Why I Chose Massage as a Career
I’ve been regularly asked by my clients why I chose massage therapy as my career path, since the work is so hard on the massage practitioner’s body. The reality is, there were many reasons, including schedule flexibility, good pay, and job demand(everyone always gets hurt or is stressed out, right?). One reason in particular that always stood out in my mind was making a difference in peoples’ lives. Granted, that difference may impact some people more profoundly than others, but when the work is done, I feel good knowing my efforts can alter the shape of someones day.
During my late teens and early twenties, I had spent many years in sales. The monetary reward had been pretty good, but I still didn’t feel a strong sense of accomplishment. I decided to go back to school to find my path. Eventually, after a few talks with Dr. Mitch Ellis- a lifelong best friend, and eventual business partner, I chose to study massage. Little did I know at the time, it turns out massage therapy and chiropractic kind of walk hand in hand(pardon the pun).
In school, the year-long curriculum began with learning basic Swedish Massage techniques like effleurage, petrissage, and tapotements. We also studied introductory kinesiology, anatomy and physiology. The anatomy and physiology class covered the musculoskeletal system and each individual muscle movement. It was a great learning experience, and as a bonus, it was pretty nice getting a massage three times a week too.
As the year progressed, we learned more advanced treatments such as deep tissue massage, myofascial release, PNF, and even learned a little bit about Chinese Medicine. The anatomy and physiology class went more in depth, covering the rest of the human body’s systems- […]
