www.thebodyworker.com

The wounded healer massage therapist is a massage therapist who comes into the massage profession with conscious or unconscious emotional, mental, spiritual and physical wounding in order to heal themselves.

The legend of Chiron whose name means “working with the hands” was wounded accidentally by Herakles arrow which made him permanently injured.  Being immortal, he could not recover from the wound but he was able to move beyond his suffering to heal others.  He was able to transform his wound into something good.

The theory is that the wounded healer massage therapists is able to develop and move beyond their wounding which in turn will lead them to be a more empathetic therapist.   Part of healing is being able to bring the wounding into consciousness.  The reasons why many become massage therapists are often the same keys to understanding the wounding and the healing process.  To become more aware of your own personal wounding requires that you be able to better understand yourself and your beliefs that have gotten you to where you are at in your life.   Being able to transcend one’s wounded self will help set the stage for being a witness to others healing on your massage table.

The thing is that most of our wounding is really unconscious.  Looking at wounding can be a painful process in itself.  We hide the wounds in the form of defensiveness and things like needing to be right or always giving advice to others instead of really listening.

Within the massage profession are two unique aspects to working with clients that always create some confusion.  We know that actually just working on the physical body can relieve the pain and tightness and the symptoms that people come in with.  Healing symptoms is a reductionist way of looking at the body.  We think that our techniques are what are bringing the relief of pain and discomfort.  We are trained in massage school about anatomy and physiology in an effort to be able to find the cause of something.  The techniques we learn and use on people can also have another effect on people.  It can deter them from assuming responsibility for the results of their treatment as well as taking care of themselves and their health.  They work long hours and get stressed out from daily living knowing that they are coming into their massage therapist for help.

In some ways this sets up a co-dependent relationship with clients.  In contrast, massage work that emphasizes healing and wholeness.  Wholeism looks at the whole picture and in some ways taking away the pain may also be taking away the message.  Sometimes suffering and pain can help people to become more conscious of themselves.  Pain can lead to the realization that their feelings do not connect to the values that they want to guide their lives.   It requires a belief in the process of healing rather in the actual techniques used.  After all what does the client really know about any one massage technique?  Do they know or care if you are mobilizing their fascia or doing a triggerpoint or doing pettrissage?  All they know is what it feels like.  It is the feeling that leads to healing and wholeness.

You can overcome or deal with the wounded healer aspects of the massage profession by taking a deeper look at your reasons for becoming a massage therapist and wanting to help others.  Even though helping others is a good thing for the most part, it is also the key to unlocking the hold of being a wounded healer.  It involves learning to and practicing presence when you have a client on the table.  That means that your focus is totally on them.  You are not giving advice.  You are not doing anything really – except touching them.  Touch can bring people back into themselves so that they can actually figure out their own issues.    You are not doing psychotherapy with them and talking to them.  Just being present requires that you know your own agendas and be able to set them aside.  It is actually very difficult for massage therapists to do.  They first think that there won’t be anything to do.  Instead of trying to fix the pain, letting a person stay with their pain can result in the healing of pain.   Be sure to get the required training and support to learn to be present.

One of the things that you can do to become more aware of your beliefs about money is to actually create spending plans for your massage business and personal finances to see what exactly it is that you need to make and what is going in and out of your life as far as money goes.

Tracking every cent of your money will help you to create a more accurate picture of what you need each month to stay in business and to thrive.  Most people underestimate what they need and don’t actually know what they need.  Because money holds so many emotional beliefs for many people, it is easy to just keep avoiding tracking it.

Track your income and expenses in your business and personal life for about 3-6 months.  You can then get a more accurate idea of what you need to make and create a spending plan every month.  Notice I didn’t say budget.  Budgets are so limiting and only tell you what you can’t spend.  It doesn’t encourage you to make more so that you can so everything you want to do.

Each month track  your income from doing massage and other sources of income.   Keep track of all of your expenses- everything.

• Rent, phone, utilities
• Website, advertising, marketing
• lotions/oils, sheets, supplies
• Taxes (quarterlies, any state taxes if any)
• Classes, books
• Coaching, tax accountants, bookkeepers, billing person, supervision

Track your personal expenses and what it takes to run your household.  Track everything you can.

One of the biggest things I discovered when I first started tracking things in detail was that it was just a math problem.  It took away most of the emotional garbage that comes up when thinking and worrying about money.  By tracking I can also adjust each month as I go and I know when I can spend money and when I can’t so I can make ends meet every month.  Knowing each month that it is all going to be OK is  a big relief!  Not worrying about money can free you up to do what you do best.   Massage!

Why Women Earn Less: How to Make What You’re Really Worth Information on how to track your income and expenses more accurately.

Money Minder Software to help you track your income and expenses from www.financialrecovery.com

Understanding beliefs for massage therapists is one of the keys to being able to make as much money as you want in this profession.  Currently there seems to be quite a stigma held around money and making money as a massage therapist.   It is driven by beliefs about money, success and massage therapists thinking that because they are helping people that they should not charge much money for their services.  I have been studying beliefs for about the last 7-8 years and this is really my attempt to put it all together for readers.   This is how it has worked for me.  I also continue to see more everyday about how my beliefs have created my reality and work to become more aware all of the time.  It is an ongoing process that requires patience and compassion and it won’t happen overnight.  It will go on until the day that you die most likely.

Beliefs are things that are handed down to you from family interactions and from going to school and every thing basically that has happened in your life.  Your beliefs are the foundation for your thoughts and actions.  They are created when different things happen during your formative years that become patterns.   Beliefs become ingrained in your mind and body.  Most of our beliefs are unconscious.  They become that way by being unchallenged and being repeated over and over.  We begin to act in ways just to try to prove that the beliefs are true and we keep doing so.  This usually leads to some pain or struggles that are actually calling you to wake up to your unconscious beliefs.  Beliefs are filters that are created through which we view the world.    Two people can look at the same dog and one may react in fear and the other in love. Some people see the glass half empty or some see it half full.   While this is a very simple example, there is really a lot more to how these perspectives get formed.

All beliefs are learned. Beliefs about yourself are mostly subjective – meaning that they are not really true.   Brian Tracy in his book “Goals” says that your values determine your beliefs.  Your beliefs in turn determine your expectations.  Your expectations determine your attitude and your actions will be a reflection of all three- your values, beliefs and expectations that you hold on the inside.  When your values, beliefs and expectations align with your goals you will be happy.  Struggles occur when you are out of alignment somewhere.

Some of the common beliefs about money in the massage profession have never been challenged or brought into the light.  Some common beliefs are:

• It isn’t about the money.  I do massage because it is so loving and caring and that is enough reward in itself.
• I can’t charge for something that is so wonderful.
• Making and having money is the root of all evil.  If I don’t charge much and don’t make much, it will make me  a better person.
• In order to make a lot of money you have to take advantage of people.
• People are more important – not money.
• It is better to live in “Noble Poverty” than to charge people for giving a massage.
• Only evil corporations and people can make big money.
• Wanting things is so materialistic and unspiritual.

While these may all seem real and legitimate reasons not to make money -the truth is that you can make and have money as a massage therapist.  It can be a very lucrative and rewarding career.  It requires taking the time to explore and challenge your beliefs about money. ( You can also look at beliefs about relationships, family dynamics and most everything that causes you to feel anger, frustration and fear.)

To begin with just start looking at what results you are getting.  If you are having trouble finding or creating a good job or getting the massage clients that you need to make  a great living, the way to change this is to begin changing your beliefs.  The outcomes that you are experiencing are a result of your beliefs.   The first time I heard that it was like a slap on the side of the head – both painful and enlightening.   Taking responsibility for the outcomes that you are getting isn’t about blaming you for poor results.   It is  just simply looking at the outcomes and learning to do something different to get different outcomes.  If you think this is about blaming you and that you are doing something wrong it isn’t.  There is a big difference in blaming and taking personal responsibility.  Blaming is avoiding taking responsibility and wanting to defend yourself rather than feel the pain of taking responsibility.  It can be very painful to begin taking responsibility.  The painful part is really when you start to see how you have not been taking responsibility and how much you have lost in your life because of it.   It also takes courage to start doing things differently especially in the beginning when the neural network in your body is still forming in response to your new belief.  It is like learning to walk or ride a bike.

Another way to start taking a look at your beliefs is to start looking at your feelings and judgments about people and things.   Your feelings are what will tell you what your unconscious thoughts are.  Feelings are different than emotions.  Your emotions are the expression of feelings.  Feelings are felt in the body.   Many think that others cause their feelings.     Emotions are caused by our filter systems (beliefs).    In truth, we create our emotions by what we tell ourselves about what is happening or not happening.  We create emotions when we take things personally.  How we feel is really a choice – although often a very difficult choice.  Emotions are based on the judgments we have about how things or people should be.  Learning to separate your feelings from your emotions is an important part of just growing up that psychologists call individuation.  It really isn’t learned until later in life well beyond what we often consider adulthood.  With practice you will be able to have feelings without emotional reactions.  Being able to feel the feelings without acting on them creates a state of peace and acceptance from which you can then ACT rather than RE-act which results in much better outcomes.

You can start getting ideas of what your beliefs are about money by looking at some of the judgments you have about people who make and have money.  Do you feel jealous?  Angry?  Sad?  Frustrated?   What is the little voice in your head telling you about people who have or make money?  What do you think when I say you can make $100 an hour and more doing massage?   What do you think about the idea of making $100,000 a year as a massage therapist?  What do you think when you hear the words “Wealthy massage therapist”?

I will be writing more about the ideas here and trying to explain more about this topic.  It is difficult to write about because it is so comprehensive and basically I am trying to put years of studying, learning, therapy and supervision into a handful of blog posts on the topic.   Your thoughts on this will help the topic evlove and develop and create the much needed paradigm shift for massage therapists and helping professionals in general.   You can be a wealthy massage therapist.

Creating Mind Movies has been one of my little ways of keeping on track to manifesting my goals and desires.  It is a combination of creating a visual experience and creating the good feelings that go hand in hand with keeping the little voices in your head that create the bad feelings away.  The little bad feelings are really telling you what you are unconsciously thinking.   Anytime you are feeling anything but love and joy you can know you are buying into an old belief system that is telling you that you are not good enough, smart enough, lovable enough or whatever it is that is your way of continuing to sabotage yourself.   When you start paying attention to the feelings that you are creating you can start thinking about them and challenging them.  What would someone have to be thinking to feeling that way?

Not everyone is ready for that but the mindmovies takes it from a slightly different perspective – it makes it fun to keep focusing on your desires.   Contrary to popular belief among massage therapists, desiring things is a good thing.  It is what makes us feel alive and inspires us to more meaningful adventures.

I have been using mind movies for over a year now.  When ever my massage business is slow or I am stuck in m  writing process I bring out one of the free mindmovies that are provided on the mindmovie.com site or I start creating my own or watching one of my own that I have created.  I haven’t put them up on Youtube mainly because they are personal to me.    I think it was one of the reasons that I sold one of my websites last year and the reason why my websites are actually increasing in traffic right now in the summer when traffic is usually down.
It is all about creating a better feeling around what you are doing and your life.   I think that the actual creating the movie is what really is the best part and it is really fun.

You can use it to create your ideal massage business.  Visualize what you want for yourself in the next 1-5 years and put it in a movie-  20 clients a week paying you $75+ an hour or whatever you are charging or want to charge.  Visualize clients coming in the door and getting on the table.  Hear the music, feel the clients bodies, feel what it is like getting paid.  With a mindmovie you can make it as detailed as you want.  You can use real pictures of your own office and setting.  The mindmovie package comes with everything you need – the tools for creating text and ideas for what to say and do in your mind movie.