I've Changed

There have been many changes in the last 6 weeks. The biggest change is that I have closed my practice.

I also had another body part removed -- the gall bladder this time -- which always takes more out of me than I expect. But things are going well now and I'm cautiously optimistic about that.

Closing my practice was a bigger deal.

No, I haven't quit massage therapy. What I've done is close my home-based private practice and joined a local group practice.

Why would I do that (you may be asking yourself)???  Isn't the low-overhead, all the profits all the time, home-based private practice the holy grail of massage therapy????

It wasn't for me.

There are two sides to this move (almost 2 years in the making) for me: leaving private practice + joining a group practice.

Leaving private practice

Yes, in private practice you are the Boss Of (Your) Universe. You get to make all the decisions, control the schedule, and pocket all the income. Woo hoo!

You also have 100% of the responsibility for everything. Every. Thing. It was all on my taut shoulders. Attracting clients, booking clients, processing payments, laundry, replenishing supplies, etc. etc. etc. It's a lot of work.

In practical terms, I never ever stopped thinking about my business. Not when I was working, not when I was taking a shower, not when I was watching a movie, not when I was on a date night with my husband, not when I was on vacation. Never.

That's draining.

Private practice is also isolating. I worked alone. Especially since I worked out of my home I spent a lot of time by myself. I'm an introvert but even introverts have their limits. I was too often at risk of relying on my clients for my social contact. That's dangerous.

The reality of running a home-based private practice had become too much for me.

I also need more energy to develop my classes and write my books. The energy for it has to come from somewhere. That "somewhere" was the administration of a private practice.

Joining a group practice

On March 1, I joined Freed Bodyworks. It's been not-quite 6 weeks (with a week out for that pesky gall bladder) but so far it's meeting my (high) expectations.

I've been practicing massage therapy for 15 years and have worked in a broad selection of settings: yoga centers, gyms, outcall services, private practice, group practices, etc. I've learned some things that governed my criteria for where I wanted to land. These were my 5 non-negotiable requirements:

1. It must be run well as a business.  Given my particular passion for the business of massage this probably isn't surprising but how many of us put it in the #1 spot on our requirements list? I've seen (and experienced) the effects of working in a haphazardly-run business. Far too many of the businesses in our industry are run haphazardly.

Often it's simply because the business owner has never received any useful education or direction about how to run an actual business. Sometimes it's because they are consumed by their passion for the healing work and let the business side run amok due to inattention. There are also business owners who, frankly, shouldn't be. They don't have the temperament or personality to be the boss.

2. It must have a mission I can get excited about. Lots of businesses have a "sense" of their mission but they couldn't state it clearly and simply if their life depended on it. I know what mine is: helping you live comfortably in and peacefully with your body.

A fundamental piece of that is that everyone -- everyone -- is welcome regardless of size, shape, color, health, self-care habits, etc. I make it a point to never try to "help" someone with their weight, fluid consumption, stretching regimen, etc. unless specifically asked. Even then I often demur if it isn't something I know I have practical and professional experience with (which always rules out any "advice" about weight).

Freed Bodywork's mission is stated clearly on their website, in all their marketing efforts, and in every detail of how they run their business: radical inclusion for all bodies. They live that mission every day in a way that has impressed me for a long time.

Their second chief mission I suspect is shared by most of the well-run group practices: provide a good space where good therapists can do good work. They take care of their therapists as well as they take care of their clients.

3. It must be convenient to my existing client base. I've been focusing my marketing on the Capitol Hill area of Washington DC for several years now. "Geographic desirability" is a serious issue here because of traffic. If I chose one of the other great group practices in the DC area, I ran the risk of losing most of my clients because most of them are not convenient to my current client base.

Admittedly, that limited my choices. Freed Bodyworks was the only one that met this requirement easily. If that hadn't worked, I'd have had to look further afield and risk losing a chunk of my clients.

4. I must like them. What's the point of closing a private practice so I could have co-workers again if I didn't like any of them?

5. The contract terms must be attractive. The "split" needed to make sense. Theirs does. Given the spirit of generosity and support that goes into their relationship with their therapists, I feel well-supported and well-appreciated.


I'm an independent contractor so I'm still self-employed. I still actively market myself as a massage therapist (thought not as feverishly as I needed to before). But now, at the end of my shift, I can go home and quit worrying about it. Plus, my schedule when I'm working is more full than it was when it was just me. I like both of those things.

It's hard to critically evaluate our options when we want or need to work for someone else (which is why I teach a workshop on it called Where We Work and am writing an ebook with the same name). Years of experience have taught me -- the hard way, which is always the best teacher -- what my true criteria need to be.

If you are in the same position I was, spend some time thinking deeply about what you need beyond "income". A high-paying position in a place you hate is never as sweet a deal as it may look like from the outside.