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Showing posts from March, 2017

A New Found Appreciation for my Body

    I am, sadly, like the majority of the population; I can appreciate the beauty in others in all of their forms while finding nothing but flaws in my own body. I have always struggled with my weight, I have varicose veins, polycystic ovarian syndrome has left me with a plethora of embarrassing symptoms and now, two babies later and just weeks away from turning 30, things are already not where they used to be!     Despite my own body constantly letting me down, I have always been interested in the human body. How is'ts put together and functions. While I had an amazing biology and anatomy teacher in high school that ignited that initial fire, obviously the anatomy and physiology course in massage school is much more in depth. We have been working our way through the levels of organization from chemical and cellular to tissues and membranes. The integumentary system, skeletal, muscular, nervous and endocrine systems just to name a few.     If you take even just a minute to think

What is Swedish Massage?

    Sometimes referred to as therapeutic or relaxation massage, Swedish massage is defined  as : Classical Western massage, generally performed in the direction of the heart. Sometimes with active or passage movement of the joints. It is used especially for relaxation, relief of muscular tension and improvement of circulation and range of motio n.     Through out our education at the Adrian School of Massage we will learn many different techniques, Swedish is where we are beginning. Our instructor is the adorable Erica Jackowski. She is a big personality in a tiny package and SO much fun. She leads our hands on classes. As mentioned before, our classmates are our guinea pigs. You partner up and half of the class is spent with you practicing the new strokes and the other half is spent on the table receiving. Not a bad gig folks. To make it even better, you occasionally will be the demo body and Erica herself with work her magic on you in demonstration. **pick me! pick me!** we haven

When Life Doesn't Care You're a Student

    Ok, we have already learned that in my personal journey I am a mom about to turn 30 and like  82% of massage therapists  this will be my "second career". So like many of my classmates I work all day, keep up my wife and mom duties and just added student to my to-do list. I knew it would be hectic at times but I thankful have a wonderful support system and always try to plan ahead.    Well two months into school it happened....my son had some medical issues pop up and he needed him mommy. He didn't know or care that I had a test that week. Honestly I didn't either at that point. I had to miss my first class. I stayed in contact with the instructor and she not only was very understanding she asked if there was anything they could do to help, offering to bring meals to our home knowing my full attention was now on my son. This is the family feeling I'm talking about people. I can't think of one instructor during my time at university that would have made suc

I Couldn't be a Massage Therapist...my thumbs would break right off!

    Long before my first day at massage school, I gave my first massage. I was probably 7 or 8 years old and whether my mom was just feeding my ego or being genuine (I guess we will never know ;-) she led me to believe I had just given her the best massage of her life. Through the years I would rub my moms shoulders or head if she had a headache, other family and friends, my boyfriends shoulders, classmates during sporting events while assisting our athletic trainer, eventually 8-10 minutes of massage on patients at the physical therapy office I worked at. I was often complimented on my gift of finding knots and digging them out. The problem was after that 10 minutes my thumbs were wrecked! I would then have to massage my own hands to relieve the ache and I remember that was the first time I thought, "How in the world do massage therapists do and hour or more at a time and multiple times a day?"     Let me tell you a secret, massage therapists will rarely touch you with thei