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Substack: The Price of Free
The Rub: a podcast about massage therapy
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.
Subscribe to our Substack: "More Than Hands"
Send us an email: podcast@healwell.org
Leave us a voice message: 703-468-1799
Check out our interview-style podcast: Interdisciplinary
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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
