After not working for 15 months because of COVID I have come to realize many things – one being I am done for now writing for this site. With the completion of my Book – Massage Practice Builder – I am taking a break and possibly for good. I have loved not working. I have actually thrived during all this. My practice not so much. I have been seeing 2-4 clients a month but that is it. I have 2. 5 years left on my lease in downtown Seattle and my plan was to partially retire after that and maybe even get a part time job if anything – maybe in massage or maybe something else to ease me into retirement.
Also watching all of the banter on Facebook groups and pages had made me realize our profession overall is in big trouble. There are not enough students coming out of massage school. Franchises and all massage businesses are struggling to find employees along with finding renters to fill spaces. Some of the questions that massage therapists ask just show how much is missing in our education and training or maybe it is the way of the younger people coming into the profession.
I will start working on rebuilding my massage business this summer and hope to be back in full swing by Fall hoping that there are no more surges in the spread of the virus. Downtown Seattle has been devastated by the pandemic with so many places closing permanently when employers sent people home to work. A homeless camp has set up across the street from me which is the center of downtown. Most of my business has been tech workers and also insurance cases. I have ended my contracts with the health insurance companies and also raised my rates significantly. The time off also made me realize just how peacefull things could be without all the hassles of billing. It isn’t only the billing, it is having to constantly explain to clients that their benefits do not cover maintenance massage and that they need a prescription even though they have been told that they do not need a prescription. I am done with that.
The next 2.5 years I will be focusing only on my massage business and no longer writing or thinking about writing on the weekends and days off like I have been for the last 20 years or so. I am putting advocacy work I had been doing on the back burner indefinitely and maybe forever. It is just like herding cats…even thought someone once said something like “Julie turns the herd and leads them to water”.
I am done. Your turn.