In addition to my career as an Orthopedic and Sports massage therapist I am honored to be a cog in marketing wheel at BCMT.  With this, I get to see all the cool stats about our blog; number of visits, what readers are searching for and how they end up finding us.  In a recent review of our blog statistics, specifically the phrases that people are searching for online which ultimately bring them to Green Chi, one phrase in particular caught my eye; ‘being a massage therapist’.

When I was in school at BCMT I heard time and time again from instructors about their profound experiences with massage and how we would experience similar things when we were professionals. Stories about clients who exhausted all medical options then turned to massage only to have life changing results. Stories of clients who have lived in pain for 20 years and after just a few treatments of massage were able to live pain free.  Stories of massage therapists spotting an irregular mole on their client’s back and saving them a battle with cancer after their dermatologist was able to confirm that it was cancerous but it was caught early enough. And stories of clients who couldn’t sleep and were so exhausted that they could no longer perform their jobs.  Again after a few months of regular massage sessions they were sleeping like babies and experiencing higher job performance.

Story after story.   For the 2 years while I was in school I kept hearing about these experiences and the only thing I could think was ‘no way, I’ll never affect someone’s life like this’.  Sure, maybe I would help people relax but change lives?  No way, those are once in a lifetime events reserved only for the best of the best.

If there is one thing that I’ve learned to do well over my 3.5 years in practice it is to eat those words.  For I have facilitated health for others in a profound way and most definitely have changed lives forever.  I am the best part of someone’s day, I get to nurture others in a society where nurturing takes second seat and I am blessed with a stress free profession.  I have stood in my office after a session and thought ‘if that was the only massage I ever did, all the money, the hard work and sacrifice would be worth it’. For me, being a massage therapist is the hardest job I’ve ever had but it also makes me realize that I’ve never loved a job before.

If you become a massage therapist you will experience profound moments, you will change lives and you will do your part to make the world a more peaceful place.  The fact of the matter is, massage is just that powerful.