Friday, June 13, 2008

Watch!

Tonight at 6pm or 10:30 check out channel 4 (shaw)! Yesterday they came by our school and filmed our class. I, of course, am wearing the least amount of cloths possible in a public situation and am being worked on by the beautiful and oh so talented Maja :)
And yeah, I was in class yesterday. We were doing a class on breast care and I wanted to sit in on that section. It's such an important part of women's health and it requires a special approach with both the therapist/client relationship and the level of energy/vibe that you're sending out that I wanted to redo that section. It just so happened that our class was being filmed during this class. The segment has nothing to do about breast care but instead it's about massage therapy in general.
It's all about educating the public. Unfortunately massage therapy still has a certain social stigma that is slowly being shaken. However it's still apparent that it's there. As a student I've noticed it a lot. I've stopped telling people that I am going to school for massage therapy and tell them instead that I go to school for health care. When I told people that I went to school for massage therapy, they would ask things like "Do you have a class where they teach you about happy endings?" "Can I get one *wink wink*" and so many silly comments that I can't even remember them all. At first it's funny and you shoot back some smart ass comment that keeps them in check... but even that starts to get tiring. So I save myself the trouble.
Heck even the camera guy made a comment that had us all shaking our head. When he came in to introduce himself, we were doing a demo, therefore one of the students was on the massage table, but was fully covered by the top sheet. We'd discussed that we wouldn't be doing breast massage during the segment that they were filming and I forget how this comment came up but he said "Don't worry I've worked in the porn industry." We laughed it off because most of us thought we'd heard wrong. Apparently we didn't. Kinda shocking, yet unsurprising.
Again, with this interview, they didn't elaborate (or really explain for that matter) that massage therapy plays a medical role in society now. Again, it's more about the fluff and the relaxation, less about the therapy. Still, Annette, the instructor who was interviewed, did a fantastic job at answering the questions and steering the conversation in that direction. Unfortunately, the questions were scripted so there was no wiggle room. Maybe next time when they come by we can introduce the idea of massage therapy also having a medical side to it. After all since I've been in the program, camera crews have been by at least 3 times.

3 comments:

JABV5225 said...

I am so insulted and disgusted when someone makes an ignorant comment about massage therapy. I think we, licensed massage therapists, need to be very outspoken and political and indignant when someone makes such an offensive comment as the one made in your class. How dare he compare therapeutic massage to porn? I would have straightened him out. But I am a 58-year-old woman with a Master's degree and a lot of life experience that preceded my decision to become a massage therapist. To all of you younger people. . . SPEAK UP for all of us. Don't let the ignorance continue. We have to not only be great massage therapists, but we all have to be strong advocates for the respect of our own work and for our profession. Don't shrug off those stupid comments. . .they are "teachable" moments when you can raise someone's consciousness.

Anonymous said...

Janelle,

I appreciate the perspective that you provide as a student of massage. I have a site about massage school and I would be interested in talking to you about sharing your experience on our website. I think that it would be helpful for prospective students to hear about the experiences and decision making process of a current student.

Would love to hear from you. john.mcdermott4 (at) verizon.net

Rebecca Mauldin said...

Great post Janelle! I love hearing about massage students' experience. I'm lucky to practice massage in Colorado, where we almost never hear that type of insinuation. I'm glad you got on TV and are working to educate the public about the true nature of massage therapy. Good luck in your career and I look forward to reading more posts.