For perhaps ten years now, I’ve been telling students and clients, whichever patron of my work they happen to be, that I’m slowing down. The last two years have been a grim reality as COVID hit the world and kept most of us at home much of the time. I wasn’t able to see patrons and nobody wanted to offer continuing education courses, though some instructors offered online courses. It was a great time to decide retirement is at hand.
Thus, when I was planning to share a friend’s office at the beginning of COVID and after I’d seen one person in her space, she messaged me that she wasn’t comfortable with the share. So I moved my office into the sunroom of our home, where I saw a very few patrons for sessions on a very sporadic basis. I had definitely slowed the speed! And finally, in the past few months, my city called to ask if I was still working from the friend’s office address. When I admitted I’d left that premise and was working only a very small bit from home, I was told I was now violating the law! Thus, I’ve given up my license and given up on working! I will offer a few continuing education courses; mostly they will be either of an advanced nature or something of a short course I find really interesting and believe must be shared. But I’m doing less and less and spending more and more of my time with small at-home projects, such as gardening, reshuffling our ‘things’; be it furniture, artwork, books, or other things.
My second big pastime is travel. We’ve been spending time spring and fall in eastern Crete for the past five years, and it truly is a joy to both arrive at our new home there, but also to work on learning a new language in my senior years. But this also means it’s difficult for me to contribute totally in either of my two locations: I don’t want to become a ‘big brother’ or court appointed advocate for a child alone in the system in either location, for example, because I’m not around consistently anywhere, anymore.
A new opportunity/adventure has presented itself to me, however. Last weekend one of my instructors offering a course wanted help with a particular student. She videotaped his work session specifically for me to observe and critique. I spent an hour reviewing the video and taking copious notes; then I spent another hour sending my thoughts to the student and the teacher. I was amazed to see how much I could tell about the effectiveness of his work in the session simply from the perspective of a stationary camera. Thus, I’m ready to offer this service to students, or teachers who want feedback on their work. The price will be what I have been charging for a private session of bodywork; as that usually runs for one hour and this took two hours of my time, it seems a fair price. But the good news; I can do this review from wherever I happen to be living at the time.
I’ve not been a fan of ‘online’ courses for massage therapists and bodyworkers; my feeling is the hands and the touch itself are too important to chance to what I see on video. This experience allowed me to see how easy it was for me to note the important things: the fact that the touch is too deep or too shallow, the practitioner’s hands haven’t quite found the spot or the depth, that the client is either not breathing or moving appropriately, or that the practitioner isn’t communicating, feeling that stretch and breath, or isn’t even eliciting it with words. I like this new idea!
As far as teaching courses, they will now be extremely few and far between. I doubt that past this upcoming course for CORE III/IV, I won’t offer another course for the five session blueprint to the general bodywork community. I will offer a ‘mentorship’ in one of my two homes. This will be a six or seven day residential course for one person only. Thus, they’ll pay a bit more, but will receive the individualized training and we’ll practice the five session work on each other. If there should be two people who want to share this training at the same time, they’ll pay a 75% rate of the III or IV charges. Basically, I’m saying I’m out of the game, and if you want to bring me back in for your personal training, it can be done, but it will be a bit more expensive. As my nephew years ago suggested I should put an extra zero at the end of my fees (which I quickly dismissed as not my style or desire) I feel I’m being fair by increasing the price for this private tutorship.
So, to those who have been waiting for the right time to work with me in classes, basically, you’ve now missed that boat! I will consider these mentorships, and I do now have several instructors around the world who are offering my work as I’m letting go of the need to provide it. Stay tuned to the website on the Upcoming CORE Bodywork Classes page to find out where courses might happen around the world. To work with me personally, contact me and we’ll see if we can make it happen. I will accept up to two of the advanced class III or IV mentorships only twice a year, and it’s entirely possible no one will take advantage of this tutoring now that we have instructors in the wings, but if you want the old man, you’ll have to make the arrangements and come find me!