Don’t forget growing. A lot of growth as a professional massage therapist! The crazy thing is it all passes in a blink of an eye, but with an enormity of lessons I carry with me for even more years to come.
But where do I start in all this? After all, this is a piece on me to celebrate the legacy I’ve built, a budding career in therapeutic health massage. This surprisingly didn’t necessarily start in school or anything –
It started by working, working, working, working.
As a massage therapist, I just worked. In any way I could. That did earn me interactions and connections that would forever be timeless and valuable – being a board member of the Michigan Chapter of the American Massage Therapist Association, for one. What about authors of some of the leading massage therapy research? I’ve even got direct access to them, plus I’m on a first-name basis with the founders of the best schools for massage therapy in West Michigan. And I’m networking, learning, growing and adapting with the best bodywork practitioners in the area.
Improving my craft? That’s a yes. High-end day spas like The Woodhouse, for instance: learning by repetition was key. I operated in chiropractic facilities, businesses, and even Steelcase. Hospices saw my value as a physical therapist, too.
Out of all my experiences, the most I attained was at R3 Station, of course, but the point of all of it was that I gained not only technical skill, but perspective.
Picture this: a dreary, overcast, slightly chilly day, and what do I see? A guest comes to visit. I proceed to make some small talk (awkwardly), commenting on how somber the weather was. But it was this guest of mine who I was supposed to serve that then served me with a taste of perspective.
The person immediately corrected me on the weather, complaining of a sensitivity to sunlight. In fact, cloud cover was beneficial, at least for this individual, avoiding heat that would exacerbate those conditions. What a shocker to me – that cooler weather was actually a good thing! Person even said it was “my 85 and sunny,” which forced me to ask a question –
Everything is truly about how you look at it.
Massage therapy then was no longer black or white. People were unique. But I had to learn that over time. Why? Because I was always inclined to consider every client of mine a deep-tissue issue!
That meant the adage of apply more pressure, REALLY push, get those knots out. Maybe even beat it out! The fact is, though, the average Michigander didn’t even know their own body. So I then had to ask really targeted questions –
“Any part of the body that hurts the most?” Could be the shoulder. Okay, so I need to work on that. Yet the entire body’s interconnected, so we massage therapists would have to work on more than just that area to avoid only temporary relief from discomfort. Our goal was the surrounding musculature long game, you know?
Therefore true long-term benefit equals consistency. Stretching. Strengthening. And it wasn’t even just about knots or tightness – but impact to the nervous system, encouraging dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin and endorphin production.
That’s saying something given AI is alive and well with an ever-increasing exponential footprint. The world’s getting warmer. Society’s growing more and more distant. Which tells me –
It meant that throughout my career, providing relief just isn’t enough.
Rather…. The last 24 years of learning and a celebration of my career was about the fact that my entire goal is in empowering my clients to take relaxation seriously, with a lifestyle that leads to great health and long life.
And my friends, guess what: it doesn’t get any better than that. The past 24 years have indeed been exhilarating. And here’s a cheer to another amazing 24 years to come!
