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What Did You Do Before Massage?
I know, I'm nosey. I was a travel writer.
For six years, I got to travel to Bed & Breakfasts and get massages, all for free, and write about it. So my roots are in traveling, meeting people and hearing their stories. Now I travel around and do The World Massage Festival & Massage Therapy Hall of Fame.
I found the adjustment to a single location massage establishment, inside a strip mall, very confining. So I started a way to stay "in the massage world and travel!" But that is another story!
What's your story? What did you do before massage? Tell us of your travels and what massage is like where you are, especially if you massage outside the U.S. We really like pictures, if possible.
If you get bored come see me at my page http://www.massageprofessionals.com/profile/MikeHinkle
Thanks and welcome to Massage Professionals!
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Caitlin Lemoine on
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I was an art student at UL! I have a BFA with a concentration in painting. I love to work with my hands the kind of zen state that i would reach painting my best paintings is exactly the same as the meditative state I'm in when I massage. Since I haven't done a lot but schooling and more schooling I feel like my story has just started. I don't travel much so there is not a lot to say about it.
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Permalink Reply by Simone Fairly on
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I've never been anything but a massage therapist! It's a long standing family tradition... as it is in many asian families.
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Permalink Reply by Jan Schwartz on
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I was a sales leader and trainer for Dale Carnegie & Associates! I taught the Sales Course and assisted in the Management Seminar. How to Win Friends and Influence People Course was left to others. :-)
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Permalink Reply by Kevin Green on
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What did I do before massage? That question is like asking about a past life. The short answer is underground copper miner. But I am not known for short answers. I have been a massage therapist for thirty years and what and who I was before is not a simple question, bear with me as I attempt to answer.
Turned 18 in 1973, that is important to this answer because that is also the year the military draft ended. With the Vietnam war ongoing and my birth-date being one of those picked in the draft lottery I fully expected to be called up to serve. Not that I wanted to. So with no real plans for my future I went to work in the Copper MInes north of Tucson. It didn't take me long to know that working in a mine was not my life's work and living in Tucson I had the opportunity to see a demonstration massage at a workshop and that was it. I knew right then that massage was my work.
I found a Massage School in Mesa that offered a 1000hr training and I applied for the up coming class.
It took six months at 8hrs a day to complete. Money was short and I lived out of my van in the desert on the edge of town. Those days still hold great memories and even now with all the books I have read and workshops I have attended I still find that foundation to be the core of my work.
Shortly after completing my schooling in massage I had the opportunity to work at the newly opened Canyon Ranch Resort. The four years I spent working at the Ranch furthered my skill, exposed me to many great therapist and opened the door for me to move away from Tucson and develop a private practice here in Kansas City, Mo. This is where I meet my wife and partner. Massage is still my work and before massage I was lost.
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Permalink Reply by Meggie Hayne on
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Thanks for the nice question Robert! I started doing massage right out of high school. It has, however, taken me on an interesting journey.
Massage started me on a journey to learn to nurture myself and help others do the same. After practicing massage for a few years and seeing hundreds of clients, I realized there would always be more to learn. When I started practicing Kum Nye (the meditative discipline and self healing technique) in 2006, I had found my path. The word 'Nye' in Tibetan means 'massage'. Kum Nye is a set of healing exercises, meditations and self massage techniques introduced to the West by Tibetan Lama Tarthang Tulku. These exercises massage us from within the body. Since becoming a permanent resident of Ratna Ling Retreat Center on the Northern California Coast in 2007, I have worked with senior Kum Nye Instructor, Arnaud Maitland to become an authorized Kum Nye Instructor. Drawing on my professional massage background and my personal experience with practicing and teaching Kum Nye, we have developed a technique for massage therapists to apply the ancient wisdom principles of Kum Nye to their practices. So I have organically transformed into a massage educator.
Although I do some traveling to teach workshops around the country, most of my travels have taken place while discovering the vast universe inside the body.
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Permalink Reply by ann fouts on
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Hi Mike
Before I was a massage therapist I was an occupatioal therapist. As an occupational therapist I focused a majority of my continueing education on soft tissue work taking alot of courses in myofascial release and crainiosacral therapy. I became passionite about this type of work and became a massage therapist to improve my skills and to provide myself with more freedom. I am now an instructor of massage at a local school in lovely Crown Point In, a teaching assistant at the Upledger Institute and own a small massage business working with poeple who have chronic pain. Mostly though I am a still a student myself always striving to improve at what I do. Thanks for the interest Ann Fouts
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Wow... Well I am a Psychiatric Technician and then I went to Massage Therapy School. I still do hospital work, and I massage on the side
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I was a mechanical drafts person and became a designer assisting the engineers. I quit the corporate world after spending 15 years in it to start a restaurant, which I had for about five years. Then I opened a few other small businesses but always find I get bored after few years. I starting working for eye doctors and ended up as a vision therapist. I got a job at a holistic center where there were integrated modalities.
I fell into the alternative healing world and became fascinated by all there was to learn. The whole mind, body, spirit connection. How we need to heal the problem not the symptom. So I went to a nearby massage schools' open house one night and signed up for massage school. Of course I began working right away at the holistic center I worked in and it wasn't enough. A few years later I started my own business again with a mobile spa. And here I am 6 years later with the spa 9 years later as a massage therapist. I finally found my passion. I am currently running my mobile spa business in three towns in Colorado and am looking at two more sites. My goal is to have this business become nation wide. I am not sure if I will franchise them or own them.
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Permalink Reply by Robyn Green LMT, CZB on
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Hi Meggie,
I thought you look like someone I had seen, I was on the Kum Nye Blog a while ago, haven't been able to find my way back. I love Kum Nye, and have been practicing with the book my husband bought me in about 1999! It took me a long time to get into it, just the last couple of years and still have not managed a daily practice. I did practice today though and join this group too! The workshop sounds very interesting, practicing Kum Nye with massage, Perfect!
Meggie Hayne said:Thanks for the nice question Robert! I started doing massage right out of high school. It has, however, taken me on an interesting journey.
Massage started me on a journey to learn to nurture myself and help others do the same. After practicing massage for a few years and seeing hundreds of clients, I realized there would always be more to learn. When I started practicing Kum Nye (the meditative discipline and self healing technique) in 2006, I had found my path. The word 'Nye' in Tibetan means 'massage'. Kum Nye is a set of healing exercises, meditations and self massage techniques introduced to the West by Tibetan Lama Tarthang Tulku. These exercises massage us from within the body. Since becoming a permanent resident of Ratna Ling Retreat Center on the Northern California Coast in 2007, I have worked with senior Kum Nye Instructor, Arnaud Maitland to become an authorized Kum Nye Instructor. Drawing on my professional massage background and my personal experience with practicing and teaching Kum Nye, we have developed a technique for massage therapists to apply the ancient wisdom principles of Kum Nye to their practices. So I have organically transformed into a massage educator.
Although I do some traveling to teach workshops around the country, most of my travels have taken place while discovering the vast universe inside the body.
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Permalink Reply by Don Solomon on
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Dear Group, Mike what a great question.. Its very interesting to hear peoples journeys. My past work: Professional Sailboat Delivery Skipper (31ft to 150ft transatlantic, transpacific and transindian oceans) ; Deck hand; Sailmaker; Founding member of biomed company; Founding Partner of 2 separate retail chains; Member of the board and founding member of 2 Non- Profits; Partner in Alternative energy business water, air turbines.
Cheer!!
Don Solomon, RMT (Vancouver, BC, Canada)
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I managed clinical research studies for women at high risk for breast and ovarian cancer for 8 years before becoming a massage therapist. It was rewarding work, but I longed to specialize in a healing modality, have more flexibility and independence, and help people feel better. Massage therapy has provided me with all of the above and so much more -- I truly feel blessed to have found my passion.
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HI Mike . Nice to hear from you. I have been in health care all my life. I am a licensed Respiratory therapist, NASM Certified Personal Trainer, and now a Licensed Massage Therapist.I basically spent my life in a classroom
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