The New Year will bring some major changes

Christmas special presents free massage opportunity

By Rebecca Townsend

Big news in two parts:

First, I opened an office in the Stutz Arts and Business Center (1060 N. Capitol Ave.) to build my own private practice within a longstanding massage collective that has occupied the space for over a decade.

To express my excitement at being able to work at Stutz, one of the city’s great historical buildings which Indiana’s largest number of artists working under one roof, I created my first holiday gift certificate promotion and included a limited number of free massages as a reward for folks who are getting in with me at the ground level.

Second, the new Hand and Stone Massage and Facial Spa, which is set to open at Clearwater Strip Mall (8505 Keystone Crossing) in early 2019, this week extended me an offer of employment. I’d never previously aspired to work in a corporate spa environment, but the educational and advancement opportunities the company presented distinguished Hand and Stone from their competitors. They won me over — and I think it’s mutual: I’m the Keystone Hand and Stone’s first massage therapist!

The company’s director of massage therapy education and training, Nathan Nordstrom, was inducted into the 2018 Massage Therapy Hall of Fame at the World Massage Festival in Las Vegas this summer. His team will be arriving to train the Keystone massage therapists during the first week of January. Soon I’ll be fully indoctrinated into the ways of the Himalayan Salt Hot Stone Massage.

To help local owner Mark Roger prepare for opening day of his first Hand and Stone franchise is an exciting opportunity. From Modern Times Urban Truck Stop, the restaurant I opened at 54th and College 20 years ago, to the evolution of Lift over the past few years, I’ve enjoyed watching and helping local businesses grow.

Massage is so different from journalism. (For those of you who don’t know, I was a reporter for two decades before pursuing massage therapy after a local paper’s resource realignment eliminated my job and moved me straight into years of perilous cashflow.) I miss reporting because of my inquisitive and adventurous nature. However, practicing massage therapy and nurturing the skills of meditative silence and deep breathing while in session has probably saved the life of a hot-headed woman who may have lost her mind trying to reason with the crazy that has infected so many levels of political and social life today.

Guilt and/or Ego/Justice-Driven Temptation: I could make a career investigating all the contracts issued in support of Trump’s wall by government officials who espouse efficiency in government spending as a top priority.

Question: How can I let myself sit on journalism’s sidelines when so much insanity is running rampant?

Counterargument: Given the shifting sands of today’s media landscape and shrinking attention spans of possibly everyone, it is highly likely that I’m accomplishing the greatest possible good right now by helping people to slow down and breathe. Slowing down has been good for me, even as part of me will always remain a rolling stone. [Dan Rather is quoted as saying, “Fish gotta Swim. Birds gotta fly. Reporters gotta go.” Yep. It makes one feel alive to be on the go, always on the hunt for something important.]

Reflecting back on the four years since I returned from the 2014 Brazil World Cup is a dizzying exercise.

After losing my beloved local news job just a month after my return, and not able to see/find a viable/enticing local replacement, I entered the Indiana College of Sports and Medical Massage (now Indiana Massage College) and began coaching a high school girls soccer team (that I started from scratch). During this same time, I was living with my husband and then-12-year-old daughter in an RV in our backyard while a gut-job home remodel was working its way through hellish dimensions that ultimately took four years to complete. In May of 2015, I graduated from massage college and landed a job with Lift Therapeutic Massage in the Downtown Indianapolis Fletcher Place neighborhood.

Lift provided a nourishing, warm environment in which to unfold my wings as a massage therapist.

The Lift team supported me while I (barely) survived the RV days and the challenges of making a mid-life career transition without any assistance from unemployment, which included several days of folding sheets, putting on a happy face and not making a dime while waiting for clients to discover me. They supported me while I coached the inner-city rec team in the spring and the fall, plus the high school girls in the fall. They supported me when the school broke my heart by replacing me with a teacher to coach after three seasons leading the high school girl (despite my winning record). They supported me when I took time off to cover Indy Eleven and they were happy for me when the team hired me to be on the broadcast team. And they supported me when Indy Eleven broke my heart by eliminating me from the broadcast team.

This support probably kept me alive because these four years have capped a most challenging decade.

Massage therapist Tasha Blackman, who co-owns the business with artist Nicci Herren, sets a gold standard for client care and attending to a host of experience-enhancing details. I am forever grateful to her from teaching me so many lessons about the business. Her enduring influence on my approach to the work is unquestionable.

When I announced to Nicci and Tasha a few weeks ago that it was time to plan my exit strategy … they may have been in shock. After working for so long to build a solid book of business, I’m finally at a place where I’m booked most of the time. In fact, looking out over the seven shifts I have remaining at the business, I currently have just one more opening available. [Please consider trying to squeeze in with me before my time expires!] Having the end so near is bittersweet.

For clients who have come to know and rely on me with regularity at Lift, please know that I’ve been honored care for you. Lift clients are an astounding lot; my life is immeasurably enriched by thousands of experiences we’ve shared over the past three and a half years. Understand that I owe my relationship with you to Lift, so I must honor a customary no-contact period with Lift’s clients.

Meanwhile, you will be in capable hands on any of the studio’s tables. My co-workers are a wealth of talent and experience.

Lift sets the standard for client care, allowing a half hour between each session to allow for detailed intake/exit interviews and flexibility with session times to build in a little extra TLC when possible/necessary. Even when my time as an employee is finished, I will continue to recommend Lift as a destination massage therapy studio.

Moving forward, I will do my best to build business at the Stutz while I wait for Hand and Stone to open. Please visit the spa’s Facebook page to track its progress. I’m glad to give my clients both Downtown and Northside options.

One way friends and family could do me a huge solid is to help me meet my goal of getting 14 rebookings within Hand and Stone’s first 14 days open. Any of you people who help me achieve that goal will receive a gift certificate for a free 90-minute massage at my Stutz office, ok? That is a darn good deal for both of us!

Hopefully, some of you tired and weary souls will soon find your way to my table.

Maybe we can work together to accomplish health, happiness and good fortune in 2019!