The Key to a Successful and
Rewarding Massage
Practice
The key to building a successful
practice doesn't involve marketing practices, having the best techniques,
or client education. These things
may add to the development of your
practice but the real driving force behind these practices is Love and
Passion.
Love is not a feeling it
is a state of being. When you truly love something unconditionally nothing
else matters. When you make choices based on love and not on the outcome
(i.e.. what will this get me), life seems to flow more evenly. Passion
actually means "to suffer; extreme, compelling emotion; intense emotional
drive or excitement". Keeping your heart in every aspect of your
work is the challenge. Everyday life situations will test your strength
and focus. Just remember - it is a test and you don't have to pass
it the first time, or the second time. You can pass it when you are
ready.
When I was deciding to go
to massage school I read a book called "Do what you love and the money
will follow" by Marsha Sinetar. It's about finding your passion
in life and making it your work. When you are passionate about your
work, nothing can stop you. If you have family members being unsupportive
of your choices, you need to continue without their support. If the
massage school tells you not to quit your day job until your practice is
thriving, quit anyway if that is what think you must do to start your work.
My school did tell me that and I quit anyway and put myself totally into
my practice. I did a lot of waiting around for clients to book appointments
in the beginning. I was always available when they were ready.
I just couldn't work in a job where I felt like I was selling my soul just
to make a few dollars.
Love and passion will
show in every aspect of your practice from marketing, treatments, networking,
brochures - everything. It will show up in your phone calls, your hands,
your smile. Do you wake up everyday thinking about health, people, bodywork,
wanting to know more? Are you constantly working on yourself and
your issues through bodywork and other modalities? Are you taking
care of your self in the way that you wish clients would take care of
themselves?
Do you educate clients and empower them to take care of themselves?
Do you take classes and read the latest health information to keep up to
date?
If you put yourself into
your treatments and always do the very best treatment you can, success
will follow. Do your clients get off the table saying "Wow, that
was the best hour ever" or "Wow, what did you do to me- I never
felt this good"? Even your regular weekly client should be saying
that. Is your mind focused every minute on what you are feeling in
the tissue, what layer of tissue are you working on, do you feel resistance
or tightening? Is the client sleeping or under your fingers feeling
every touch and opening to new awareness?
Do you do whatever is needed
everyday to take care of yourself? Stretch, meditate, walk, exercise,
breathe, eat right, sleep when you need to? If you are not taking
care of yourself, you are less likely to be able to be of any service in
the healing of other.
Knowing yourself is 90% of building a
practice. The other 10% is the technique you do. Knowing yourself
involves knowing your story. What beliefs and values do you have that
create your who you are? What false beliefs do you have that keep you
stuck in your rut rather than flowing like a river? Learning about
yourself as a massage therapist can be done in the process of supervision
or peer supervision and is really the key to developing a practice that will
be financially rewarding as well as emotionally and spiritually
enlightening. When you know more about yourself, you will be able to
create a practice that empowers clients on their path to healing.
