We were lucky to catch up with Lauren Wheeler recently and have shared our conversation below.

Lauren, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Setting up an independent practice is a daunting endeavor. Can you talk to us about what it was like for you – what were some of the main steps, challenges, etc.

I thought about setting up my own practice for many years before I actually did it! I really had a lot of self limiting beliefs and wasn’t sure I would be right for it. I was working at a massage establishment and a lot of things were going wrong there. I wasn’t treated properly nor were my clients being treated properly and the environment was growing more and more toxic. I had to get out. So I was looking into other options, but no other place around town was really offering enough pay for me to be happy with. I ended up looking at a room to rent and was super tempted but the size was not feeling right. I am 6’0 so I really need enough space to feel good when treating my clients. So I declined that one, just hoping that something else was out there. I still wasn’t really sure I could be a business owner and that too contributed to my decision of not going forward with that. It seemed super daunting. Then, I found a massage therapist close to my apartment at the time, who I went to for treatment myself and we got to talking during the session. I was telling her how I really craved a change from the place I was in. She had been working for herself for 30 years and telling me how much she loved it! It planted a seed in my head! Then, she also told me she was going to be taking over the lease there soon and that a room was opening up, if I was interested! That really made me think, wow, this is probably meant to be! I checked out the room and it was a perfect size for me, it felt great and felt like I was going in the right direction! The room was going to be ready in one month, so I started quickly making sure all my paperwork was filed and legalities in place! While I was setting up and getting going I still was working part time at my old place and eventually it got to be too much to handle. Soon after I started my business, I quit there to fully pursue my own business. There were definitely times of struggle getting started and a lot of kinks to work out, but I just kept going and now have a very successful business in my 3rd year!

If I were to do anything differently I think I probably should have started it sooner! Once I did it, I proved to myself that I could do it and everything aligned how it was supposed to. Of course it takes a bit to get up and running but that’s with any business and you just have to go for it and have the drive and it will work!

My advice for anyone starting out on their own is just to have confidence and build your self worth. That is huge as a business owner and needs to be vital for your longevity! Also I would say to definitely have a marketing plan, because it is one thing to be good at your craft but it is a whole other thing to be able to market yourself well to run a thriving business!

Lauren, 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 got into massage therapy from a holistic doctor I was seeing back when I moved to Florida in 2013. She had a massage therapist in her office and I was curious about learning from her as 1) I knew how beneficial massage is from experiencing it myself, I had a good massage therapist where I was living previously and 2) I was wanting to explore new career options, as I was working in restaurants and wanting something more fulfilling. That massage therapist taught reiki classes and I ended up taking one of them just wanting to learn more and I ended up having a very profound experience. I discovered how intuitive I was, being a lot more advanced than others in the class, in that I could feel the heat radiating from the body in problem areas, without even touching the person, when we did our practice work. It really opened my eyes to wanting to do some kind of healing modality working with the collective and helping people to feel better. The doctor that I was seeing she really inspired me because when she met me, she told me I need to be doing some sort of service work, but not in the restaurant service because that was draining me but she could see how much I liked to help people. That doctor ended up passing away tragically in 2015 and that really made me wake up and want to pursue massage therapy because she really impacted my life a lot and I never forgot what she told me. I enrolled a few months later in massage school and once I went there, I was so blown away. It felt like I finally found my niche and felt like I truly belonged there. I was meeting like minded people who were into the same holistic things as me and also learning so much! It was truly magical!

I graduated in 2016 and I got my license in 2017 and started working at a sports rehab/ post op clinic and was there for 5 years. I truly learned a lot, I was right out of school working with really seasoned therapists! There I did a lot of sports massage and deep tissue work, but my true passion is therapeutic massage. Working a lot slower and listening to the nervous system. Now I do incorporate cupping therapy and muscle scraping (stainless steel tools) which is more associated with sports massage, however I add a therapeutic component that makes it super relaxing and adds my own twist to it. Now I have curated my niche to working mostly with women and catering to their issues, which a lot suffer from TMJ problems and hip flexor tension. Most of my sessions now spend a lot of time on the front body, opening up these areas in detail. I’m super holistic though in my treatments and work the whole body, thoroughly. I use many tools such as the cups, stainless steel instruments and also hot stones to help with releasing tension. I have also been getting into playing around with crystal energy and tuning forks to really align the body energetically and physically!

I think what sets me apart from others is my unique twist of the medical and spiritual side of things. I kind of pull from a lot of things I have learned and make my own technique and people come away feeling truly transformed! A lot of people tell me that they’ve never experienced a massage like mine because of this and also the immense passion that I have for my craft that can be felt in each session. Every client I see is like a puzzle for me to figure out how to fit the pieces together to balance the nervous system and tension that I feel. I have a unique gift for knowing how to fit it all together again!

Training and knowledge matter of course, but beyond that what do you think matters most in terms of succeeding in your field?

Self care, intuition, and a passion for your craft. Without those things you will not succeed in massage therapy. First and foremost you have to put yourself first and make it a priority to take care of yourself. Without boundaries and setting aside time to be treated yourself, you will burn out so fast. The average career span for a massage therapist is 5-6 years. I am going on 8 years this year and I still have such a love for this industry because I put myself first. Also the intuition, I think that’s just something innate that not everyone is in tune with and the best body workers just have it ingrained in them. This allows you to be in touch with yourself and your clients so that you know the best course of treatment for everyone. Of course, also a passion for your craft. If you don’t have that, your clients will feel it and you won’t go very far. There are some people that do it because they think it’s good money and it can be but you have to really love it because it’s not easy!

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

There were times along the way that I wasn’t sure I would continue in this profession. I remember I had to take a month off from massage school, in the very beginning, because at the time I was going through a lot of things and my living situation was up in the air and I was super overwhelmed. I was commuting 45 minutes to school everyday and it was a lot. I could have given up and not continued towards graduating, however I knew that this was meant to be for me and I pushed through and did continue. I ended up graduating, and it was the best thing I ever could have done because now I am super happy in my career and it’s the most fulfilling thing I’ve ever done in my life! Also, when I first started working in the field, I was having a really stressful time as well, my sister and I had just moved in together because she was pregnant and I was going to help her. Her postpartum journey was really hard and I was feeling a lot of stress from it all which made me have a horrible eczema breakout where it was all over my forearms and sometimes my hands. It made me look like I had leprosy. It was super embarrassing giving massage like that because it would be really rough and constantly having to wash my hands and arms after each client left it dry and was really hard to heal. I always had to hold my arms down and away from people’s sight. I kept going though and didn’t let that affect my work, too much. I ended up curing it with intermittent fasting and treating with CBD on my days off. It eventually went away and hasn’t come back since! That time was very hard as a massage therapist having to touch people with that huge outbreak on my arms and hands. It was miserable, but I kept going because I absolutely love this work!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Www.massagebook.com/biz/lotus-therapeuticmassage
• Instagram: https://Www.Instagram.com/lotustheramassage
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Image Credits

Kate Rose Media +
La Tropicana Co