So there’s a really old article on my blog about getting your Alabama Massage Therapist License. Unfortunately for that article, the process outlined for getting a license is no longer correct. Licensing applications and renewals finally went digital! The mindset advice in that article remains relevant so I’m going to leave it up and make it point to this post.
For years I grumbled as I filled out my paper license renewals, slapping a sticky note to the front of the paperwork reading, “Please put this online!” before shoving it in an envelope. One day they made not only the license renewal, but the initial massage therapy licensing application a virtual experience. As with all things, there are positives and negatives about going digital, but overall, the slow, steady progress and keeping up with the times is good. I think it makes the application and renewal process a lot easier: no trips to the post office or the bank, just a credit card and some electronic documents and it’s finished.
Keeping up with the times is good
Because there seems to be so many questions about all things dealing with the code that governs the massage therapy industry in Alabama and how that applies to our initial Massage Therapist application process, I wrote an eBook about how to get that initial Massage Therapist License for Alabama. It’s free for the low, low cost of your email address. I’ll use that email address to send you a monthly newsletter about my continuing education courses or you can just unsubscribe later.
Click this link to go to the sign-up page for my eBook, So, You Want to Get a Massage Therapist License: A Guidebook to Getting Your Alabama Professional Massage Therapist License. And I’d love to hear your feedback about the eBook!
I have a story to tell you about learning a hard lesson. It has to do with protecting your virtual assets and averting catastrophe before it happens. To be honest, I’m firmly in the, “I never thought it would happen to me,” camp on all of this which is why I’m choosing to share it.
It’s been a long time since I created my virtual, online presence. When I opened Harvest Moon Massage Therapy in 2008, I used trusted online providers that did the security part of website protection for me. As this website matured and moved platforms to accommodate Alabama Barefoot Massage Training Center, I again used trusted sources with built-in protection, so I didn’t have to worry.
Around the same time I opened Harvest Moon Massage Therapy, social media exploded. I made myself a Facebook account because that’s what we were all doing and FOMO. In 2010 I created what was then referred to as a “Fan Page” on Facebook for Harvest Moon Massage. I remember thinking it would be a great place to advertise my little micro-business for free/cheap. And it was. I was so excited about it that I was asked by AMTA-AL Chapter to teach other massage therapists to do what I had done with this tiny, little Facebook page. They also recognized the value of an advertising platform that worked rain or shine, 24/7 for free.
One of the things I never thought too hard about was how a Facebook Business page could be considered a capital B, capital A, “Business Asset”. Maybe because of the slow, creeping growth of social media, what started as a small business presence had grown into a significant part of how I marketed my business to the public. I had loosely in the past considered adding an extra admin to the Facebook page, but I didn’t know anyone who would want to fool with all the extra notifications and such so I put it off. Hold on to your hat, cause here it comes. BAD MOVE! Colossal mistake…probably a rookie mistake too.
Catastrophe Strikes
I got hacked, my Facebook profile got hacked. Well, technically I got scammed, then hacked, then deactivated by Facebook. It was horrifying, terrifying, a really, really bad thing. If you didn’t already know, Facebook support is crap. I talked to so many bots and automated responses it wasn’t funny and brought me to tears a few times. Getting an actual person to respond to my appeals and emails wasn’t much better. I experienced for the first time ever the circular email of never-ending confusion.
It was bad enough that my personal profile had been hacked, but I also lost control of my Facebook pages, aka, Business Assets. Keeps getting worse and worse, eh? Yeah…I filed admin appeals and requests and went around and around and around for more than six weeks.
A Miracle
One day about 5 weeks out from the hack, I got an email from Facebook asking didn’t I want to review all these 714 notifications from my old account. So, with almost no hope that this latest appeal would work, I clicked the link and went through yet another appeals process. I literally had so little hope I just went about my day. Three days later, I opened my computer and suddenly Facebook is in my face asking do I want to log in to my old account. Wait, What? WHAT? WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?
And wonder of all Christmas miracles, I was in my old account. Things had changed, I won’t go into it, because my only order of business at this point was quickly adding as many new admins to my biz pages as I possibly could. Because this couldn’t actually be real, could it? Could the Facebook botgods have actually given me my account back with all related privileges and permissions? I fully expected at any moment for a bot to take over and lock me out again because this doesn’t happen. Anyway, cut to why I’m telling you this big, long story.
Protecting Your Virtual Business Assets
Before we can protect our virtual business assets, not just your website, we need to figure out what and where they are. Now that I’ve been through this experience, I would define a virtual business asset as anything online that represents my business, drives people toward my business, and/or I use to manage my business assets. Social media accounts definitely fit into that definition and it’s pretty hard to miss where that stuff lives online. So how do you protect these business assets that live on social media platforms? Especially when every single one of them are individual platforms with different rules and logins and security systems. Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, YouTube, LinkedIn, and those are just the ones at the top of mind.
Here is a general list that I hope will help you start designing your own virtual business asset security plan.
Strong Passwords
Make sure you have strong passwords and a different one for each account. Seriously, don’t use the same password for every account you have. Each platform has different rules for what makes a strong password in their system. Follow their guidelines and then make it a bit stronger. Also, consider using a password vault app. They will help you keep track of all your different accounts and passwords and can add another layer of protection.
2-Factor Authentication
2-Factor Authentication is where you first enter a password, then have a secondary piece of information you provide to prove you’re who you really are. Did that make sense? You might know it as where you get a text message and then enter the code from the text message to log into an account. There are other ways that second part happens. Sometimes it’s your fingerprint, face scan, or an email with another code. If your platform has the option for 2-factor authentication, turn it on.
Administrative Redundancy
Find someone or multiple people to become backup admins for your business accounts. Unfortunately, every platform has different policies and methods to add backup admins. AND you’ll need to be careful that you don’t accidentally violate the platform’s terms of use and get banned.
Security Checkups
If you’re like me, this sounds like torture. I sure didn’t know I was signing up for this when I signed up for that first little Facebook account. But if it keeps me from getting into a mess again, I’ll figure out how to review each of these platform’s latest security changes and make sure my account is safe. I don’t know yet if this will be a yearly, quarterly or monthly exercise.
Here’s a list of articles I found helpful while trying to figure out how to design a security checkup plan for my business accounts.
I hope this has been helpful and given you enough information to get started with a plan to make your virtual assets more secure. Don’t wait like I did, and if you find something really cool and helpful on this front, let me know!
Have you heard of decision fatigue? Since I’ve heard of it, it seems to be around every corner and in some way part of every issue that keeps popping up. Maybe you’ve heard of Steve Jobs or Bill Gates or some other high-profile individual wearing the same thing every day. Or maybe you’ve heard of capsule wardrobes or people who eat the same foods every day because it’s what works for them. All these odd habits are actually steps to combat decision fatigue.
The first time I became aware of decision fatigue was in January of 2019. I was in San Antonio, TX, for a Center for Barefoot Massage Instructor Training. It was very exciting, I was getting trained to teach Fijian Barefoot Massage, I was finally getting to meet almost all of the CBM instructor team, and I had never been to San Antonio or seen the Alamo and good golly, I was there for it! I was also getting a sinus infection.
I hope you can tell that while a lot of good things were happening to me, I was making a ton of decisions while learning in addition being in strange surrounds, and there was a lot of stress. As the training ended, one of our “tour guides” set up a float experience. And in true ‘Sharon knows she’ll have FOMO’ style, I was there for it. A new experience AND something I’d been wanting to try out for years. I tried it, the float was awesome, and while it didn’t cure my sinus infection, I’m pretty sure all that magnesium beat it back enough that I made it home before it got ‘go to the doctor’ bad. I look back now and think I wouldn’t have been allowed on the plane these days with that terrible case of the sniffles.
But goodness was I sick when I got home, and I stayed sick for a good, long time because I had overextended myself and now in addition to trying to get back to work, I was trying to heal and not giving myself the time or grace I needed and I ended up just trudging through a month or so of life not being able to do much of anything except get through it. And for those of you who know, that is not who I am and I expect if you’re still reading this, it’s not you either.
This experience really made me evaluate how I was organizing my life and what was causing a lot of hidden stress on a daily basis.
What is Decision Fatigue?
Decision fatigue is a type of exhaustion that results from making too many decisions within a period of time. How much time? That’s unclear and I think probably depends on the individual. How many decisions are too many? Again, unclear and probably depends on the individual. Here is what research is starting to suss out though, when a person makes an excessive number of decisions (~35,000/day is “normal”), their ability to make further decisions becomes impaired. Impaired could look like procrastination, putting off making a decision, impulsive or seemingly irrational decisions, avoiding making a decision altogether, or indecision where you just can’t make up your mind.
Apparently, our brains only have the capacity to make so many decisions each day and when you surpass that number of decisions it leads to what is called decision fatigue. Ever get tired of trying to figure out what’s for dinner? Could be decision fatigue. How about what to wear to work? Could be decision fatigue, especially if you’ve waited until bedtime to try to decide on tomorrow’s outfit. Trying to call in a prescription for your medicine, but just can’t dial the number? Could be decision fatigue and low-grade anxiety about the possibility of having to answer even more questions.
Decision fatigue is something that can lead to burnout. I have a theory that the stress of this ongoing global pandemic, changes in family structures, workplace changes, continuing losses of all kinds, and incomplete grieving, has led to an overall heightened sense of stress. More chronic stress leads us closer to burnout and we all know burnout makes even seemingly simple decisions more stressful and difficult. All of this points to decision fatigue for many people.
Why is decision fatigue a problem?
What if you’re a doctor or a lawyer or a meteorologist with a tornado bearing down on your community and it’s really important that you make the right decision? You can see pretty quickly where someone’s life could be at stake and you’re out of bandwidth because you’ve spent the last six hours making decision after decision and there’s no more decisions left in the tank. Most of us aren’t making life or death decisions every day, but most of us do drive somewhere every day. I’m betting money decision fatigue plays into your ability to deal with traffic and the laws. I know it does mine.
Streamline Your Life
So how do we protect ourselves from decision fatigue? The literature doesn’t have succinct answers for that other than to reduce the number of decisions you make daily. Makes sense, but how do you do that when you have so many responsibilities? I’ve put together a few suggestions for you:
Make important decisions first
Stack your day so that the most important things you must handle get done early.
Remove distractions
Turn down the noise, turn off ringers and notifications, give your brain a break from all the distractions while you’re trying to get things done. And when you’re off-duty, be off-duty. Don’t check email or answer the random text message, let calls go to voicemail and check them tomorrow. Figure out the biggest offenders and do what you can to mitigate them.
Take a break
This one is important. If you’re already in burnout and suffering from decision fatigue, then taking a vacation and really getting away from it all might be your best bet. If you can’t do that then it’s time to start scheduling shorter, regular breaks and adding in something that recharges you. Not there yet? Make sure you’re scheduling breaks, moving around in nature, and getting some type of mental enrichment regularly.
Capsule wardrobe
This is the one I was talking about earlier where you wear essentially the same thing every day. I’ve seen people who literally buy 5 of the same outfits and wear them every day to work so they never have to decide what to wear. I’ve read about people who only wear black slacks with a white shirt. The style of the slacks and the shirts can be different, but it’s always white over black. I’ve seen made for you capsule wardrobes where everything goes with everything else. It seems like a pretty versatile option for folks who don’t want to spend a lot of time scratching their head in the closet searching for something to wear while still allowing for individualism.
Leverage technology
Use GPS instead of struggling to figure out where you’re going, use alarms and reminders to free up the constant monitoring of the clock, use an app to make, order, and schedule grocery and supply deliveries/pick-ups. Use automatic bill pay. Leverage all the technology we have access to in order to make your life easier and cut down on constant and unnecessary decisions.
While scientists are still duking it out in the literature over whether decision fatigue actually exists (some think because they can’t figure out how to measure it or its consequences, it must not exist) I’ll be over here figuring out better ways to deal with it. I’ll update here occasionally as I discover ways to automate those niggling decisions of daily living that can easily be done without my attention.
Most people don’t think too much about skin when they think about massage. Usually they’re thinking about a sore muscle or how stressed out they are and are looking forward to just laying down on the table for a while to relax and feel better. But skin is one of the really important things we learn about in massage school. We learn to look at it, evaluate it, and determine whether it’s safe for us to touch, if it’s safe for you to receive massage, and whether you need to see a doctor.
It’s getting warm here, the kids are out of school, and everyone is heading outdoors. That means we’re breaking out the shorts, tank tops, flip flops, and bathing suits and our skin is experiencing more of the environment than it has since last summer. And that is showing up in massage practices near you as sunburns, rashes, bumps, and bruises. So, I thought I’d take a minute and talk about a few skin issues we see and when it’s time to reschedule a massage before your therapist is walking you back out the door without receiving your much-anticipated massage.
Sunburn
Yikes! Even when you’re being careful, sunburns can happen. If you find yourself with a sunburn and a massage scheduled very soon, let your massage therapist know. You certainly don’t want to be trying to receive a massage if the burn is still sore. That wouldn’t be relaxing or any fun at all. If you’re to the peeling stage, that’s okay, just exfoliate and moisturize before your massage. Most massage therapists deal with peeling skin throughout the sunny, summer months. We appreciate when you try to minimize the peeling during your appointment.
Here’s an article I wrote a while back about Sun Safety. Check it out for tips and tricks on protecting yourself from the sun during this summer vacation. And if you’re looking to find safer, less toxic, more environmentally friendly sunscreens the AWG website is an excellent resource.
Poison Ivy, Oak, or Sumac Rash
Eeek! I am truly sorry if you suffer from rashes caused by poison ivy, poison oak, or poison sumac. My very first case of poison ivy lasted about 6 weeks and covered a large portion of my body. I didn’t know what it was and didn’t know how to take care of myself. It was a big, miserable surprise and quite the learning experience. Most people won’t seek out massage in the early, blistered stages of a poison plant rash if it covers a large portion of the body.
Your massage therapist will surely send you home if you show up with a large, weeping rash. If your rash is localized and can be covered or easily avoided, then your therapist can choose to work depending on your individual circumstances. Please make sure you have completely cleansed your skin of any poison plant oils if you choose to seek massage while dealing with a poison plant rash. Please do not show up to your massage appointment directly from yard work without having showered. Your massage therapist can and will pick up and spread the urushiol oils everywhere they work and they can also contract a rash if you have these oils on your skin while the massage is in progress.
Stings & Bites
Ugh! No matter how careful you are outside (and sometimes inside), encounters with wildlife are inevitable. Hopefully it was nothing too serious. If your regularly scheduled massage appointment coincides with a bite or a sting, the important things to consider are whether the reaction to the sting or bite is localized and whether you’ve ever had a life-threatening reaction to a bite or sting. Sometimes if the reaction is localized and swelling is minimal, your therapist may feel comfortable working with you. If you’ve ever had an anaphylactic reaction to a wildlife encounter, please wait 72 hours after the injury or receiving emergency treatment before receiving massage. Bites from a larger animal may require antibiotics, please call your massage therapist if you’ve been prescribed antibiotics and the injury occurred within three days of your scheduled appointment.
Mystery Rash
Rashes can be caused by lots of things. Allergic reactions to environmental factors are common. Grass, plants, trees, wildlife, metal tools, lotion, sunscreen, something you ate, a fuzzy caterpillar, just about anything can cause a skin reaction if you’re sensitive to it. Mystery rashes with respect to massage get treated just like a poison ivy rash. If you can cover it, it’s probably okay to receive a massage. It’s up to your massage therapist and their discernment as to whether massage therapy is safe for you at the time.
Skin Cancers
Ah, skin cancer… this is a whole other article I need to write. Did you know massage therapists are taught to screen for skin cancer? It’s true! And while we can’t diagnose it, we can suggest you see a dermatologist for “this spot right here that I don’t like the looks of.” As far as it affecting your massage today, it won’t, but if you go have a biopsy you’ll need to coordinate scheduling your next massage around your dermatology visit. Please do not schedule a biopsy procedure and a massage on the same day without talking to your massage therapist ahead of time.
Bumps & Bruises
No problem as long as it’s a garden variety bump or bruise. Your therapist will avoid the area as to not cause any further pain or damage to the tissue as it goes about it’s healing process. If your massage therapist has training, experience, and confidence they may do a bit of lymphatic drainage to help expedite the healing process of the bruises. If your bruise is caused by a major accident, please make sure that you have seen a medical professional and you’re not in any danger of blood clotting. Clotting and massage therapy can be a dangerous combination.
Cuts & Scrapes
Cuts and scrapes abound when we’re outside playing or doing yard work. Just clean them up and cover them with a bandage before your massage. If you’ve visited the local emergency room and have stitches, please let your therapist know ahead of time, especially if they prescribed anti-biotics. We have guidelines regarding infection, anti-biotics, and the safety of massage therapy.
Tattoos
If you recently received some new ink, please plan to cover it during your massage. We need to treat this like a wound until it is fully healed. If it’s a large piece of artwork, consider talking with your massage therapist to see if it would be better to reschedule.
I hope this gives you a little more insight into skin and how your skin can affect your massage therapy experience. Stay well out there and enjoy your summer vacation!
Power of the Seed: Your Guide to Oils for Health & Beauty by Susan M. Parker
I picked up this book because I was becoming interested in developing a few botanically infused oils specifically for massage and a CE course on integrating those oils into a massage practice. I had lots of questions about what properties of oils made them more or less nourishing to the skin, absorption rates, time frames that oils stay open long enough to be an effective massage medium, and more that I don’t really remember right now. Online resources kept pointing to the same oils over and over again without enough information as to the why. Eventually one of my social media platforms served up a free, online mini-class about oils for skincare by the author, Susan M. Parker. Of course, I signed up for it and after listening to her talk about so many oils and their corresponding properties, I had to buy the book. And boy am I glad I did. This book answers questions I didn’t even know I had about oils.
What Kinds of Oils?
Now, the first thing you need to know about this book is that it is NOT about essential oils. This book is about fixed oils, carrier oils, or non-volatile oils. Oils that you can cook with, eat, or use safely on your skin undiluted (unlike essential oils). Even though she mentions petroleum-based oil products, the focus of this book is firmly botanically-derived oils, butters, and waxes.
If you had high school chemistry and did okay in it, you’ll be able to get through the sections on the chemistry of fatty acids. Thankfully there won’t be an actual test on all this, but the chemical make-up of saturated versus unsaturated fats has changed the way I think about what I’m cooking with in the kitchen. It also makes it very clear how and why oils go rancid and become so damaging to our health when consumed.
Fatty Acids & Phytochemicals
I got a little lost in the sections that covered the different fatty acids and their properties as well as all the differing phytochemicals. There are a dizzying array, but the good news is this book can be used as a reference guide. So when you need to know which oils are highest in, say, Vitamin C, you can just go look that up.
I’ve read a few reviews from people much more experienced in chemistry than I am cautioning that some of the definitions aren’t completely accurate, but for my needs and I’m guessing the layperson interested in using oils for developing their own skincare products, this book delivered just enough technical explanation.
In addition to the chemistry, phytochemicals and the general make-up of oils, this book contains a section covering 90 different oils, butters, and waxes with information about their chemical constituency as well as uses in cooking and skincare, a section on working with oils, and directions and recipes on how to make different skincare products with these oils. The appendix is vast making up about a third of the book with sections on oils by use, properties, source, botanical families, saponification values, fatty acid families, fatty acid composition tables, an essential oil dilution table, a glossary, bibliography, and source list. My biggest complaint is that there’s no Index, but we will forgive that because this book is already so amazing I feel sure the next edition will feature one along with even more oils as they become available.
A Summary
Power of the Seed is a beautiful book. I appreciate the artwork and the size of the book. It’s easily handled, not too big, not too small, just right! The rounded corners are something you don’t see often in publications and seem to make the book even easier to interact with. Also, the fact that the cover is easy to wipe down and doesn’t readily uptake oil is a plus since you’ll probably be using it around, oh, oils!
This book was a pleasure and I’ll be returning to it often as I continue my herbal healing adventures!
More information about the author can be found at the author’s website: Susan M. Parker
Have you tried to book a massage lately? Were you successful or were you met with, “Not accepting new clients right now,” or “It’s going to be 6 weeks before I can get you in”? Or worse, you were seen, but had a less than stellar experience? Where did all the massage therapists go?
That graphic over there was something I pulled in less than 5 minutes from two different massage forums on social media seeking massage therapists for their organization. These kinds of posts appear all day, every single day in massage forums and if they’re not looking for massage therapists they’re asking how to find massage therapists. It’s disheartening.
According to the 2022 AMTA Massage Research Report the number of massage therapists decreased in 2021. This, I believe, is partially due to COVID-19, but also a consequence of decreasing enrollment at massage schools nationwide and the shuttering of many massage programs. Many massage therapists walked away from our industry as the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic overtook the world. Forced to close businesses or laid off with no other way to support their families, many of them haven’t returned.
Massage school enrollments were down and schools had been closing at an alarming rate before the pandemic. And even though studies show our numbers have increased by 14% over the last decade, without adequate enrollment or places to obtain the necessary education, the number of qualified massage therapists must fall. Many schools closed and did not re-open after government mandated shutdowns reducing the potential for massage therapy graduates even further.
We were already experiencing a shortage of therapists before COVID-19. The massage therapy industry is now entering a crisis period. And it couldn’t happen at a worse time. As we are potentially emerging from a pandemic that forced people into their homes and social isolation, where touch became so dangerous many of us still won’t hug friends or family for fear of passing them a death sentence, people are in critical need of touch therapy and stress relief.
Why Don’t MTs Just Take More Clients?
It seems like the most obvious solution for those of us still working. Just take more clients per day and there will be less people in need of touch therapies. Unfortunately, it’s not a sustainable option. Most of us have already been taking more than our physical limit and are reaching the wall. It’s sort of like when someone leaves your job and your manager brings all their work to you. And then someone else leaves and your manager is standing in your office with another pile of work.
Massage therapists must first protect their own bodies before we can continue serving others. A hurt massage therapist is not a massage therapist that can help anyone with pain or stress. A sick massage therapist is definitely not going to be able to help anyone and they may make you sick to boot.
And Then There’s Burnout
Burnout is a real thing. We’ve seen the news stories, read the articles, and talked to our friends in the healthcare industry and everyone seems to understand that they are fried. Massage therapists aren’t experiencing the same level of awareness or care as the healthcare industry workers, but oftentimes we are laying on hands as many hours a day as these healthcare workers with even more waiting in the wings that aren’t being seen. The mental health arena is experiencing a similar phenomenon currently. Read here about listening to your body so you can hopefully prevent burnout.
As we continue to service more and more individuals at the cost of our body, family time, creative time, and rest time, we burn out. Giving becomes extremely difficult when we have pushed ourselves beyond the limit in service of others.
Many of us are regularly doing phone consultations for how to manage pain until we can get clients into the office. Which is pushing the limits of our scope, but what does one do when the one person in their circle of trust can’t get them in and they’re hurting?
How Do We Fix the Shortage?
The short answer is make more massage therapists. The long answer is make more massage therapists. If a student started right now it would take 6-8 months (minimum depending on the school) to be qualified to take the national exam and apply for a license in the state of Alabama.
That doesn’t seem like a long time, but it is a long time to work hoping that someone is coming to help relieve an already overstressed system. So now the question is, how do we get those students into an entry-level massage therapy program?
I see this question asked a lot on social media, industry publications, and industry conference panels. And no one seems to have an answer to this question. Is it awareness? Yes! Is it advertising? Yes! Is it getting in front of kids while they’re young to let them know how important touch is to their health? Yes! What do we do about it? Nothing or very little, apparently, and what is being done is not effective as illustrated by falling enrollment, fewer training programs, and “exhausted, on the verge of quitting” massage therapists.
What Happens If We Do Nothing?
If we do nothing, qualified massage therapist numbers will continue to decline. Safe and accessible massage therapy will become very expensive then disappears altogether as therapists age out of the system, burn out, or simply leave the industry.
If we do nothing, massage therapy chains will either disappear altogether or find funding to become industry monopolies. Quality of massage therapists and therapies will go way down while prices go way up as happens when an industry is controlled by just a few entities.
If we do nothing, more unqualified, untrained people will perform touch therapies that may or may not lead to public health issues, unsafe practices, consumer injuries and/or infections, a rise in human trafficking, and declining consumer confidence in the massage therapy profession.
None of that seems good.
What Can We Do?
Consumers
Use your platform to talk about your massage therapy experiences and how it has helped you. Challenge yourself to talk to one person a week about massage therapy.
Write reviews for your massage therapist(s). Thank you in advance!
Talk to your family, friends and anyone else who will listen about how massage therapy might be a viable career option. Talk to your massage therapist about where to steer prospective students. Many of us are glad to talk about massage therapy to the curious public.
Suggest your massage therapist or massage therapy school for career days, job fairs, or health fairs.
Massage Therapists / Students
Use your platform to talk about your positive career experiences as a massage therapist, get specific about why it’s so satisfying and talk about it often. Challenge yourself to post on social media once a month about your satisfying career choice.
Talk to your clients, friends, family, and anyone else who will listen about how massage therapy might be a viable career option.
Educate yourself on the massage school options in your area and be prepared to steer people toward these schools if they show an interest.
Contact your local school system and make yourself available to talk with school kids (and high schoolers) about how massage therapy might be a viable career option.
Provide your clients and cohorts with the words to speak respectfully and positively about the massage therapy profession.
Massage Therapy Schools
Use your platform to create awareness campaigns about the massage therapy profession and run them continuously.
Show up at career days, career fairs, and health fairs to promote the massage therapy profession.
Educate the public as to the continuing need for massage and touch therapies.
Teach students how to be ambassadors for our profession and challenge them to continue recruiting new students into our profession.
Let’s Do Something!
I know I’ve pointed out some not so optimistic points in this article, but I think it’s important we know what can happen if we continue to ignore the problem. I hope this gives you some ideas about how you can help the massage therapy profession in your day-to-day. If you’re interested in learning more about becoming a massage therapist your first order of business is to find a school and do some research. Feel free to reach out directly to me if you want to talk or you can go here to find state approved schools in your area.
In order to continue serving my existing and waitlist clientele in the most sustainable manner possible, beginning March 10, 2022, I will no longer be selling online gift certificates.
Moving Forward
Gift certificates will only be sold for current clients or those I have seen within the past calendar year
If you wish to purchase a gift certificate you must contact me directly
Credit will be applied to the recipient’s account, no physical or electronic gift cards will be provided
For those holding unexpired gift certificates, please contact me to get on the schedule
Part 1: How to Ethically Share Someone’s Social Media Content on Instagram
I’ve seen it, you’ve seen it, maybe you’ve even been a victim of someone sharing a cool piece of content you created for your business or organization and never linking back to you. It doesn’t feel great, so I thought I’d share some thoughts here on how to ethically go about sharing someone else’s content on Instagram.
Early on, as I was learning about Instagram, I’m sure I shared something along the way that wasn’t correctly credited back to the creator. I didn’t know any better, but as I’ve learned, I’ve done better and I want to help you do better too.
Now that I know better, I do better.
Maya Angelou
The first thing you’ll need is an app that allows you to share content from Instagram. It’s not hard to find, you can Google “apps to share content on Instagram” or search that term inside your device’s App Store. The results will give you plenty of options to choose from. Each of them are different, many of them have free options and you’ll need to evaluate each one to see if it fits your needs.
If you’re just starting out in business or using a personal account, one of the free options will probably do. If you’re into scheduling posts out ahead of time you might want to look into some paid options. Google will be your friend here in determining which paid option is best for you.
Sharing Other Creator’s Content on Instagram
In order to be successful at ethically sharing, you need to know what I’m talking about when I say “content”. Content is anything someone creates whether it be a photograph, an altered photograph, an image created for advertising, a meme, and any caption (text) that goes along with it.
So now that we know what content is and we have an app whose job it is to reshare that content, here are things to keep in mind when sharing content from other creators.
Always link back to the content creator’s account
Most apps do this automatically when you select the option to preserve the caption. I recommend you let the app do its thing here cause it gives your account visibility through the app’s fans, the creator’s fans as well as possibly a hashtag the app creator’s use to tag their work.
Preserving the original creator’s captions
I asked a bunch of folks what their feeling was on this and here is what came out of those conversations:
Sometimes the app malfunctions if Instagram has changed something and needs a minute to catch up so you might not be able to preserve the original caption. I actually use two different apps in case one hasn’t caught up yet. If you don’t have the bandwidth for learning two apps, in this case you need to manually make sure the link back to the creator’s account happens some way in your caption or by tagging the image.
Sometimes you may want to add to the caption or refine the caption’s message. In this case, add to the caption, but make sure the reader knows where the original caption stops and a new contribution begins.
Sometimes it’s all about the image or graphic the original creator shared. Ethically, just share it, tag it with the creator, and preserve the caption. Just sharing the image as your own work is unethical. Don’t do that…make sure that somehow the creator is credited for their work.
Always make sure your app tags the image in some way. The creator’s IG handle should appear directly on the photo, if it doesn’t, explore in your app to turn that option on. Most of them have options for placement and whether they appear dark or light.
How to know what you’re looking at…
The following graphics explain what a shared post looks like, who shared it, who created it, how to figure out the tags, and what is different from the original caption.
The graphic above illustrates the content that was shared in one of my Instagram posts recently as well as identifies who is sharing the information and the tag back to the content creator.
This graphic illustrates how some re-sharing apps tag and hashtag to attribute credit to the creators and themselves. This might seem weird that they would point to themselves, but their livelihoods also depend on views, just like so many of our businesses. This graphic also illustrates the original caption and the additional information added to the end of the caption.
What about Instagram Stories?
I didn’t address sharing to Stories on Instagram. Those are somewhat of a different beast. The Instagram app itself has some capability to share to Stories and takes care of attribution so I’m going to let you figure that one out on your own.
I hope this discussion on how to share social media content on Instagram has been helpful for you and helps you feel more confident when sharing other people’s content. Now get out there and socialize!
Part 2: How to Ethically Share Someone’s Social Media Content on Facebook coming soon!
Press Here! Ayurvedic Head Massage For Beginners: A Practice for Overall Health and Wellness by Hillary Arrieta
I should start this review by disclosing that my knowledge about head massage before reading this book consisted of watching a few videos on YouTube of a guy in India doing Indian Head Massage. It looks violent, but the receivers seem to enjoy it very much so perhaps vigorous is a better description. After reading this book I would definitely have to go with it’s all in the hands of the practitioner. I will definitely try it someday.
I should also probably disclose that the author is a friend of mine.
This book covers everything: the what of Indian Head Massage, basic principles of doshas, chakras, and marmas, different aspects of preparing for the massage, recipes to prepare your own hair oils to use during the massage, and instructions and illustrations for performing eight different Indian Head Massage rituals for working with clients as well as self-care.
Overall, I found this book unassuming and very accessible. It seems comprehensive for a beginner technique book without becoming a tome. It is easy to read and use with a handy index that makes it quick to find exactly what I’m looking for. I appreciate that the author took the time to illustrate both the self-care technique for each ritual as well as the client-care techniques. And the illustrations being inclusive just points to how much thought and consideration was put into this work.
If you’re interested in learning more about this technique without sinking a ton of money into a continuing education class, this would be a great place to start.
I really don’t know how I’ve neglected to drop the 2022 Alabama Barefoot Massage Training Center schedule here. It’s been busy is all I can say. And seems like every time I thought I had everything straightened out, something else would change.
Regardless of future changes, right now this is where we stand.
In addition to the entry-level myofascial Ashiatsu Fundamentals and Fijian Barefoot Massage classes, I’ll be teaching a couple of Intermediate Ashiatsu classes this year. Did I neglect to tell you I finally finished my Intermediate Instructor Certification? Yes? No? Refer to above where I said it had been sorta busy. That instructor certification was not the easiest thing I’ve ever done.
I’m Taking Fijian on the Road!
I’ll be traveling to Kentucky and Georgia to teach Fijian in March and September respectively. Palpation Prep School of Massage in Benton, KY, tried to host Fijian in 2020, but COVID-19 messed that up so we’re trying again. If you’re in western KY or anywhere surrounding that area, come join us!
The Georgia Fijian class will be hosted at Terramar Wellness Center in Carrollton, GA, and I am so excited to visit this location. I’ve been following TerraMar Wellness since I first taught one of the owners when I was still in my Fundamentals Instructor Training. Also, they have a float tank and I absolutely cannot wait to make a reservation for that. I might float every single day I’m over there!
So, as you can see, there’s going to be a lot going on as far as barefoot massage training classes this year. And I’m really pumped about being able to road trip and take Fijian out into different communities as well as hosting other instructors locally.
Students, if you’re here for the barefoot massage training, register over here. Registration is open for everything you see here. Alumni, if you have your eye on a particular class I don’t teach, let me know and I’ll see about getting one of our other instructors to come teach it here. Clients, if you want to get scheduled in for a clinic appointment, text me and let me know!
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