Massage's history is rooted in technique and body knowledge, but is also about heart, healing intention and connection between therapist and client. A tension - sometimes constructive, other times uncomfortable - has been prevalent in the field between one impulse toward structure and recognition and another toward freedom and flexibility to be responsive to individual circumstances
Bob BensonThe single largest frustration in the massage field is the waste of resources and training resulting from high attrition among those who start practicing massage therapy. While some affected individuals may have made an ill-suited vocational choice and others underestimated the profession's physical demands, most appear to stumble in assembling the self-confidence and persistent salesmanship necessary to develop a professional practice
Bob BensonYour children are not the same. Not at all. Each one is unique. There are no "boiler plate" clauses that fit all children. They are like snowflakes with their own patterns and their own shapes and their own sizes.
Bob BensonExperiencing a massage therapy session is its own best advertisement for changing perceptions. A recent national consumer survey found Americans had overwhelmingly positive feelings about their massage experience. Ninety-four percent express favorable feelings. Fully 85 percent expressed very favorable feelings about their most recent massage, with 37 percent rating it a perfect ten-out-of-ten. What is striking is that there are very few detractors. Most of those who haven't yet received a massage simply haven't felt a need for it
Bob BensonThere has to be a song. There are too many dark nights, too many troublesome days, and too many wearisome miles. Somewhere deep in the forgotten corner of one’s heart- there has to be a song. Like a cool, clear drink of water and like the gentle warmth of sunshine, and like the tender love of a child, there has to be a song!
Bob BensonA minimum required standard to obtain a massage license is quite a different matter from a voluntary certification evidencing higher-level skills. Licensing standards should be set at a level sufficient to assure safe practice, but low enough to avoid screening out those individuals who choose to perform basic work
Bob BensonA part of my appreciation for the good which moments bring has come from awareness and recognition. But it has also come from a correspnding sadness which arises from their passing. When something that can never quite be reenacted comes to an end (and all moments are that way), I feel a pensiveness within. This pensiveness gives my life a quality that might be best described as bittersweet. And those moments take on double meaning and richness - because they are here now - and because they will not always be.
Bob Benson