I was working at the Juice bar in Hyde Park’s Bonne Santé Health Foods when I realized that I wanted to help people resolve their muscular pain issues. I felt as though too many people were trying to find solutions by masking their true underlying cause of pain or discomfort with a bottle of pills. I met a lot more people at the juice bar who knew the answers were not through quick fixes, but through a lifelong dedication to mindful eating and exercise. What I wanted most was to take knowledge like this and help everyone discover that you can do this too and it is important. I wanted more though – I wanted to be a person who could show people how awesome their bodies are at repairing themselves with a little physical encouragement. Physical encouragement? How does one go about that? What does that mean? I began looking into massage therapy schools around Chicago and decided to go to an open house at the SOMA Institute School for Clinical Massage Therapy. Part of the open house included receiving a 20-minute clothed massage. I remember when I left the school that afternoon that I was blown away by how you good I felt in a minimal amount to time of bodywork and thinking that, if I could make someone feel half the relief I feel right now, wouldn’t that be a rewarding career?
Enrolling at SOMA was the best decision I had made as a foundation for my career in massage therapy and soft tissue work going forward. I had a good technical skillset at the beginning. I wasn’t great, but I was capable. However, it was the rigorous course work and clinical thinking skills that gave me the best advantage and confidence to get me started. I began working in Chiropractic facilities for the first year or so of my career. There I had a lot of autonomy and was able to tailor and recommend treatments. The experience was great from a ‘getting your feet wet’ perspective, and I met a lot of great patients and paid my dues. However, I couldn’t help but notice that what I was doing was always not as valued or as important to the clinic’s main modality offered. What I was looking for was a team environment, where everything that was being done was in the patient’s interest and not just based on the work of the few whose modalities took precedent. Autonomy was great, but what I needed that I didn’t have were colleagues who supported me and who understood that the same principles of regular treatment for optimal results applied to my work as well as theirs.
My career needs changed and I left the clinical arena and began working at a spa. It wasn’t what I wanted, but getting health insurance and a 401k to contribute to was very appealing me, and being a body worker wasn’t a part time job to me, it was my passion, so I wanted to do this work for as long as I could. I worked in a spa for 11 years with the same dedication that I had working in a clinical setting. How could I best help those who needed muscular relief and what could I do to educate them to realize that this is important to have in their life? I did have modest success over the years, building solid client relationships, and adapting to economical catastrophes that changed the spa and massage landscape for a long time. Nevertheless, at some point I began to wonder if what I was doing had the type of impact on people’s lives like I had hoped when I finished school. The answer was a deep-felt no. I did a lot of continuing education over the years to not only improve my skillset, but to be able to offer people better solutions for their pain and dysfunction. I always felt that I was missing something in my bodywork toolbox; I just didn’t know what it was yet.
I always knew that I would one way or another return to doing clinical bodywork, as that was where I truly belonged. That’s when I discovered Delos Therapy. Here is a company that is blowing me away with its innovative and successful technique, as well as its vision and purpose for the future of chronic muscular issues and soft tissue enhancement that Delos Therapy provides. I work with a team of consummate professionals who are driven to not only improve themselves, but constantly asking the question, what can I do to make those around me be better as well? The excitement at Delos Therapy is palpable. We are on the cutting edge of connecting the dots regarding the relationship of muscular dysfunction to the body’s collagen production in and around muscles. We are reconstructing muscles to bring them back to a healthy state. And we are educating our clients to understand that their bodies need regular maintenance for optimal muscle health, just like their car or their teeth, in order to prevent common aches and pains from developing into more expensive and debilitating issues. I am excited to start being a part of this team at Delos Therapy, and we are all fired up, because we have seen the success of our therapy. And we see the impact we can have on our industry to help people discover what is possible in how great they feel.
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