By Cindy Williams
Being a massage professional, especially if you are an independent practitioner, can be a lonely gig sometimes. Who can you talk to about the daily professional hurdles you face? Perhaps you have a client who makes you feel uncomfortable and you’re not sure how to handle it in the most professional and effective way. Maybe you have an opportunity for an onsite chair massage job, but you’ve never negotiated the details of a contract. Or, what about those office spaces that vary significantly in price? How do you know what to look for or ask about to ensure that once the lease is signed, you haven’t overlooked something that will cost you money unexpectedly down the road (like a significant increase in utility bills)?
These are only a few examples of a vast array of concerns that can arise in your private practice, yet likely weren’t thoroughly covered in your massage training program (after all, your instructors can’t cover every single possible scenario). What you need is a support system! You need colleagues you can reach out to when confusion or concern surfaces and it would be beneficial to bounce ideas or gain knowledge and wisdom from another’s experience. While it is easier now more than ever to connect with others via social media groups, sometimes the support you need requires a deeper level of connection, confidence, and consultation. In school, you had instructors to lean on. But in the real world, who can you reach out to? And how?
Ditch the Idea of Competition
I propose we lean on each other as colleagues—and fellow lovers of our trade—first and foremost. Sadly, we live in a culture where the concept of competition keeps us from reaching out to each other, when in fact there are plenty of clients to go around. Currently, national statistics show us there are far more clients than practitioners. In fact, clients are often required to wait several weeks to get in for an appointment. Yet, many practitioners still seem to have a scarcity mindset (fear that there’s not enough to go around) and are concerned that if they share ideas with local practitioners, they will somehow lose out.
If we turn competition into cooperation, everyone wins, especially when it comes to needing help dealing with problems, such as a challenging client condition that isn’t progressing in a positive way or a difficult client who is presenting an ethical dilemma. So, how do you make that happen?
Skip Social Media—Host a Gathering!
Certainly, you can join a private online group for massage professionals. There are plenty of those available and they are helpful. But there is something about collaborating in person that cannot be replaced by technology, especially for more complex conversations.
You might be thinking, “How do I make those in-person connections?” Simple . . . be the leader and make it happen! Somebody has to start the ball rolling. And it’s highly likely that other practitioners are feeling solo and lonely and craving this connection too. So, choose a date, time, and location to host a gathering. Ideally, schedule it a couple of weeks in advance so that it’s more likely people are available. Give a time range, such as 4:00-5:30 p.m. on a Sunday, so that people know exactly what they are committing to. Then, do a simple search of massage and bodywork practitioners in your area and either invite them via email (which you can usually find on their professional website) or get really brave and pick up the phone! It need not be an elaborate plan that requires a lot of preparation. It could be as simple as meeting at a coffee shop. However, it is important to have some structure, so prepare a basic plan that includes the following:
• Introductions
For a first meeting, ask each person to share their name, how long they’ve been in practice, their specialties, and one story of a challenging or surprising situation they’ve encountered since being in practice and how they resolved it. This is an easy icebreaker, as I’m sure everyone has at least one, if not many, stories of odd or entertaining encounters with clients. Of course, be mindful of confidentiality and never divulge identities.
• Conversation Starters
Prepare 2–3 questions to get the conversation sparked. You might draw inspiration from a current challenge you are facing. For example, you might say, “I have a client who continues to ask me personal questions. I always divert the conversation, but I think I need to be more direct and I’m not sure how to do that without offending them. Any ideas?” Or, “I want to get some part-time work partnering with a local chiropractor. Does anyone know of one who is looking for a massage therapist?” There are endless possibilities. I can almost guarantee that once you get things started, you’ll run out of time before you run out of things to discuss and get insight on.
• Leave Time to Plan Another Gathering
Make sure to leave about 10 minutes to talk about when you will meet again (monthly, quarterly, etc.) and to ask for permission to make contact when an immediate need for collaboration and support arises.
• Gain Many Benefits
By taking the initiative to build a local support system, you not only create a network of resources for when challenges arise, but you might also find new folks to trade with, refer to, receive referrals from, and perhaps even become friends with. Even if only one person shows up the first time, that’s one connection made that could result in a cascade of possibilities that you hadn’t even considered (like office sharing!)
I challenge you to expand your touch beyond the treatment room, where you are solo with clients, by reaching toward those who are like-minded in your local professional community. It only takes one person to start intertwining and uplifting the whole! Why not be the one?