Reflections of Health Massage School Podcast

Healing Hands, Powerful Careers at Reflections of Health Massage School

• Tammy Cox • Episode 4

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How Can Massage Therapy Training Change Your Life? Meet Jeannine VanValen

Ever wondered if your healing touch could transform into a rewarding career? Jeannine VanValen certainly did. After spending nearly a decade as a dental assistant, she found herself seeking more autonomy, deeper purpose, and greater personal satisfaction. Her solution? Massage therapy.

In this heartfelt conversation, Jeannine reveals how her transition from dental chair to massage table wasn't just a career change—it was a life transformation. "I'm a doer, I'm a giver," she explains, describing how massage therapy allowed her to channel these inherent qualities into a profession where she could directly impact individual wellness journeys. The practical benefits are compelling: setting her own schedule, becoming her own boss, and achieving better work-life balance while maintaining the helping role she values so deeply.

What makes Jeannine's story particularly powerful is the dual transformation she experienced—professional growth alongside personal development. Massage therapy training built her confidence, enhanced her self-esteem, and uncovered talents she hadn't fully recognized. Meanwhile, her clients experience their own transformations, with many making weekly appointments and testifying they "couldn't do without it." As medical professionals increasingly "prescribe" massage therapy for various conditions, the field gains further legitimacy and stability. Whether you're seeking escape from corporate burnout, craving more meaningful work, or simply wanting to turn your natural talent for healing touch into a sustainable career, Jeannine's journey offers both inspiration and practical insight. Ready to explore if massage therapy might be your path to purpose? Your healing hands could become your most powerful career asset.

To learn more about Reflections of Health School of Massage, Inc. visit:
https://www.ReflectionsofHealth.com
Reflections of Health School of Massage, Inc.
1604 Lamons Ln, Ste 207a
Johnson City, TN 37604
423-804-3067

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Reflections of Health Massage School Podcast, where healing hands become powerful careers. Whether you're looking to escape the 9-to-5 grind, earn extra income during college or finally get paid for all those family shoulder rubs, massage therapy could be your next big move. Join us as we explore the power of touch, the path to purpose, and why starting your journey in massage therapy might be the smartest decision you'll ever make.

Speaker 2:

From burned out and unfulfilled to energized and empowered. Janine Van Valen's story shows just how transformational massage therapy training can be, whether you're craving a career change or looking for a deeper purpose. Her journey is proof that healing others can begin with healing yourself. Welcome back everyone. Skip Monty, co-host, slash producer, back in the studio with a special guest. Today We've got Janine Van Valen of the Reflections of Health Massage School in the studio. Janine, how's it going?

Speaker 3:

Good. Thank you, skip, great to be here. Thank you for having me.

Speaker 2:

Well, we are thrilled to have you and I know Tammy, the director of the school, is super excited to have you with us and interested in you sharing your story with us. So, if you don't mind, can you tell us how can massage?

Speaker 3:

therapy training change your life. Well, massage therapy training changed my life personally, because I'm a doer, I'm a giver. So my whole career, life up to this point of being a massage therapist, was in the dental field, which is always helping, or the food industry. It was always a giving part of who I am. And so when I stopped and realized what direction my life wanted to proceed forward to as I got a little bit older, I really wanted a career that I could personally help people individually and helping them take their next step forward in their journey of life.

Speaker 3:

And health is something that we all have to deal with each and every day, and the power of touch is just that. There is great power in touch, great power and touch. And so, as being a massage therapist, I have learned and have honed into the skills and talents that I have personally to help individuals take that next step forward in their journey of their recovery in life, whatever it may be aches and pains it could be, you know, emotional could be, you know, array of different aspects of their life. So being a massage therapist really helps giving back, giving back to individuals, giving back even to your community. So I personally think it's a great opportunity for me to be self-fulfilling, of giving back, and that's what makes me a whole person, is what I'm doing for others. That's great satisfaction for me. So then, now I'm fulfilling something within myself and helping my neighbor as well.

Speaker 2:

Awesome, awesome, so it sounds very rewarding actually in your as well. Awesome, awesome, so it sounds very rewarding actually in your personal experience.

Speaker 3:

Absolutely.

Speaker 2:

What were you doing before you decided to go to massage school? You mentioned you were in the dentist field.

Speaker 3:

I was a nationally board certified dental assistant. So basically I did yeah, yeah, I did oral surgery for about almost 10 years, right, and then some general dentistry on top of that. So you know when the patients come in, you're the first person they see. They don't see the dentist. You know, you're the face of the practice, so that really gets you connected to your patients in that regards. You know, building that trust, building that confidence, helping them. Dental work is not an easy, likable, fun thing to go do.

Speaker 2:

I can see that. I can see that. So was there a certain point when you just said you know what I want to do something different and this is it, or was like an aha kind of thing?

Speaker 3:

I think you know, as the journey of my career went um, you know you get to look at it financially as well. I was really connected to all my clients on a personal level and became, you know, friends with them most of them. But then you know, working for someone else is just that you're working for someone else and you know, having the capability of working for myself and honing into the skills that I learned working in a dental field really set me up nicely to work for myself in my own practice, in my own massage practice. So transferring over working in the public eye versus working privately for myself was a smooth transition because I was able to take the skills and the talents of how to run a practice and apply it to my own. And then therefore, now I become my own boss. I set my own schedule, I work my own pace, I can have more freedom on top of fulfilling personal satisfaction of helping. So it's a win-win I get to help myself and then I get to help, you know, my community as well.

Speaker 2:

Awesome. So what made you choose? Reflections of Health Massage School over other programs.

Speaker 3:

Other programs. Well, I had moved here from Oregon and this was just massage school in town, so it was a local. It was right around the corner. I said, why not, let's do it?

Speaker 2:

So super convenient, I guess. Well, you and you, you touched on this a little bit in the rewarding and fulfilling part of the job, but I was going to ask how does being a massage therapist change a student or a person's personal health and work-life balance?

Speaker 3:

Well, I think the fact is that in society nowadays we're never taught to give ourselves permission to take the next step forward in our journey of life. And being a massage therapist and for me personally it helped me take that step forward that I can be an owner of a business, I can help people, I can move forward, I can. So it built my confidence. It built up the self-esteem you know. It helps with characteristics of an individual that maybe they might know they have, of an individual that maybe they might know they have but are lacking, to put it, forward in life.

Speaker 2:

So it may bring out qualities that otherwise you wouldn't see without diet. Well, I was going to ask what impact from a client perspective, what kind of impact do you see massage therapy having on individual lives?

Speaker 3:

I think it's fantastic. I even know that the medical community has picked up on it quite a bit here lately and are starting to apply that in their you know prescriptions like go get a massage. You know for different avenues of them, seeing their patients as well, knowing that you know massage has helped the human body so much. There's much more research going on even as we speak right now and how important it is to have massages as a practice of maintaining health. In my practice I have clients that come every week and they testify that they couldn't do it without it. Whether it's anxiety, whether it's just relaxation, whether it's getting out the aches and pains in their joints, what may have you. But and then I have a handful of clients that come every other week I mean the resilience of the understanding with my clients and how important touch is is phenomenal.

Speaker 2:

I couldn't agree more.

Speaker 3:

I know lots of people who have told me that it's changed their life, you know, for the better as a receiver of massage, so also rewarding for those who provide the service as well as those who take it down and when you do that 60 minute or 90 minute or even two hour massage, it almost forces you to slow down and reflect and give you some of that personal, quiet, healing time for yourself while you're in the process of having that massage. And I think that's so important for us to give ourselves that permission to have that self-care, and massage does that for us.

Speaker 2:

Helps you completely unplug. For sure it's important. Well, Janine, I can't tell you how much I appreciate you taking time out of your busy schedule to spend some time with me and with our listeners. That was some great information and very helpful to, I know, a lot of people considering doing what you did and following in your footsteps as a massage therapist. So thanks for being here today and hopefully we'll have you. We'll have you back on the show soon.

Speaker 3:

Thank you, skip, looking forward to it.

Speaker 1:

Think you've got the touch, let's make it official. Call or text 423-804-3067 to schedule your tour and consultation, or visit reflectionsofhealthcom. Your future could be just one massage away. And, let's be honest, being everyone's favorite stress reliever isn't a bad gig.