Massage Practice Builder

Do people really still do New Years Resolutions?  Everyone knows that they don’t really work or last very long.   A New Years Resolution without a plan and without the beliefs to back it up don’t really work.

This year instead of creating those new years resolutions that actually set you up to fail just by the fact that you are focusing on what is wrong most of the time like :  I want to get out of debt -really says I hate being in debt so I want to get rid of it.

I want to lose 20 pounds says  – I hate being overweight.

When you focus on what you don’t want you get more of the same.  Focus on what you do want.

You want to have enough money to pay your bills, save for retirement and take vacations and that equals xx amount of dollars that you will need to make each month.  There – that isn’t a resolution it is a concrete goal.

I want to be healthy, be fit and weigh my ideal weight of xx pounds by xx date.   Another goal.

But then how do you really achieve those things.  Most of the trouble lies in the unconscious and conscious beliefs that we have about those things we want for ourselves.  The unconscious is of course difficult to figure out because it is unconscious.  Your feeling will be what tell you about what your unconscious thoughts are telling you.  Whenever you are feeling anything but love or joy you are believing in an unconscious thought that just isn’t true.  I know that is really hard to get your head around and apply.  It is really an ongoing process of learning to tune into your feelings and honor them.

So maybe the new years resolution could be – pay more attention to my feelings!  Make this year the year that you allow yourself to have desires and let it be OK.

It is OK to make $100,000 a year as a massage therapist.  It is OK to take vacations and have a retirement fund.  It is OK to have the clients that you need to be successful.

Make 2010 different by changing your thoughts!  The rest will follow!

What I wish Massage therapists would get for Christmas… or well just get anytime…

• That being a massage therapist is one of the most rewarding careers where you do get to help people but you do also get to make a Great living.
• That giving to others begins with giving to yourself first in every way.
• That being a massage therapist does not mean you have to live in poverty or live without.
• That having desires is not a bad thing (Desires for a house, retirement fund, nice vacations and a full savings account along with relationships that nurture you are what make you human.)
• You are getting paid for your time and knowledge.  You aren’t getting paid to care.  That you give for free.
• It is OK to charge the fees that you need to make a great living and stay in business.  Charging less than you need to make will lead to feeling resentful of clients and is also the biggest part of burnout.  Just because massage is so wonderful doesn’t mean you have to give it away.
• That you can’t do it all alone.  It is OK and even advisable to ask for help in the way of marketing, promoting yourself, getting your finances under control.  Hire a bookkeeper, financial adviser, marketing adviser and a webdesigner who knows how to get you business. You can also find a mentor or supervisor or create your own peer supervision group to help you along the way.
• That even when you have a job in massage it is your job to get and keep clients coming in.
• You don’t have to take low paying jobs under $20 an hour.  You can create or find higher paying jobs if you put the effort into it.
• That having a job doesn’t mean that you just get to do massage.  You still can have a say in what is going on in the place where you work if you do it wisely and without complaining.
• You teach employers how to treat you so taking low paying jobs is teaching the employers that massage therapists don’t value their own work.
• That burnout can be avoided if you learn to take care of yourself first.  That is financially as well as emotionally, mentally and spiritually.
• That being a successful massage therapist will probably be the hardest thing you will ever do.   It just isn’t about doing massage.
• Taking classes in ethics and participating in supervision will take your career farther than most technique classes.
• There isn’t any one technique that will make you a successful massage therapist.
• Because you are working closely with people it is important that you be doing your own self growth work.
• That you have to take responsibility for your career.  You can blame your lack of clients on the economy or take responsibility and creatively figure out a way to keep your own economy stable.  It isn’t easy and you won’t like to hear that, I know.  Is it the economy or your not having a website that gets you new clients every week and makes you additional income or that you haven’t networked enough or done a mailing every week or gave presentations or the other millions of massage marketing ideas that you can do?
• Clients do not magically appear on your table.  It takes believing in yourself and skill and taking action.  Action is what prepares you to receive.
• It is your basic beliefs about yourself and success that are really are what get in your way of success.  These are mostly unconscious beliefs.  Most of our lives are run on unconscious behaviors and patterns.  It is like driving a car- how often do you think what you are doing?  If you don’t know what your beliefs are just take a look at what you have in your life and start asking – what would someone believe to have that in their life.
• Continuing education is a very important part of creating a successful business and promoting the profession.  Plan and choose your classes accordingly.  Don’t wait until the last minute when your license is up for renewal.
• Figure out what it is that you want for yourself and don’t stop until you get it.  Focus on what you do want rather than what you don’t have.
• Get a massage once a week and better yet -pay for it.  Go out and find a massage therapist that you can work with on a regular basis.  You can learn so much about your own business just trying to find a good massage therapist that meets your needs and of course it will help you maintain your own health.
• Share your knowledge and experience with other massage therapists as often as you can.

That is my wish for you (all the massage therapists out there) this Holiday and MORE!

I came across an interesting thread on the indeed.com job forums (very enlightening reading!) asking what to do about being bored when doing massage.  I have to say that I was quite shocked to think that people are bored doing massage.  I have been doing it for 20 years and I have to say I have been a lot of things – burned out, frustrated, sad, excited, sick, tired but never bored.  There is too much going on to be bored.

In The Heart of The Soul, Gary Zukav says,

“Boredom is a flight from what is important. Like workaholism and perfectionism, it is a way of distracting yourself from inner experiences. It occurs when you look outward and do not find anything to engage your attention. Instead of feeling your emotions – becoming aware of the functioning of your energy system – you become bored. Boredom … is a flight from your higher potential. It is fear of the transformation that wants to occur, and will occur in you, when you explore your emotions. It is your resistance to spiritual growth.”

When I posted that on the forum I got people telling me that boredom is genetic and all sorts of things. Then one person said she has gotten massage from someone who she knows is bored and she couldn’t tell the difference.

I for one would not want to be going to a bored massage therapist.  I can tell when people are working on me what their focus is for the most part.

It is hard for me to understand why people remain in a profession if they are bored.  Time is too short to waste.

If you are bored and are looking for some answers the quote above seems like a good place to start.  I guess I am never bored because every person seems like a new situation to me even though I do have weekly and even clients who come 2x a week.  I focus on what I am feeling in my hands, the clients body and my body and time flies.   I work with people to engage them in the process of massage often asking them to compare sides after working one arm or asking them how things feel when I feel tightness.  Letting them give words to what they are feeling helps people focus inside.

Yes and staying present is the goal and challenge at all times.  Sometimes it is easier than others.  Presence is what creates the therapeutic relationship which is really the basis for healing.  Having presence requires that you are able to look at your own feelings and have them without acting on them.  Clients will be able to heal better and faster when in the presence of someone with presence.  It will enhance your ability to use your intuition in massage sessions.  It is also the key to preventing burnout which is so common in the massage profession.  Working with presence can leave you feeling refreshed after a day of doing massage.  Creating presence allows you to go beyond your techniques and connect with people on a very deep level.  It is also the key to overcoming boredom while doing massage.

Suzanne Scurlock-Durana talks about it on her blog here at Massage Magazine and  her website  www.healingfromthecore.com which has a few really great articles on creating presence.

Just wondering if there are others out there are bored and why or what are you doing about it or are you just fine being bored doing massage?

My post a few weeks ago on the $100,000 massage business seemed to create quite a stir.  The idea that a massage therapist can make that much money seems too good to be true for most.  Many come to massage careers saying it isn’t about the money or that they just want to help.   Underneath the idea of wanting to help is usually another side of our profession that is not really talked about. The deeper reasons underneath wanting to help (which is also usually sacrificing our needs to make money) are usually what lead to giving too much and eventually burn out.   Since massage therapy is considered to be one of the many helping professions we have a lot to learn about our needs to help others.

I was first exposed to this idea early in massage school in 1987 when reading a book called “How Can I Help” by Ram Dass.  I actually didn’t think much of it at the time and didn’t think that it really applied to me at the time.  In the book he says:

The more you see yourself as a “helper”, the more need for people to play the passive “helped”.  You’re buying into, even juicing up, precisely what people who are suffering from want to be rid of: limitation, dependency, helplessness, separateness.  And that is happening largely as a result of self-image.

Often what is happening when we feel a compulsive need to help is that we have to get rid of someone else’s pain because it is hurting us too much. Out of helping usually comes feelings of power, respect and a certain knowing that we did all that we could for someone to try to take away their pain.

While helping can truly come from compassion, it is often confusing.  When we help it makes us feel like we are important and are appreciated.   Being able to tell the difference will mean the difference between your success or having to change careers because of being burned out.

Fast forward 15 year of working as a massage therapist and feeling burned out myself,  I read this series of articles by Jack Blackburn called “Caretaking vs Caregiving” and it all came together:

” When we caretake, we assume responsibility for our clients’ healing.

When we caregive, we support clients in assuming responsibility for their own healing.”

Caretaking comes in many shapes and forms.  It can be seen when you charge less than you need to make or don’t have any cancellation policies (or enforce them).   It can be seen when you give advice instead of just listening.   Caretaking has it’s roots in early childhood and usually in the way you learned how to attach (or not attach) to your caregivers.  When your early needs for attention, appreciation and love are not met, many people give up their needs in order to get that attention.  It continues on into adulthood and shows up in relationship, money and career issues and somehow seems to really show up in helping professions.   Setting your needs aside for others benefits while it may seem viruous and noble, usually is not really helping anyone.

I actually used to be one of those people who didn’t want much and didn’t charge much for my services.  I didn’t want to do any marketing or sales because I was shy and hated promoting myself.  I lived a simple life (and still do) but making money became as important as helping since I couldn’t help people when I was feeling burned out or didn’t have enough to take care of my needs. The more I learned about caretaking and ‘noble poverty’ ( the idea that having money is somehow wrong), the more I could see how I created my underearning to support my lack of self confidence.  The thing with underearning, noble poverty and caretaking is that they are really unconscious patterns and you don’t really see them until you are forced into looking at them.  Some people may never get to looking at them and that is OK too.

My basic message today is that caretaking is a big part of our profession.  As you become more aware of how caretaking influences your clients lives and your life, you can begin to make different choices that support caregiving (healing).   You can live simply but you don’t have to live in poverty and wonder if you are going to get by.  You don’t have to make $100,000 a year but you can make what you need to make to pay the bills, live debt free, take nice vacations each year and save for retirement.   The process of unraveling caretaking from caregiving will be a contining challenge.   It shows up in how you care for yourself financially – Do you raise your rates each year?  Do you have a cancellation policy and enforce it?  Do you give away your time to clients by doing longer sessions or excessive volunteering?  (What other profession gives away their time for free?)    It shows up when you are challenged by becoming friends with clients, by undercharging, by not doing the things you need to do to promote your business.  It shows up when you take low paying jobs thinking that is all that there is.

This is really a very short post about a very broad and intensive topic.   I would recommend that you begin reading about this in some of my favorite books and free online articles I have posted on my website.

Recommended Reading List

The Code of the Caretaker

Noble Poverty - Mikelann Valterra’s Website

Jack Blackburn’s articles “Caretaking vs Caregiving”

In the Service of Life – Rachel Remen.  This is one of my favorite articles that also started my interest in this topic.

The thing is that once you get started in exploring these issues with either a regular therapist or in the process of supervision you will most likely see your massage business grow.  The steps in building a business gets easier as you clear up some of the unconscious programming and beliefs about money and success.  So you can make $100,000 or more even if you want.  Making that much money isn’t a crime.  The more you make, the more you can actually help by doing things like setting up non-profit groups that offer free and low cost massage.