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Recently several of Corey's projects have come across the same stumbling block: a lot of people believe many skills can’t be taught. This has come up in my poking around the topics of therapeutic relationships, compassion, supervision, writing, and emotional labor. 

In each of these areas, there is a pervasive fallacy that the reason a person is good at a skill is the result of a mystical innate genius. Some je ne sais quoi. Some indefinable essence. This is not only untrue, it’s a limiting perspective.

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The Work We Do But Won’t Name

Scholars who study labor have a term for work that involves “particularized knowledge and sustained personal attention.” They call it intimate labor. According to scholar Viviana Zelizer’s framework, this work includes things like shared secrets, bodily information, awareness of personal vulnerability, interpersonal rituals, and private languages.

Read that list again. Now think about what happens in a massage therapy session.

We know our clients’ bodies in ways that even their partners may not. We hold their secrets about pain, about stress, about the divorce they haven’t told anyone about yet. We know things about our clients we don’t even realize we know, the way a janitor knows what a household discards, learning private details from what people throw away.

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The massage therapy profession has problems. We have so many problems, those problems have bred and now have enough problematic offspring to hold a problematic family reunion.

You’re probably reading our Substack because you see these problems and you want to know how to fix them. You’ve probably thought of some plans yourself. How many times have we all had conversations that start with “Well, why don’t we just [insert solution]? That would solve it!”

The next time you start to have this conversation, stop right there and really look at that question.

Why don’t we just [insert solution]?

The answer is that what you’re asking for is really hard. If it was easy, it would have been accomplished already.

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“Everyone who is engaging with humans—as a teacher, a psychotherapist, as a bodyworker—should be aware of the state of the other,” Porges explained. 

It’s not dismissive to say this. It’s foundational. Take a moment to consider how often you truly do this in your work. I’m not talking about structural or postural assessment, at least not in the way that many manual therapists typically do. I’m talking about sensing and feeling the level of autonomic reactivity your client [and you!] experience.

When you become polyvagal-informed, you’re evaluating your client’s autonomic state through observation: their muscle tone, their breathing patterns, the quality of their voice, how they hold themselves in space. You’re noticing who’s tightly wrapped and who’s more accessible, and these cues are often quite subtle. 

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Healwell is a 501(c)(3) non-profit based out of the Washington DC area. Check us out at www.healwell.org

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Emotional labor is work that involves managing your and other people’s emotions. Emotion management (also known as emotion work) is how you actively shape and direct your feelings. Emotion management happens internally and is a private activity. It becomes emotional labor when that private activity becomes public work.

This distinction matters. 

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• Find a copy of Rebecca Sturgeon's book: "Oncology Massage: An Integrative Approach to Cancer Care"

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Healwell is a 501(c)(3) non-profit based out of the Washington DC area. Check us out at www.healwell.org

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Welcome to Practice-Based Research Networks (PBRNs); a simple idea with big potential!

The Massage Therapy Foundation is building MassageNet, the largest (and only) international PBRN dedicated specifically to therapeutic massage.

And they’re building it for you.

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Read The Price of Free here

We’ve all felt the frustration. How can we make therapeutic massage accessible? On top of that, how can we do that while maintaining professional value and sustainability? Many well-intentioned practitioners turn to volunteerism as a solution, offering free services at community events, for hospital staff, at health fairs, and just about anywhere else we’re invited.

While this impulse comes from a genuine desire to help, massage therapy volunteerism may actually perpetuate the very systemic problems it seeks to address. Bonus: it artificially depresses the entire profession’s worth. It's like a coordinated effort to undermine ourselves, except nobody planned it.

The solution to massage therapy access issues doesn’t lie in an increase in free services. It lies in reframing massage therapy as a public health necessity rather than a luxury service.

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Healwell is a 501(c)(3) non-profit based out of the Washington DC area. Check us out at www.healwell.org

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What's the plan for The Rub and Healwell in 2026?

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The massage therapy landscape is shifting with regulatory changes and developments across states, including the Interstate Massage Compact passing in five states and ongoing advancements in state licensing requirements. Recent months have seen significant changes including Vermont's increased registration fees, Idaho's elimination of continuing education requirements, and new regulations addressing human trafficking in multiple states.

• Interstate Massage Compact has passed in five states, with two more needed for implementation
• Vermont raised application and renewal fees for massage registration
• Idaho eliminated continuing education requirements while extending renewal cycles to two years
• Oregon increased massage therapy fees by 35% for budget rebalancing
• Utah now requires massage establishment registration starting October 1st
• Arkansas added massage businesses to those required to display human trafficking hotline information
• AMTA highlighted new research supporting massage for anxiety and depression
• Upcoming events include AMTA National Convention and Black Massage Therapist Conference
• International Journal of Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork June edition features various research studies

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Healwell Substack: More Than Hands

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Subscribe to our Substack: "More Than Hands"

Send us an email: [email protected]
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You can support Healwell and the cool things we make by donating here!
Ways join in:

• Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts
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• Continue the conversation with a free 3-day trial of the Healwell Community
• Find a copy of Rebecca Sturgeon's book: "Oncology Massage: An Integrative Approach to Cancer Care"

Thank you to ABMP and AMTA for sponsoring us!

Healwell is a 501(c)(3) non-profit based out of the Washington DC area. Check us out at www.healwell.org

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Regulation might sound like the least exciting topic in massage therapy, but it's actually the battleground where our professional identity and future are being decided.

Massage therapy regulation is far more than bureaucratic red tape; it's a dynamic system that establishes professional standards, protects the public, and helps define who controls the massage profession's territory. We break down the complex regulatory landscape, explaining how licensing affects practice rights and why it matters to every therapist.

If you found this episode helpful, consider donating to Healwell at healwell.org/donate. Even small donations make a big difference in helping us continue these important conversations about the massage therapy profession.

Support the show

Subscribe to our Substack: "More Than Hands"

Send us an email: [email protected]
Leave us a voice message: 703-468-1799

Check out our interview-style podcast: Interdisciplinary

You can support Healwell and the cool things we make by donating here!
Ways join in:

• Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts
• Check out Healwell’s live and online classes
• Continue the conversation with a free 3-day trial of the Healwell Community
• Find a copy of Rebecca Sturgeon's book: "Oncology Massage: An Integrative Approach to Cancer Care"

Thank you to ABMP and AMTA for sponsoring us!

Healwell is a 501(c)(3) non-profit based out of the Washington DC area. Check us out at www.healwell.org