Celebrating 20 Years of Massage Therapy!

OVER TWO DECADES AGO, I HAD A DESIRE TO DO SOMETHING THAT MADE ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE FROM THE OUTSIDE …

I already had a successful career working as a research chemist at a prestigious university. I was working on projects that would yield impactful results and bring benefit to people years and decades down the line. I was using my skills and talents. It was truly a great gig!

But, I wanted more.

I wanted my efforts to provide immediate benefit at the level of the individual.

Since touch was very natural to me, and I knew for myself how much better I felt after having received massage, Massage Therapy was a perfect fit for me.

While still working full-time in the research lab, I began massage therapy training at Community College of Allegheny County. After two years, I earned an Associate in Science Degree in Massage Therapy, which was the highest level of academic training available at the time.

Upon graduating in 2006, I started my first company, Massage Therapy Professionals, Ltd., which provided on-site chair massage for groups, businesses and special events. I contracted with other massage therapists to expand reach.

Many clients were new to massage therapy and we provided their first experience. It was so satisfying to see people get on board with massage therapy and then relax after just 5-10 minutes of chair massage!

I was able to do these chair massage events part-time while I was still working full-time as a researcher. It was the best of both worlds!

After four years of working in both massage therapy and research, I realized that I wanted to change how I offered massage therapy. I wanted to work with my own regular clients repeatedly (rather than one-off clients at chair massage events). I also wanted to allow room for future expansion into other modalities beyond massage therapy.

So in 2010, I reinvented into a more expandable and personally-driven company, Centered Presence, Ltd.

And the rest, they say, is history!

Very early in my massage career, I decided to offer on-site massage therapy exclusively. This meant that I wouldn't have an office or a studio, but rather would go to where the clients were. I would bring the chair or table, all of the materials needed, and set up in their space. This opened opportunities that I wouldn't have had otherwise and fit well with massage therapy being a secondary career for me.

But, things evolved ... as they should.

10 years after becoming a massage therapist, I trained to be a Professional Life Coach and a Kripalu Yoga Teacher in order to pursue my mind, body, spirit work full-time. Massage Therapy helped me to make the transition into full-time self-employment because, at the time I made the leap, I had already been in the field for a decade. I knew that I could simply scale up my massage therapy work while I established myself in two new fields.

Massage Therapy has truly been an essential part of my journey and has afforded some notable achievements along the way:

In the past 20 years, I've done over 1,500 table massages and 2,000 chair massages -- that's over 3,500 times that someone felt better as a direct result of my work! I served as a reviewer of a chapter in a Massage Therapy Pathology textbook, and I contributed to an article about Palliative Massage in the AMTA Massage Therapy Journal.

I have also grown as a professional, a practitioner, and a human being. And, I've had fantastic adventures along the way!

I appreciate all of the teachers, colleagues, and clients that have been part of this experience.

So, 20 years later, I am glad to say that I still going strong!

If you have been a regular client of mine, thank you for your loyalty!

If you are a client who hasn't had a massage from me in long while, well, it's definitely time again!

If you are someone who has never had a massage from me and has been thinking about it, don't wait forever because someday I will retire!

Until then, I'll just keep doing what I do best -- one massage at a time!

Alex describes his first on-site table massage from Centered Presence, Ltd. in Pittsburgh, PA.

With massage therapy mentors Emmanuel Baum and Cheryl Siniakin-Baum on graduation day.