vocabulary. That is exactly where every skilled practitioner began. So slow down and pay attention on purpose. With each body, pause and simply notice what you feel under your hands before you do anything, without judging whether you are right. That deliberate attention trains the sense faster than technique alone. Trust that it is coming. Hands learn to listen, but only if you keep them listening.