We were lucky to catch up with Wynter Andries recently and have shared our conversation below.

Wynter, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Looking back at internships and apprenticeships can be interesting, because there is so much variety in people’s experiences – and often those experiences inform our own leadership style. Do you have an interesting story from that stage of your career that you can share with us?

It wasn’t a true internship, but I did have a mentor while I was in massage school. I partnered with an alumni from my school who works with kids with autism, and during this mentorship, I gained experience while massaging her and her autistic son. This afforded me the opportunity to get direct feedback from an experienced licensed massage therapist. This was extremely valuable! It helped me find where I could improve, but I also learned what I was doing well. As I started out pretty rigid in the beginning, the acquired confidence from messaging them helped me relax into my craft. Though, I learned the most important lesson while working on her son. He enjoyed massage, but he preferred a light touch. Sometimes, I was uncertain of how that could be helpful. As I continued to work on him each week, I observed him becoming more and more relaxed. He navigated school, and all of the sensory input from that environment, with greater ease by the time we ended our work together. This experience proved massage doesn’t have to deeply engage a client’s musculature to be beneficial. Sometimes, all that is needed is calming touch.

Wynter, 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?

My interest in massage started a long time ago. A friend, who was in massage school, often shared what she learned with me. I was impressed by how much knowledge massage therapists were equipped with – it was a lot more than I thought and expected! I thought I might also attend massage school since it seemed interesting, but I wasn’t in a place in my life to do so. Over a decade later, I decided to attend school when I was looking for a career change. While I was considering my career change from analytics, I received a lot of bodywork and always picked my massage therapists’ brain around what she was doing and why. It was always in the back of my mind.

I’m glad I made the jump into massage therapy when I did because it set me up on a unique path. Had I started my training when I initially thought to, I would have picked just any training program and would have probably worked at the first place that would’ve hired me. Starting this career when I was ready allowed me to make more informed decisions. I was able to take my time and find a school which was right for me. I also researched the field more thoroughly to better understand my options once I obtained my license. While I offer some standard modalities (deep tissue, Swedish, etc.) my specialties are in specific injury treatment, trauma informed massage, and lymph drainage. These are my “happy places” in massage therapy and what I enjoy offering the most. I’ve worked in both chiropractic and mental health settings, and I combine these modalities in my private practice.

I am currently most proud of starting my own business. I branched out on my own in April of 2021 after the chiropractor’s office where I was working had to permanently close. I considered finding another job, but a lot of people asked if I planned on starting my own business. Between encouragement from my clients and my partners, I decided to give it a try. At the time, a lot of businesses closed given they could not recover from the financial hit they took during 2020. So, while it seemed like a risky time to start a business, I saw the risk of starting my business and working for another business as nearly the same. Regardless of whether my business failed or my next employer’s did, the risk was similar, but there was far more to gain from taking the leap myself. Everything so far has been great! I am still around and my business continues to grow over a year later!

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

A lesson I unlearned is one does not need to have all of the answers before starting your own business. While it’s essential to have certain things in place – like proper insurance, a professional space, and some clients to start out- you don’t need to know exactly how you want your business to look and function right away. This is something I had to learn and uncover over time, and I still am making small changes and adjustments often. I believed in order to start a successful business, you needed to have an exact vision. Honestly, I ended up going into business for myself about three years before I was planning on even taking that option into consideration and had nothing but a massage space, some supplies, some back-up funds, and a loose idea. Sometimes in order to get something off the ground you just need to start.

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

Something I learned back when I first started, and still think about today, is clients are in charge of their own healing journey. They are in their bodies, know themselves, what is right and reasonable for them better than anyone else. People in the health and wellness field can educate and make suggestions based on what we know and what we think may help our clients, but ultimately, it is up to them. They are on their own healing journey and may not have the ability, funds, time, or even desire to do certain things (like stretching, getting regular massage, strength training, etc.) – and that’s ok! It’s not our job to get caught up in what we want our clients to do. Our job is to help facilitate healing and hold space for them to be able to navigate their health and wellness (physical, mental and emotional) on their own. That mindset is essential to being successful in massage therapy explicitly because it allows space for your clients to express their own needs and autonomy. It puts the massage therapist in a space where we can listen and respond appropriately without getting stuck on our own agenda.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://syzygybodywork.amtamembers.com/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SyzygyBodywork

Image Credits
C. Rogers