Issue link: https://www.massageandbodyworkdigital.com/i/557366
F r e e S O A P n o t e s w i t h M a s s a g e B o o k f o r A B M P m e m b e r s : a b m p . u s / M a s s a g e b o o k 21 http://abmp.us/LinkedInMT Make sure you connect with us to get your voice heard in next issue's Tell Me … @ABMPmassage www.facebook.com/ABMPpage http://abmp.us/ABMPgplus @ABMPmassage www.massageprofessionals.com mp LIKE A LIGHT CAME ON Bob Jensen, a New York-based massage therapist, had a deeply emotional and psychological connection to realizing his passion for massage. In a previous career, Jensen taught rescue techniques and search-and-recovery protocol to police, fi re, and EMS personnel. After the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, Jensen was watching news coverage when he saw something extraordinary. "The TV cameras showed a group of massage therapists working on some rescue workers, helping them to keep going," Jensen says. "It was like a light came on to help me climb out of the depths of despair. Because I knew what the rescue workers were feeling, I knew that I'd be able to connect with them through massage and help them to let go of their own pain. A lot of my work these days focuses on clients with posttraumatic stress disorder." ENROLLED BY FATE Many practitioners are drawn to massage therapy because they truly care about making others feel better, and they understand massage has an incredible ability to comfort those in pain. It is easy to feel helpless when a loved one suffers due to a medical condition, but these massage therapists were able to provide relief while discovering their calling. When Sandy Xayasouk, a massage therapist from Iowa, visited her great- grandmother in France and saw how much pain she was in, she instinctively rubbed her back. Her motivation was simply to ease her great-grandmother's pain—she had no idea this kind gesture would lead to a career in massage therapy. "Seeing her pain- free, angelic face made me feel so at peace," Xayasouk says. "I vowed to my great-grandmother that I would go to school for massage therapy and return to France to stay and take care of her." ❱❱❱ A well-known benefi t of massage therapy is that it stimulates circulation and improves blood fl ow, which proved vital for another massage therapist. Marsha Kinsey's son was born with a heart defect and was blue from lack of circulation. "A nurse told me to massage my newborn son," Kinsey recalls. "As I massaged him, his color changed to pretty pink. I will never forget that day." Sabrina Merritt from Oregon was in the middle of her massage education when her sister was diagnosed with cancer. At the time, Merritt was enrolled in an oncology massage class and realized how bodywork could apply to her sister's condition. "The moment I learned there was actually something I could do to help her was a divine moment," Merritt says. ❱❱❱