Issue link: https://www.massageandbodyworkdigital.com/i/1519088
G iving a great massage is hard. We spend a long time trying to get it right. And yet, that's not the hardest part of our work. What makes being a massage therapist hard, I believe, is giving a great massage again. And again. And again. And again. The hardest part of being a massage therapist, in other words, is replicating the therapeutic benefits of our work over and over. It's not enough to take care of the client on our table right now. We also need to give a great massage to our next client, and to the one after that, and to our very last client of the day, and to our first client next Tuesday. That ability—to keep giving great massages—is what separates a good therapist from an exceptional one. And it's what makes the difference between burning out after a few years and still loving your work decades from now. So, how do we do it? How do we ensure the massage we give two years from now is going to be as good as the massage we give two days from now and as good as the massage we are giving right now? October will mark my 20th anniversary as a massage therapist, so I've had a lot of time to think about this question. I've also been teaching other massage therapists for more than a dozen years; I've worked with many therapists who are soaring in their careers, and many who are f lailing. It's taken me a long time to arrive at this answer, but I think the key to (continually) giving a great massage is a paradox: repetition and reinvention. Or more specifically, the key is figuring out how to reinvent as you repeat. A B M P m e m b e r s ea r n F R E E C E h o u r s by rea d i n g t h i s i s s u e ! 49 NAMING THE ESSENCE OF OUR SUCCESS KEY POINT • Embrace the repetition that's at the heart of bodywork; then, reinvent each session depending on your client's needs. By David M. Lobenstine