About My Last Massage…
(Or: Meeting God via Triggerpoint)
As a bodyworker, I try to "walk my talk"—which means getting massaged as often as I’d recommend for you to. For me? Ideally every two weeks. Key word: ideally. Life happens.
Lately I’ve been trying to get back on my regular two-week routine and I thought it would be a good idea to tell you about the stellar session I just had with my pal Courtney K. Before I get into it (and because I know you’re already wondering) - Yes, her booking info IS included below - you’re welcome.
So here’s the thing: Receiving massage isn’t just about unknotting my shoulders or de-stressing. It’s professional development. Like a chef who actually eats their own food (shocking concept), I learn so much on the table—stuff that directly makes me a better therapist – and there’s so much more to it than soft tissue work and attachment sites.
Why My Body Is a Hot Mess (A Love Story)
Some fun facts about me and my meat suit:
Career longevity hack: Swapped my hands for my feet! After 7 years of manual massage (post a brutal decade of hand-papermaking—yes, really), I discovered Ashiatsu in 2018. Now 80% of my pressure comes from my legs/hips, saving my shoulders from early retirement. BUT this also means that without regular maintenance on my hips and legs, my hamstrings and IT bands get TIGHT (and I KNOW some of my clients KNOW what that’s like).
Hypermobility: My joints are extra bendy. A puzzle piece I’m just now working with in my 40s! Turns out, barefoot massage has accidentally been the best thing for my rogue hips— Using my core + legs to deliver delicious pressure results in functionality + stability. Who knew?! (The folx at Sarga did, that’s who- a training that challenged my conversation with my own body, changed my barefoot game and post for another day…)
Henna season = goblin mode: Soon I’ll be hunched over hands and crawling around ankles at festivals like a goblin henna artiste. I can already feel my hunchback returning and my little henna claw cramping up after hours of nonstop drawing!
Now don’t get me wrong- I love providing each of these services SO MUCH that in doing so literally decades are just flying by and it’s become clear by now that my passion for henna and massage are likely to far outlive my physical ability to do them both.
Anyway- Enter Courtney.
I am SO glad I scheduled something with her a month or so ago! Now I totally get what some of my clients are saying when they see the email pop up and their body suddenly hurts, seeming to say: “actually, YES, we DO need a massage- RIGHT HERE!”
Honestly, it had been a couple of years since my last session with Courtney. I remembered that my last session was stellar, but it had still been a while. I know she’s picked up a couple of trainings since our last session, which always changes the way we work with our clients, so I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect.
My right hip and my right arm/hand needed every bit of skill she could throw at them though. And boy did she! Not every bodywork session has you confronting “your inner shit” and rolling in the fabric of the Universe. (…or something?! What WAS that?!)
Guys. We released things. We went places. We got work done. We giggled about it.
This job is so Weird and Awesome. There are SO many variables that affect how deep we can go with someone in therapeutic work at any given moment. It does get easier with practice AND you get to explore it ALL when you do the giving and the receiving - which is why I will never stop nerding out about this.
Not every session has you laughing, crying, and questioning reality while someone digs into your piriformis. But when it does? Chef’s kiss. We’re literally soft tissue wizards. Trauma? Knots? Existential dread?
Cool, let’s breathe into that.
Bodyworkers get it. Talking shop with another LMT is like speaking a secret language of pain and miracles. (Podcast idea? 👀)
You guys trust us to guide you through the chaos. And it IS chaos.
It's not lost on me how incredible that is. So much of this really clicked into place during this session and especially after just listening to this Moonbeaming podcast episode where somatic depth coach Antonia Dolhaine speaks so eloquently about expanding our capacity for chaos.
So here I am
Having a “come-to-Jesus” moment because of the trigger point near my elbow. Attempting to breathe into it and wondering WTF that sensation is against my right earlobe… is it in or out of my body? What is going on here?!
Now my hip- which is where my Chiropractor (aka my “cry-ropractor”) gets frequent messages from my traumatized inner child (joy!) The whole left side of my body is lighting up (wait… light?) and I just want to cry because of that thing with my dad when I was four… but fuuuuuck is that pressure INTENSE.
Okay Breathe.
No. GIGGLE because isn’t it hilarious that you can feel all of this physically and emotionally and know that somehow we are working with soft tissue and trauma AND- we’re completely aware of it AS ITS HAPPENING.
This is why we call it massage THERAPY guys. And lucky for me: a huge nerd in my own self-healing journey AND my carreer as a bodyworker- I LOVE THIS SHIT- anyway
The Point (Besides Gushing About Courtney)
Embrace the weirdness. Your body stores stories—sometimes they’re messy.
Tell me: Do you also leave sessions feeling like a soup sandwich? Should I start a bodywork nerdery podcast? Comment below and let me know!
Thanks a ton for reading, too! Until next time-
~Samantha
