Issue link: https://www.massageandbodyworkdigital.com/i/72093
A Laura Allen and her staff provide free chair massages once a year at a Forest City Owls baseball game in North Carolina. In return, she gets to throw out the first pitch. At some point in their session, clients at Angie Parris-Raney's Littleton, Colorado, office are likely to strike up a conversation about children in a remote Peruvian orphanage. And Laura Allen's clients sometimes drop by her clinic in Rutherfordton, North Carolina, just to leave canned food for the local homeless shelter. Like many massage therapists, Parris-Raney and Allen do a fair amount of charitable work. But unlike many of us, their charitable causes are fully integrated into their professional lives. Their efforts deliver caring and kindness out into the world, which is the primary goal, but the therapists and their clients benefit, too. SHARED VALUES A growing number of consumers want to feel good about the businesses they support. By promoting a good cause, you can help build client loyalty and foster client-practitioner relationships that are strengthened by shared values. Whether those values center around helping children in a flood-ravaged Peruvian community, opening a local no-kill animal shelter, or conserving energy and preserving natural resources, we all have much to gain by letting our clients know the social values that drive our decisions. Because our client-practitioner relationships are based on much more than an exchange of services and dollars, we stand to benefit more than other businesses when we communicate our values. Spa owner Michael Stusser says there is no question it can play a role in the client-practitioner relationship. The foundations of a strong massage and bodywork practice—good communication, personalized attention, a holistic approach to wellness—are a comfortable fit with values-based communication, he says. Stusser knows this better than most. In 1985, when he founded Osmosis Day Spa Sanctuary in Freestone, California, values-based business practices were scarcely discussed. Today, eco- conscious businesses like his attract such a loyal following that Stusser has founded the Green Spa Network to help other owners and practitioners build their values-based businesses. THE GIVING NATURE OF MASSAGE Stusser says he and his network colleagues are learning as they go. While other industries have gotten quite comfortable touting green and socially conscious business practices, the massage and bodywork profession is a bit late to the game. While many in this profession are environmentally and socially conscious, we often fail to communicate that fact to our clients. My own experience is probably typical. I've practiced massage full time since 1993, and I'm also heavily involved in local nonprofit organizations. I tended to think my professional and volunteer work inhabited separate universes. In truth, by keeping them sequestered, I was missing opportunities to deepen my client relationships. Then I got a small mention in the local newspaper for serving as board president at our animal shelter. For several weeks, my clients brought the news clipping to their massage Author Michelle Blake and her nonprofit, Fences for Fido, unchain a black Labrador named Teddy. 54 massage & bodywork may/june 2012