Looking for Community Outreach Representatives

Dear Fellow Therapist,

Find Touch envisions a world where the vast majority of massage therapists are thriving, successful, healthy and empowered. This is possible when good information and good resources are freely available. And Find Touch is committed to bringing increasingly more relevant information to massage therapists, from massage jobs to CE opportunities to a Massage Community Blog and other resources dedicated purely to massage therapy and the increased success of the massage industry.

Find Touch was founded by a massage therapist in Seattle, to help more therapists ‘make it’ in the world of massage, and we have added other individuals to our team that also have a passion for massage therapy. We began as the place to go online for job connections in the massage community but have found ourselves expanding into other areas because when we asked you, you told us what else you wished for. Our mission and commitment has always been to further the success of massage therapists at every stage of their career.

Every time we meet massage therapists at conferences, conventions and other events, we explain that “Find Touch is FREE for massage therapists” and they ask how they can get involved and help spread the world about Find Touch.

In response to this overwhelming display of passion and support from you, we have created a volunteer position in your community to help therapists in your area, Find Touch Community Outreach Representative. In this position you will empower therapists in your community by helping them learn about the latest career and educational opportunities in your community. In addition you will have the opportunity to keep up on the latest trends and ongoing discourse that furthers the success of therapists in your area.

Responsibilities:

• Willing and able to invest 5 hours a week
• Spread awareness about Find Touch
• Attend local massage schools, study groups, AMTA local chapter meetings and other professional organizations, businesses, festivals, or any other avenues that you feel will allow you to make a connection, a difference and help spread awareness about Find Touch to build connections in your community.

What are we looking for?

• People, preferably therapists, with access to transportation.
• Flexible Schedule
• Self-motivated and willing to put in the energy to make a huge impact in your community.
• Passionate and enthusiastic about massage therapy and the growing massage industry.
• Willing to communicate with therapists and businesses in your area through email or in-person
• Individuals who are comfortable meeting, sharing and networking with others to support the massage community in your area.
• Individuals who want to help Find Touch grow with direct input on the future of Find Touch, so that we can best support the entire industry and all of our communities collectively.

What you will receive

• A chance to make a difference in your community, as well as with Find Touch.
• Quarterly Incentives in the hundreds of dollars / gifts in the form of gift certificates, new product samples, and other cool stuff.
• Your bio and info will be added to our company, and you will be the face of Find Touch in your area.
• Doing good in your community by spreading your knowledge about a multitude of resources that will continue to further the success of massage therapists at any stage of their careers.

Additional Notes
We are looking for individuals for this community position starting July 11th 2011. We are currently looking for candidates in New York, Illinois, Oregon, Arizona and Nevada. However, if you live outside of these areas, let us know if you are interested anyway, and we may be able to accommodate your requests.

If you want to help out your massage community, meet new people and have the maximum potential for future income, and if you are passionate about making a difference in your massage community every week, then this is the perfect opportunity for you.

Email [service AT findtouch DOT com] and make sure you include “Community Outreach Representative” in your subject line, so we can reply adequately to your request. Please send a resume, cover letter and brief bio for your company profile.

We look forward to meeting you and making a difference in the massage community together!

The Find Touch Team

The Hobble

Vacation appeals to full-time massage therapists. First, one gets a whole week without having to do any massages. Vacation gives me a chance to relax and people-watch without using that part of the brain usually hunting looking for knots and structural anomalies. I can spend time watching seabirds or the back of my eyelids without thinking about the schedule.

We took off in the car, heading 160 miles up the coast of California to Santa Barbara, a drive that entailed going through the dreaded Los Angeles traffic. We took advantage of one of the freeway infamous signal alerts, a condition that means no one is going anywhere anytime soon, to stop for lunch and stretch our legs. Not having to be somewhere exactly on time has its advantages.

As we neared our destination, I felt a knot in my left lower back starting to throb. I had done all the driving, something I really shouldn’t. My back was letting me know it was not happy.

I should have just gotten on with the stretching when we reached our hotel. But I wanted to get the stuff out of the car and go to dinner. I could stretch later, I told my lower back. After dinner I forgot all about stretching and went right to bed.

Three days later, after exploring all the tourist spots like the mission and the waterfront, I realized that I hadn’t stretched at all. My back was tight, but I had been on a brain vacation, apparently, and forgot some basics. I’d put on my sun hat and forgotten my back.

The lumbar muscles decided to let me know how ignored they had been. I lay on the floor, a folded towel under the sacrum with knees bent to loosen lordosis. My back was too tight even for McKenzie stretches.

The next day I admitted to needing a vacation from vacation. I looked up local spas and massage places on Yelp, and picked out one that seemed to do good therapeutic work.

This tiny little spa had good vibes and a good therapist, but I noticed that the room was so small she had to brace against the wall and bend at the hips to do pressure strokes. She used her wrist for pressure strokes, dragging fingers, something that normally would send me screaming from the room. But she had a great touch, and despite the suicidal body mechanics had apparently been doing great massages for years.

Just as I would with stressed-out clients, she gave me some advice on stretches and lumbar supports for car seats. And most important she told me to get a few more massages. In a way, the knot in my back was telling me something I needed to heed, she said.

Lesson learned.

Yes, I go back to my practice recharged and raring to go, with a better understanding of how people can sometimes forget the basics even though they know them by heart. A caring massage therapist is aware of the human condition and imparts to one’s clients that it is OK to give yourself a break when you are less than perfect - as we all are.

Meaningful Words and Scalene Havoc

In the process of making an important point, we are all apt to put some “English” on our words, a sort of little extra push that adds emphasis, emotion and belief to what we say. My Dad always used a little “English” on his words when we did something particularly heinous playing rock ‘n roll in the garage. My third-grade teacher had her “English” loud and clear when my classmates and I broke the sound barrier with a mass-squeak-off with long chalks on the blackboard.

A good use of English will get one’s attention in a vivid way. But what about the person whose English has run off with every word? Can we distinguish what is real darn important from what is merely shouted into the wind in a desperate bid for agreement, peace, quiet or meaning?

Yes, I’m in a philosophical mood because as a massage therapist, I’m always on the lookout for perpetuating factors. If I’m going to liquefy the angst and flush it away, I have an interest in seeing it gone for good. And when a client has a perpetuating factor, I try to find a nice, easy way to bring it up and get it gone.

Easy is suggesting a change in one’s workout or computer set-up to relieve trapezial pain. But what to do when one sees ones work swirling in the bowl every time the client speaks?

Oh, heck, I’ve been working with this client, off and on, for more than two years. I get into those posterior cervicals, largely to relieve the pain of muscles immobilized by a fusion, but those darn scalenes!

Does this client have a hobby? Bird watching. Hours spent galumphing through the brush with binoculars. A job? First-grade teaching. Lots of bending over, lots of trying to keep the attention of little people with a 2-second attention span. A life? She’s married to a psychologist. He doesn’t like to argue. They have to discuss everything, calmly and rationally.

These scalenes have an off-road Baja quality that grinds and grunts with every syllable. Running them ragged has become a way of life. I have dreamed of getting these guys to relax for more than 60 minutes on the table. When my client gets up, just mentioning the weather can bring on a scalene crunch of epic proportions.

Time for a change of tactics. It’s summertime, officially, the time when all teachers try top repair whatever the school year did to them. For some reason, no trips are planned this summer. While on the table, she wondered aloud what to do with herself.

“How about taking a tai chi class?” I said softly. “I recommended one last year but you were traveling a lot. Maybe you can fit it in.”

A week later, my client returned with a list of classes, two of which she is taking. And she signed up for a Reiki workshop, too.

I feel the glee of relief. Self-awareness through movement may be the trick.

I told her, quite seriously, in a whisper, “I’m looking forward to not having to tell you to stop playing the piano with your nose.”

Dear Mommy Dearest

An Open Letter to All Mothers Who Find It Necessary to Bring Their Small Children Into Massage Rooms:

Dear Mommy Dearest,

First, let me say that I know I grew up in a simpler time when most mothers were "homemakers" and "had time" for their own full-time childcare. I was lucky enough to have one of those mothers (though I doubt I felt lucky at the time) who fed me regularly, restricted my television time, and put me to bed by 7 or 8 pm (even in the summer time when it was still light outside, curse the woman!) And I know that you probably have to work outside the home and suffer from the stresses of a modern world that taxes you in ways that women were never meant to be taxed (this letter is to you, after all, because as it is in laundry detergent commericials, men don't seem to figure much in this topic.)

But please, do whatever you can to avoid bringing your child to your massage, at least if the child is under ten, and incapable for any reason, of somehow amusing herself quietly and appropriately. Find a babysitter for two hours: your mother or mother-in-law, perhaps, as they are most likely to dote on your kids for free. Or a sister, a friend, an old widow lady down the street, a trustworthy teenager (whose own mother you know and so wouldn't dare misbehave.)

Why should you do this? Well, you may have learned to "tune out" your own child, but unfortunately, no one else has. If your child is banging a toy fire truck into the wall, other clients as well as your therapist might possibly be disturbed. If your child leaves the room and locks the rest of the office staff out while they are at lunch, people might get angry. If your little girl is crawling under the table and putting your bra on her head as a hat, while singing the Barney song, your therapist might not be able to concentrate and may even become nauseous (surely you don't want a strange woman throwing up on you.) If your little girl wails and sobs softly for the first 15 minutes, then holds her breath and releases it periodically for the rest of the session (punctuated with high-pitched farts), and it is 9 pm, your child is probably tired and hungry, and PROBABLY SHOULD BE AT HOME IN BED. Have you ever been stared at suspiciously by an angry child for an hour while you attempt to perform a skilled task? It's creepy, lady. It's just plain creepy.

If you miss your child's presence so much, just leave her at home and ask your therapist to bring her dog. I have a dog named Suki who will gladly jump on the table and attempt to lick your brain through your ear, bark at faint noises, chew your socks, and maybe even try to wear your bra as a hat. Because while good discipline might help, no force in nature is going to inable a two year old to sit motionless and quiet for an hour, unless that child is on animal tranks.

Thank you sincerely for listening: and please take this to heart. We will all have a better session without your child, God bless her cute little Gap-Baby-jeans-wearing butt.

Sincerely,

Your Hardworking LMP

PS: If you fit the above description, restaurant servers probably hate your guts: eat with one eye open.

Resting on a Good Night's Sleep

Seems like every client I see in my massage practice has some trouble getting comfortable to fall asleep and stay asleep all night.

Granted, people coming on for massages tend to be those with a computer-based job, a history of neck or back injuries and trigger points, all elements that mess with sleep.

What is remarkable in this info-age is that people don’t have good information on how to get comfortable for a good night’s sleep. We spend a lot of time complaining about sleep but little time looking into how to sleep better.

As massage therapists know, a good night’s sleep is pretty basic to health and wellness, and trigger points tend to send a wrecking ball right through our attempts to repair and rest our bodies and minds.

I’m forever recommending pillows, positions, stretches, any number of solutions for people to get their sleep. It’s based more than a bit on my own experience trying to get enough good rest to feel healthy.

That means I have taken a few wrong turns here and there, resulting in a vast collection of neck pillows that promised to balance the spine and quiet neck knots and didn’t quite deliver.

The most expensive ($120) is my cat’s favorite nap spot. It’s the memory foam pillow, which I thought would be a big acquisition and it actually turned out to be a big bust. The foam molds a little too well to the body, lacking support, and the foam reflects heat. An awful lot of heat. Kitty wins this one and good riddance.

The side sleeper tunnel pillow. A curved piece of metal with a foam cushion top, which supposedly allows you to sleep on your side with your arm stuck over your head. Hard, uncomfortable and unforgiving, it is hidden in the linen closet.

The four-square pillow, which features a dip in the middle for the head, larger sides. This is uncomfortable in all positions. The cat likes it.

The Dog Bone-shaped pillow. This little $10 item wins as the best fit for a side sleeper, but it does not adjust for smaller necks. I wish it was available in small, medium and large.

The hot water and foam pillow. I left this in a hotel room when I was on vacation and have cried ever since. It was completely adjustable and had two water-filled chambers to separately adjust head and neck support.

So when my clients ask me what is the best pillow to use, I have to confess to having the world’s largest collection of pillows. And that I now use an old down pillow and punch it up into the right shape to fit my neck.

Now we can all get some rest.

One Hopes for the Best

When sending a massage client off to the doctor for a symptom check, this massage therapist always hopes for the best. It isn’t easy to say to someone: "This seems like something that the doctor needs to know about. I want you to get this checked out."

But it is part of the profession. It’s happened a dozen or so times in my career as a massage therapist. For example: A 50-year-old male with sternal pain who hadn’t been to the doctor in 20 years. Another, a 40-year-old with a swollen neck lymph node. A man with a swollen ankle on the left side. Another with a nagging cough.

All is well, they reported later. I like to reply: “Good you have done the right thing for your health - and the health of the economy by running up a bill.”

So all is well. Then a client I have seen regularly for 15 years came in with shortness of breath.

So I sent her off to get checked. A week later, she told me the tests of her heart came back OK and nothing amiss in the pump room.

Well, that was two years ago. Last weekend the same client, who has not been able to walk regularly because of a swollen knee problem, called me to tell me she had another episode of shortness of breath after a walk.

It was really strange, she told me. “I felt a lot of pressure on my chest and tightness going up the left side of my neck. My upper arm ached. It wasn’t normal.”

As it turned out, she has a 90 percent blockage in the left anterior descending heart artery, a bad spot as it feeds the muscle to the main pumping chamber of the heart. She is scheduled for a stent insertion this week.

Sorry to hear that, I said. Then I thought, was this related to her shortness of breath from two years past?

As it turns out, her test two years ago showed a 75 percent blockage in the same artery. “I remember I called the nurse and she said the test came out fine,” she said. “I don’t know if they made a mistake or if they thought that was OK.”

I wonder. Two years is a long time to have a cloggy artery. I know tests aren’t perfect, and neither is medicine, but now I’m wondering if everyone who gets an OK from the doctor is really OK. As a massage therapist, you rely on the experts, and assessing symptoms is all we can do.

“Well, you did the right thing,” I told her. “Don’t worry about it now. Just get it taken care of. You can sort this out later.”