www.thebodyworker.com

Massage Therapists seem to have a common theme of always struggling to get by and make ends meet. They also are usually very eager to give their time away in many different ways -

Whatever the excuse or reason you give for giving away your time is usually an emotionally based decision which is different from a business decision. Your actions are a way to discover the root cause of issues that you are faced with by helping you to uncover your unconscious beliefs. Your thoughts and beliefs create your actions.

Giving away your time shows how much you value your own time. It doesn’t necessarily win people over or make them want to come back more than when you don’t give away your time. People want to give back when they receive your massage - they do this in the form of payment ($$$). When you try to give them more than they are paying for it sets up a power imbalance. People will feel indebted to you or feel like they have to come back because you gave them more than they wanted.

Wanting to work on people who are underprivileged and really can’t afford massage while may seem noble, it may not be really helping anyone. If you really wanted to help these people you could do something with all the money you do make and open up a free clinic or teach classes to them on how to do massage themselves - teach them to take care of themselves.

When you want to be so giving of your time, it is usually an indicator of how much you value yourself and that it is you who are in need. If you don’t value yourself clients will feel it and not value you either.

Mikelann Valterra in her book “Why women earn less: How to make what you are really worth” says this:

” Our time is one of our most precious assets. Yet many people feel compelled to give it away to others, excessively in some cases, and at the expense of not using it to enrich their own lives and reach their goals…
Chances are that if you regularly put other people before yourself, you probably give away your time inappropriately or excessively. It can feel uncomfortable to put your own needs and wishes first. But learning not to give your time away is essential. It ultimately comes down to the fact
that valuing your time is the same thing as valuing yourself.”

The roots of underearning are usually from early childhood. Our people pleasing behaviors come from not getting early needs for mirroring, connection, acceptance, appreciation and love. Early in life children are taught that they can’t get their needs met so they try to survive by finding out the rules and following them - giving up what they really want and setting aside their feelings. The purpose in life then becomes learning to please others rather and attune to their needs to others or we think we risk losing the connection. We lose ourselves trying to please others. We learn to be caretakers - taking care of others in the way we need/wish to be taken care of ourselves.

I first learned of the idea that caretaking is really different from ‘caregiving’ after reading a series of articles by Jack Blackburn - a local Seattle Trager practitioner and teacher. He defines it in this way:

“When we caretake we assume responsibility for our clients’ healing. When we
caregive we support clients in assuming responsibility for their own healing.”

When we are giving away our precious time in ways that ‘caretake’ others, it usually leads to less than fulfilling practices and not having enough money to take care of yourself (and family.)

Popularity: 2% [?]

No Comments »

Just noticed this interesting site that is one letter off from my site - www.massagetherapycareer.com - note the no (s)…my site is www.massagetherapycareers.com

Without the “s” it takes you to a site that is a total link scam - that means there is no real information and all of the links are sponsored links meaning advertisers…

I just wish there was a way to clean up the web!

Popularity: 1% [?]

No Comments »

A nationwide massage therapist licensing protest is underway by some who think that licensing is not necessary in the US.

www.thefreedomride.org is a new blog being written by Brandon Raynor, an Australian Naturopath and massage therapists who has moved to the US. He is also the owner of a group of massage schools www.brandonraynor.com that teaches massage therapy in the course of a 5 or 10 day long intensive massage program.

His website states:

Hence you may begin to realize how our massage courses at BRSNT differ to most schools programs. These can focus over 50% of their course time to learning excessive amounts of latin names for muscles (anatomy) and physiological terms, which could have easily and cheaply covered by doing a simple coloring in book at home.

A lot of other schools also dedicate a lot of their practical massage course hours to teaching you repetitive massage routines that are not designed to treat the specific needs of your individual patient. You may also start to understand why at BRSNT we guarantee to teach you better quality massage faster and more cost effectively than most other programs.

You will benefit, not only by saving money on course fees, and upon obtaining your qualifications after our 5 and 10 day intensives you will also be able to start practicing as a professional massage therapist sooner, and earn money at your new exciting career as a massage therapist!”

Finally someone who really can see through all the hoopla of licensing and legislation and provide basic massage training.

There is no proof that 500 hours of education that is required by most State Boards has anything to do with being a successful massage therapist. There is no proof that massage is harmful.

I had the chance to speak to Brandon yesterday about what he is doing. His passion for providing a simple yet profound method of massage comes through in every word he speaks. I will be following his tour and promoting his websites.

I have more written on licensing and legislation issues on my other blog at www.themassage-directory.com and don’t want to get into all of the licensing and political debates here other to say that the reason all of this is important is so that we can really get to the core of what is needed to create successful massage therapists and define our profession accordingly so that legislators and insurance companies will not have control over our profession.

Popularity: 2% [?]

No Comments »

One of the things that is really missing in the massage profession is a way to bring massage and touch back into everyday life and into the lives of others. As we get more and more caught up in getting more training and education and trying to make a living doing massage, the concept of touch in the family and communities seems to get lost.

Even though I have been a massage therapist for 18 years the idea that you have to pay someone to be touched still strikes me as odd. How did touch and massage ever get so far away from the art form that it is? How did massage get so far away from being a regular part of life?

As a massage therapist trying to make a living, often the goals of massage sessions become trying to do every thing you can to get the client to come back and pay you again for another massage.

What about the concept of teaching people to fish - teaching people to massage each other?

One such way to do this is to start a massage group at your church as one of my guest authors has done. Carl Nelson has written some guidelines for bringing massage back to the masses - literally. He has started and facilitated a group where he teaches massage to members of his church. He gives some ideas for setting up tables and shares some articles that he wrote and recommends some DVD’s for teaching simple massage concepts that anyone of any age can learn.

This could easily be applied to any group that you belong to - sports groups, non profit groups, hospitals, nursing homes, schools…Where else can you see this happening? In book stores, coffee shops, parks, at beaches?

Popularity: 1% [?]

No Comments »

One of my pet peeves or rather passions is writing about the licensing and legislation issues that are occurring in the massage profession.

The problem is that we as a profession have not defined ourselves so now there are insurance companies and legislators who are doing it for us.

I have been collecting information from the government websites on massage licensing and have found such a discrepancy in how massage is licensed. Some states regulate schools, some don’t.  Some still require fingerprinting and STD testing.  Massage is generally defined using terms that imply Swedish Massage is being done.  Some include modalities like Reiki, Reflexology, Structural Integration.  Why does someone who does the energetic work of Reiki have to know about Swedish Massage?

On my website www.massagetherapycareers.com and on this blog I am attempting to gather information on just what it means for each different kind of massage therapist to practice in each state - not just what the laws are but what are the implications and how does licensing or the lack of licensing influence the ability to be a successful massage therapist where you live?

By collecting this information,I hope that we can learn as a profession just what we need to do to define ourselves in a professional matter.  I actually think if we did that for ourselves we wouldn’t need licensing at all.  (Yes I know that is only my opinion and it is very different from everyone else thinking that we need more education and more laws to protect the public.  It is the massage schools and associations creating this idea without anything to back up their theories.

So if you are so inclined to partipate and provide information on what it is like to practice in your state you can go to

www.massagetherapycareers.com

and select your state and fill out the form there.  The form will create a separate page on the site for your information and others will be able to comment on it.  It is totally private and you don’t have to leave your name.

I am also going to be using this form system to build a directory of schools that can be rated and reviewed by students/grads.

Popularity: 4% [?]

5 Comments »