massage and bodywork professionals
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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 Rebecca Fouts on
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Thanks for allowing students to join your group. By this summer I hope to remove the student designation and begin my REAL experience! I'm busily studying and laying the foundation for my new practice so I can hit the ground running when the coveted license arrives in the mailbox!
Massage is my second (or is it third?) career. I went to college (UF and ODU) for Accounting Information Systems and spent 12 years working as a Financial Systems Administrator (traveling the U.S. some) for a division of Eastman Kodak. About the time the digital photo printers hit consumer desktops, the photo developing business began a serious decline and I left work, deciding to focus my effort being a mom to two toddlers. When the kids started school, I created my own part-time Quick Books Consulting company and have been doing that ever since, managing office and financial functions for small businesses. When the market turned down (several of my clients are into real estate and development) my hours were cut and new contracts remain hard to come by. About then I decided to follow up on my other passion, Energy Healing.
I've been a certified La-Ho Chi Energy Balancing practitioner since 2003 but could only do so much without being able to "touch" people. I took a Thai Yoga Massage Class (as a layperson, thank you Gloria Coppola!) that sparked my interest in continuing with a bodywork career. I have so many ideas and big plans that it's hard to focus on this tedious exam, rather than launching my new venture!
My favorite venue is retreats and weekend getaways. Energy healing seems to be well received when women are on retreat, and my best sessions have been deep in the woods with open minded ladies seeking new experiences. (I will attach a photo of my peaceful tent in the woods at my last event.) In the future I will be able to add massage to my service menu at retreats, which will hopefully also introduce them to an awareness of the subtle energies at work in our lives.
So that's my story. Please feel free to contact me, I love networking and chatting. I try to keep my retreats in driving distance of my home here in Raleigh, NC, but if you know of any great ones, I'd love hear about them!
Blessings,
Becca
Go With The Flow Massage.com - Attachments:
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healing tent 082309.jpg, 2 MB
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Permalink Reply by JB Harding, III LMT A.A.S. on
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Too bad I am not in your city... I would love to learn and work with you on that...
Devinder Singh said:I have been doing massage in India alongwith working in State Bank at New Delhi,India. When I came to US , I worked in Banks and also performed massages. Always, I keep one steady job., but if I had enough money to open my Spa,
I will work only in Massage Business. I am still searching long term massage enthusiast who can bring in money to
open spa.
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I went to high school that was a college prep school, and I focused on rehabilitation therapy then because that was the closest to massage at that time. I attended school for massage back then, but didn't finish my program... So I went into the culinary and food and beverage industry and was stuck there for the next 10 years, until I attended school again for massage in 2008.
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Permalink Reply by Antoine Green on
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Before I decide to become a massage therapist. I was going to school for business and i went to three different schools. Then one day my mother ask me what im going to do after i get my business degree. I said i dont know, what im going to do. So the next day i did some research on different careers and my mother said what about massage therapy. So I look up massage therapy and it caught my eye. I told my mother that i want it to be a massage therapist . Now I'm here in atlanta ga about to finish my last week of massage school.
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Permalink Reply by Mark Lamm on
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Dear Mike,
Thank you for welcoming me into this community.
For the last 25 plus years I have traveled the world "on location" with clients. I have been to South Africa, Zambia, Chile, Argentina, all over Europe, Fiji, Mexico and Canada with clients. Not only have I been to some very remote locations but I have also taken the somatic equipment I have designed.
The best part --- my wife travels with me! - Attachments:
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Permalink Reply by Linda Kesselring on
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I was, and still am, an interior designer, mostly designing model homes for a major home builder. When the building industry hit a stand still, and I was laid-off. I did a lot of soul searching, and knew it was time to re-invent myself. Getting a massage is one of my very favorite things in life, and that is what lead me to go back to school. I have been working for just a few months now, and the clients who I have shared this info. with have been very encouraging saying I have chosen the right path. I love relieving pain and problems, it is so very rewarding - it is the instant gratification we all want !!!
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Permalink Reply by Victoria Jenkins on
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Before massage I worked as a supervisor at a semiconductor company for 10 years and as a hair stylist the 10 years before that. I was laid off from my supervisor position Feb 2009. I decided it was my time to do what I have always dreamed of doing. I am a recent graduate from Institute of Massage Therapies (Richmond,VA) and feel like I have come alive! I have been reading this site for 2 days... what a FANTASTIC source of information and points of view! So glad I ventured this way.
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Permalink Reply by Sharon Roemmel on
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Wow.
What an amazing life you've lived.
Rajam K Roose said:Wow, a lot of responses there for you Mike!
I spent about five years hitchhiking and living out in the bush. While in Key West FL, I met a massage therapist who was on vacation and he gave me my first ever massage. Up to that point, I thought massage was something only the wealthy got on vacation. Well, he explained his training and I thought that was interesting then when I was hitchhiking by myself and my dog in Venezuela, I realized maybe that was something I could do to get up enough money to purchase a sailboat and then I wouldn't have to worry about people telling me where I could and couldn't sleep at night! Plus my mother wanted to help pay for me to develop a trade. I choose massage because I've built cabins, dug ditches, built a barn, carved stone, crochet--so I knew I'd be good with my hands. I was fascinated with the healing arts while traveling and learned about using food and herbs as medicine from old timey folks living in the mountains and such, but massage was the only thing out of all of those that I could actually make some decent money.
So, I took up my mom's offer, went to massage school and then lo and behold met a wonderful man who wanted to marry me so the sailboat never happened and I'm not sorry for it. Hmmm, sailboat around the world or live a life of pure love with another human, not a hard decision on my part.
Well, that's the short version, here I've been working successfully as a full time massage therapist for ten years! I've just finished the second draft of my travel book. I hitchhiked back and forth across the U.S. about four times, crept into Mexico illegally with my dog and a former boyfriend and then hitchhiked down the East coast of Mexico through Chiapas and back up the West coast, hitchhiked a sailboat ride to the Bahamas (where I eventually got deported for camping in the bush for a month or so) and then hitchhiked around Venezuela. Much of the time sola, but usually with people I'd meet traveling. Never had any problems, I'll send you a copy of the book if you'd like!
The biggest change was that I really wanted to make a difference in society and finally realized that in order to do so, I had to get back in it. I couldn't do too much living on the outskirts! For many people that seems like a no-brainer but it has been difficult for me to leave my life of sleeping on the ground under the stars, never in building except when buying food and such. I was brought up within societal norms but quickly became so comfortable living outside of them. It has been a difficult journey, it hasn't been easy, but something keeps me at it!
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Permalink Reply by Steven W. Rhodes on
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I have always been in Western Medical work in Trauma, Heart intervention/surgery/pacemakers-defibrillators and recovery. Most time spent in acute care the later added long term care for children & the aging population requiring high tech heart & ventilator support. Also in home care & Hospice. With spinning off into interest in Stress Management (for my health too) I visited the more Complimentary Medicine/Eastern view & followed my heart's lead the past 13 years.
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Permalink Reply by Mike Hinkle on
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You are a great part of the solution Deb! Glad you are here!
Deb Knapp,LMT, NCBTMB said:Dear Mike,
I've been a massage therapist since the age of thirty, twenty five years ago. I use to teach labor and delivery classes, stress management for a couple of hospitals, wrote curriculum for them and others, and was involved in several other adventures unrelated to the healing arts.
Massage is the only work to ever capture my heart and keep it, and it is something I nearly gave up recently. Yikes. It hurts my whole body to think of it. I recently moved to Florida with my husband for his ailing lung-health, and decided to go back to school and became a CNA, and am currently working at a hospital here. Although the work is definitely rewarding, it is NOT a good match for me. I'm not a pro-allopathic paradigm gal, anyway.
After massaging so long, I understand the language of muscles and bones, of thoughts and movement, of injuries and healing. I love being a small part of that. Quiet one on one contact is something I treasure.
I learned an invaluable lesson about what I want to do, and how to do it, again.
There is nothing like starting over with hope and excitement, and faith that God will provide.
Please share your story with us, too.
God bless and keep you and your family,
Deb
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We need more of you. Glad you found your way!
Instrument of Inspiration said:I was in the retail field and sells crafts on the side. My partner got injured while serving the Marine Corps. His constant pain in his back made me decide to go to massage therapy. It did helped him but it was more of an overhaul of lifestyle in general. The information I have learned in holistic healing benefited my life as well. Now I work in one of the spa in Palm Springs and have my own a internet based retail store called instruments of inspiration. I get inspired by the stories I heard from my guests through the years and that become the inspiration to create a design for my shirt.
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Permalink Reply by Vivian on
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I’ve been self-employed most of my life. Pryor to massage I kept books for several small businesses. This was not a career I chose, the work just kind of drifted my way and I accepted it.
There came a point in my life when I realized that I did not want to do bookkeeping for the rest of my life and so the search began.
I took a career exploration class at the local community college, I read “what color is your parachute?”. Nothing interested me until I read about Massage Therapy.
It was a great fit for me, I have been licensed for 13 years now and have never regretted my choice.
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