We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Ashia Walker. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Ashia below.
Alright, Ashia thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?
When I began my career 13yrs ago I didn’t realize it was my career and that I would be as passionate about it as I am today. My son was interested in massage school, and we went to several orientations looking for the right fit for him. On the last orientation the administrator gave such an in-depth detailed presentation of not only the school but what a career in Massage Therapy could look like in the future of Health Care. I dropped out of college for nursing because it was just too much with having 4 kids and working, I was a single mother and struggling from paycheck to paycheck. The program at NMTI was accelerated and I could be finished within 6 months needless to say I enrolled and began the program. Discovering that Massage Therapy had so many health benefits for so many diseases and disorders was amazing. While typically the program was to be six months it took me a year to complete due to unexpected circumstances, my father passing ad well as my son who had severe asthma and other personal obstacles I had to take a leave of absence. However, I had the most amazing Mentors & Teachers who encouraging me to return to school. While attending NMTI I learned techniques to help my son with his asthma helping him breath and have better control of his asthma helped me find my passion for rehabilitation treatment massage.
Ashia, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I have been a Therapist for 13 years now specializing in medical & rehabilitation massage. When I started my career, I never would have imagined I would impact so many lives. My clients come to me looking for chronic pain relief or to regain their mobility after many doctors have told them they have exhausted all treatment options and there is nothing left for them to do except pain management medications that in my personal opinion are temporary fixes until they are convinced there is no other option other than surgery. I named my practice Reformation Massage & Bodywork because we are reforming our client’s daily lives. Injuries & Chronic Pain can be debilitating over time and without proper diagnosis & treatment clients can lose hope and with that diminish their quality of life leading to other health issues including depression. At Reformation Massage & Bodywork my staff cares about each one of our clients we take the time to review not only your intake form, but we listen to your concerns the day of your service and design a treatment session specific to your needs that day. This is a very important step in our process to address each session one treatment at a time simply because today’s problem resolution may not be the same treatment process on your next visit. In order to regain Functionality & Mobility you must treat the complete body.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
Reformation Massage & Bodywork started in the Pandemic, When Texas began to open back up, going back to work for someone full time was not an option I still had a child who was still on virtual learning and no one to stay at home with her. I also knew that while clients wanted to get back into a regular routine of self-care and massage many were still very afraid of venturing out to unnecessary appointments and in home visits weren’t an option. I opened my clean and sterile office taking every precaution I could to maintain the health & safety of my clients into consideration. While we received some push back about our mandatory mask requirement many of our clients who are special needs or high risk felt safe with our staff and office to begin regular treatments. We have now been open 2 years and seen over 2000 clients. In January of 2022 our office suffered a massive flood and had too temporally relocate and modify office hours to accommodate our temporary space, and while we took an incredible financial hit our clients were amazing and purchased gift cards & packages to make sure we could rebuild and get back into our space. We managed to do this in two months. We are still in the recovery phase but without our clients we would have had to close down
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
We pride ourselves on connecting with each of our clients and treating them as individuals and not just another session. And because we want our clients to get to know us, we are very much a part of the community participating at community events across the Austin area
Contact Info:
- Website: reformationmassageandbodywork.com
- Instagram: @reformationmassageandbodywork
- Facebook: @regainingfucntionalityandmobility
- Other: [email protected]