My Massage Journey

 My Massage Journey

Today we are going to take a different route than usual. I am not going to use this blog to inform you about technique or self care. I am going to share my story, the how and why I do what I do and my personal wellness experience. 

Early Days

Growing up I had an insatiable curiosity. I wanted to know everything about everything: space, dinosaurs, animals, anything that was worth knowing I wanted to know all of it. So, when I started getting migraines and was shown that someone could put their hands on your head and fix the pain, I had to know how and why. Once I figured out that touching people and rubbing their muscles made them not in pain in some cases and at the very least made their day better, I was hooked. I would rub shoulders and necks, backs and hands. My body would get "bored" or "anxious" and I would find a body to rub on to recenter myself. In high school I had touched enough bodies to be able to tell more about a person by just touching their hands for five minutes then they would ever be able to tell me about themselves. I knew how they held their pencils, what sort of activities they were involved in (think band or sports etc) and many more things just by feeling the way their hands felt and how they moved their bodies. I went to many football games not because I particularly liked football but because I liked to watch the chess game between teams and the way that their bodies moved. I got good at predicting what the players were going to do during a play based on the way they shifted their hips or tilted their heads. I became aware of how bodies should move and when they moved in a way that would result in injury. I learned basic anatomy in high school but it was never enough so I would spend hours researching and learning more about every system of the body and pondering how they all worked together.

Massage School Decision

When I was a young lady I was involved in a car accident where I was stopped with my left turn signal on and got hit from behind at full speed. I had pretty bad whiplash but overall was in better shape than my car which was declared totaled. I had the great fortune to know a family where one of the spouses was a chiropractor and the other was a massage therapist. They took excellent care of me and since this was the first time I had experienced either type of work and because they were so amazing they unknowingly changed my life forever. They showed me the immeasurable difference body work can make in a persons life and I would forever compare my later experiences to them and base a lot of my later applications of care on what they had done for me. At the time I was focused on making ends meet with my first child and working at a daycare where she was attending. Then, after more life happened and I found myself with no degree and a family to support where daycare pay was not sufficient so, I weighed pros and cons and landed on the decision to go to massage school. I wanted to do what had been done for me. I wanted to be able to make my own hours and be there for my child and still be able to support us on my own. I researched schools and found the one that I felt fit my time and financial ability. So, I signed up for night classes where I could still work during the day and attend classes at night for the next two years.

Massage School Experience

It was in massage school that I found out how much I already knew. Most of the anatomy we went over I had already learned and many of the techniques and theories behind them were familiar to me as well. I met some awesome people, enriched my knowledge base and most importantly got some hands on experience to be comfortable doing what I do now. Here is the part I struggle with even today though: despite my love for my career and belief in what it can do I struggle with relaxing or allowing people to touch me. I do not like people touching me and cannot just relax and let them do what needs to be done it causes me anxiety and I refuse to get work done despite my knowing that I should take care of myself and get the work done. Nearly every massage therapist I have had the pleasure of working with thinks that it is very odd that I do not like or allow people to work on me. In fact, I have only ever let people work on me after I have gotten to know them and gotten comfortable with them. This made school a challenge for me. There were eighteen people in my class and of those I only ever was comfortable with around five of them touching me. This seems to be the average still when I go to continuing education classes as well. There are usually only a handful of people I feel comfortable enough with to allow them to touch me. But, having learned this about myself in school I have been able to embrace this and work around it. It just happens to be a truth I live with that I have very sensitive nerves, I can feel things a lot more deeply than other people. I can feel subtle changes in peoples skin and muscle tissue because I am hyper aware of everything my body touches. 

Beyond School and Into the World

After years of working on my skills and many different adventures I have found a few things to be true: I really like working in areas of the body that I feel are underappreciated by most therapists and people (think knees and shoulders etc), I have a weird innate way of knowing what is bothering people (seriously I close my eyes and can "see" areas of the body highlighted red and green where I should work and am seldom wrong), the connection between a therapist and their client is much much deeper than I thought it would be, the therapy is only as productive as the client is willing to let it be (can work the problem for hours but if they keep doing the same thing over and over it will just come back), I am odd and not everyone's cup of tea and that's okay. Over the years I have been working I have learned to adapt and accept. I can only meet a client where they are on their journey and help them on to the next part of their story. I cannot force them to change or to move their body in a way it was not able to do. I can use techniques I have learned and change them to suit a client's needs at the moment I am working on them. I cannot expect them to be the same from one day to the next because that is not human nature. We are all on our own paths and have our own quirks but by accepting them as they are and where they are on their journey I can better help them with their issues without causing them more problems and pain. I have worked at a spa, at a chiropractic office, at a gym and at an independent massage business and as a mobile massage therapist: I loved things about each and disliked things about them all. I have chosen to be mobile because it suits my therapy style, my clients, and my own work/life balance best. I have found ways to love and grow my business even at the hardest parts of my journey and have found what I think are the best clients in the world to come with me on this journey. I feel truly blessed to have them and appreciate them sharing their journey with me so I try my best to keep growing, learning, trying and giving them my best every time I see them. 

Stay strong. Stay healthy. Keep fighting for yourself, you’re worth it.

From: Ame Hinman at Hinman Healing

Want to join the journey? Contact me to discuss your goals and see if we are a good fit! 

https://sites.google.com/hinmanllc.com/HinmanHealing/home 

hinmanhealing@hinmanllc.com