In the last week and a half I’ve met a lot of people… One of those people being Dr. Perry, my role model and inspiration for a minimum of 4 years…
The other being someone who I was told by my amazing teacher through massage school to learn under if I ever got the chance…
I also saw two very different people… You know how, there’s that one person that you want to “be like” in a sense, you admire their every move and are in awe every time they open their mouth? Then you finally get to meet them and you realize they aren’t everything you thought they were?
Dr. Perry has officially set the bar of how I want to be some day… Obviously, in my own way… But I watched him all weekend and he was accepting clients, but he charges like $300 for an hour session! Which was crazy! But those of us who couldn’t afford to schedule an appointment with him, he didn’t turn us down… I watched him through 4 out of 5 scheduled clients and he gave us pretty dang close to the same amount of care… If we had a problem he wanted to at least evaluate us and get us on a path to helping it…
Dr. Perry wants to teach concepts rather than technique, and you want to know why I’ve had any success treating TMJ? Dr. Perry’s concepts… Because he gave us things to take and mold and try and test, rather than a protocol to memorize that limits us…
Erik on the other hand, I could barely get in a question with his helpers, much less Erik himself… Granted, I was at a disadvantage because Erik and/or his helpers personally knew over half of the 153 people who were there… On breaks they were busy, during lunch and after class they were out of there so daggum fast that you didn’t get a chance to ask questions… And the one time I stayed late to see if I could ask about some of the technique, I could tell Erik was getting agitated that his ride kept getting distracted… So I figured I would try to wait and let them leave…
I never want to become so engulfed in my work that I become inapproachable or untouchable. If I get to the point of being able to teach, I would want people to come to me and ask questions… Even if they are coming to me for self-care questions, Erik himself said this weekend, people become experts at treating others for the things they have to fix on themselves…
And it’s true, someone comes in to me for a hip injury and needs to know how to maintain it, I can give them a laundry list… Why? Because, I had to recover from a nasty hip injury and I went through great lengths to learn how to correct and maintain it…
However, they come to me for an arm issue or a jaw issue, though I’m learning, I still get a little stumped…
If there’s anything I learned out of these two workshops other than some killer techniques it’s this…
I want to be the person to inspire…
I want to be the one who teaches, guides and helps…
I want to be the one to foster the desire to learn…
But I also want to be the person to be able to charge $300 for an hour…
But I never want to be so set on making money that I won’t help someone who can’t afford it…
Over the last couple years people who barely knew me and people who did (and still do) know me have stepped up to help me on this journey… Both with their financial investments and their time investments… I have not forgotten, nor will I forget, I have some goals I am trying to reach, but I will return the generosity that has been given to me…
But momentarily I want to just take a moment to thank everyone who has been on this journey with me… My mom for stepping up and helping me where she can… My siblings for taking over chores that I don’t have time to tackle working 5-6 days a week or when I was going to school… My massage teachers for helping develop my passion and spending extra time with me just letting my brain be crazy… Dr. Dukes and Dr. David for putting me on this path in the first place… Dr. Mike for making school possible… And Dr. Perry, who has gotten me off on a whole other tangent and may not be fully aware that he’s stuck with me from this point forward if he will let me… And those who have just been supportive of my journey… It’s always good to know I have people who believe in me…
And Dan the chiropractor from NJ… Who may never see this… I met him at the Primal Movement Chains workshop… He asked me what my job was, I responded with “Just a massage therapist.” He asked me why the doubt in myself and I explained to him that I didn’t feel like I had enough knowledge to really make a difference… I promptly got a talking to because I should think more highly of my job title because if I continue down the path I’m on I will be able to help more people than any MD or Chiropractor… Which, I’m not completely sure on the whole Chiropractor thing… But after learning with Dr. Perry, and getting to learn with him again come August, I think I’m ready to take on the world!
I’ve been blessed with an amazing opportunity… An opportunity that I’ve questioned at times, working three jobs 5-6 days a week and still not making enough to support myself, my 3 horses and my dog and cat without my mom’s help… But I have a good feeling about the next year or so… I’m excited to see where it goes…
God Bless,
Jessica
imforhim 