I Cried During A Sesson This Week

I cried during a session yesterday. I don't think the client noticed, which is good. Let me tell you why.

Sunday

Every month I do seated massage at my church for the Latino congregation that worships there. Freewill offering. I give all of it back to the pastor's discretionary fund. It's part of my "volunteer to market myself" year.

Most of members of the Latino congregation are working low-paying jobs. They may or may not be legal immigrants (I don't ask and don't want to know). Most of them don't speak English. I don't speak Spanish.

It's my favorite massage gig of the month.

Why? They are so fully over-the-top grateful for the work. The smiles, the changed posture, the blissed-out faces at the end of the massages tell me everything I need to know, with or without a common language. Most of the clients have never had massage before (sometimes the pastor is there to translate). They can't afford it now in time or money.

This past Sunday at the end of a massage, a woman turned to the pastor and said something in Spanish. He smiled and translated: "you have the hands of an angel". I smiled and said "she's right and I am thankful that this is one of the ways God uses me."

Monday

I saw a client yesterday that I've now seen 4 or 5 times. The client came to me with a very unusual problem and request. The client has scarring inside an orifice from surgeries. The surgeries are impeding the healthy functioning of that orifice. I don't work inside orifices. However, the client's naturopath suggested craniosacral therapy. The client found my name on the Upledger website (I've taken level 1) and came for work.

This work is tricky on a number of levels and, trust me, no one has ever taught you how to deal with this particular problem in any class you've ever taken. I could only rely on my little bit of craniosacral training, my intuition, and my fervent desire to be of assistance.

We did some experimentation and found we got the best results with a combination of craniosacral therapy and myofascial release. I'm using MFR in ways I never envisioned when I took the certification course. I even talked to the instructor about this client. His response? "Boy, you really get some interesting clients, don't you?"

How good are the results? Best night of sleep in years. Least amount of discomfort and restriction in this orifice in years. Able to tolerate some much-needed meds for the first time in a long time.

Last week we tried something different. The client came in on Monday and said it had been an awful weekend and we definitely needed to go back to the way we'd been doing things before.

I found myself tearful during the session. The person -- this stranger until a month ago -- has literally put body, pain, and hopes in me and my hands. And I'm guessing about what to do. Seriously folks, guessing. When I guessed wrong last week, this client had a terrible 5 days.

As I sat there with my hands on the client's body I was overcome by the enormity of that truth. This client's entire life  has been sidelined for years with this problem! If I failed to be of assistance I was just another in a long line of failed "remedies".

I felt so small and inadequate; I also felt so grounded and strong. It's not just my training and my technical skills that make a difference. It's my fervent desire to be useful, my willingness to talk to the client's body and listen to it, and it's that root system of deep professionalism that was a gift of my schooling, my association with other MTs, and my years in practice.

You couldn't just slot any massage therapist into this situation and have positive results. It really did matter that it was me -- my specific combo of skills, my confidence in myself, my ability to talk with a body, my willingness to experiment, and my belief that some kind of "better" was possible.

The work you do, your business, at the end of the day is all about you. We aren't interchangeable. You are as unique as I am. When you are telling the world about your practice -- in person, on your website, in a blog, or wherever -- don't be afraid to let them see you. Because it's YOU that is going to make the difference when they are on your table.