Although I’ve always loved massage, I didn’t consider it seriously until I decided to enroll in an accredited certification program this year. For a time I went back and forth convincing myself that massage as a career is not a viable option. That in spite of my appreciation and passion for it, I considered it as a practice most appropriate as a pastime or as informal study. I think I felt that this passion or knack I had for healing with my hands might be rolled out of me if I went through the proper schooling; that my “intuitive touch” might be contaminated or standardized. It took the honest encouragement of my friends and family to convince me to develop my talent for healing and to consider massage as a career path that I can and should pursue. Thankfully they did, because I’ve never felt more purposeful than now as I learn to help ease mine and other peoples’ pain.
See I’m from Santa Cruz, California, a quiet coastal town home to many hippies and healers, folks who hike and do yoga but who might also be your realtor or bank executive. My mother, bless her soul, was an LMT in Thai Massage. I grew up around her work and realized at a young age the transformative capacity of manual therapy. My afternoons were often spent receiving massage from my mom as she developed novel routines or discovered different ways of treating chronic musculoskeletal conditions. I remember vividly that the relief Thai Massage brought to my body would seep into every other aspect of my being. Sitting more comfortably cross-legged I could focus better on my homework, or listen to my brother’s story about a crush at school or his tiff at the skate park where he and his friends would test their balance and each other’s patience. I felt warmer, lighter, and more hopeful when my mind wasn’t being tugged by a dull ache in my low back, or my right glute, or somewhere further down my leg. It was easier to keep myself open, to be myself, and to focus on whatever I needed to study. After receiving body work it was difficult to ignore how much more confident I felt. Confident and positive!
At this point I would’ve liked to receive massage every day. I figured this was the secret to wellbeing, that somehow our healthcare system had overlooked this salient aspect of wellness. That massage was a secret that people, especially young people, were not hip to, and that the exchange of healing touch was so fundamentally human that we deserved to give and receive massage every day! So I decided that I would try to trade massage with anyone who was open to it: my peers, my brothers, and my parents. This didn’t necessarily mean getting undressed and lying on a table. It could mean simply lending a forearm to be pulled on and squeezed strategically. Or letting my buddy use his elbows to lean in and compress the knots in my back. And sometimes I would even try and contort myself into strange positions to discover some yogic maneuver that allowed me to pin my knee or ankle or elbow against another major muscle group in my body, giving me the sensation that someone else was working on me. These were more than a physical exchange of therapy, often they were quiet moments of connection within a busy and stressful day.
The more I mature, the more I realize the far-reaching effects of massage on my life and on society as a whole. Being in the “zone” of massage is like experiencing a brief reprieve from the world. A fractal of time in which unmediated human connection is permitted to unfold. I am always surprised at the energy I get from giving work; sometimes more than what I get from receiving it! After a massage my body might be physically tired but my breath is steady and deep and my mind is clear as if in a state of moving meditation.
As I search for ways to work within a system that separates us from our wellbeing, I continue returning to massage as a gesture where I feel the magic of connection and the momentum of healing. It is a feeling of wholeness. So I am able to lift massage out of a space where I didn’t take it seriously as a viable means of income or as a potent enough resistance to modern day Capitalism, and into a space where I hold it as in fact the resistance to the politics of exploitation, because it meets my needs for synergy and connection while allowing me to earn a living. This crucial shift in perspective, from massage as pastime to massage as activism, led me finally to enroll in a massage certification program.
I stand now a little more than halfway through my program and greatly satisfied that I chose to begin the process of a massage therapy certification. Class time allows me to integrate disparate modes of knowing by moving fluidly from lecture to demonstration to practice. We will often spend an hour at the start of class reviewing the origins and insertions of a major muscle group by first viewing slides, answering questions, and then drawing the muscles ourselves. This works to solidify complex information and bolster confidence in my abilities as we move on to practice on the human body. Moving methodically and strategically, we cover all areas of the human and review the prior class’s lessons the next day to further ensure a retention of information. The constant review of information and techniques is crucial and has allowed me to perfect, for example, the myriad draping techniques which proved particularly difficult for me in the beginning of my program. Draping, table adjustment, ergonomics and timing: these are all things I struggled with that have improved dramatically over time.
My favorite part of class so far was learning the chair massage routine! This is a specific routine replete with foot-wiggles (for adjusting posture and gravitational force as we descend down the back) and a series of moves that work the client’s entire posterior surface in just fifteen minutes.
My advice to anyone considering studying massage therapy is to begin studying the muscles now! Studying the muscles and working on family and friends before starting school will confer a massive advantage to the process of internalizing the routines and the information learned in class. The Trail Guide to the Body is a great text for learning about muscles, as is The Concise Book of Muscles. Other than that, practice practice practice! It’s like learning a language before traveling to the country where the language is spoken: you don’t need to, but it will accelerate your ability to engage meaningfully with your surroundings.
Where before I was concerned about the “standardizing” of my touch, I now see how the knowledge and practice I am gaining through a studied curriculum is enhancing my intuitive capacities. This greatly encourages me to continue deepening my study of massage, so that I may serve myself and humanity in ever more radical and compassionate ways!
