What does it take to build a successful and rewarding massage practice?  Is it about having the best massage technique or method?  Is it about doing the most marketing and advertising to get people's attention?  Is it adding services like hot stone massage, offering a hot towel at the end of the session, doing stretching movements or offering candy at the end of the session?

While you may think that is does have something to do with these things it is more about who you are and knowing who you are.  It is more about setting up a practice framework that includes your mission statement, a statement of informed consent, a website that reflects these and knowing yourself and your needs.  When you have these things in place you will easily be able to attract the clients that you need and the clients that appreciate you the most.

What keeps you from having a successsful practice is nothing but your thoughts and beliefs about yourself and your massage practice or job.  The tricky part is that most of our thoughts are unconscious and we often act in habitual ways without our even knowing it.  Our beliefs about our self and self worth are are programmed at an early age and are reflected in our lives and relationships with money and people.  

Becoming aware of those habits and ways takes a commitment to yourself.  Participating in a peer supervsion group is one such way to start becoming aware of yourself.  Peer supervision is not about someone telling you what to do as in the usual way the word supervision is defined.  It is a place where you can speak freely and be mirrored by others so that you can see yourself more clearly.  It is a place where you can learn more about what you need for yourself and learn how to get it.  

Peer supervision can be done in one on one sessions with a seasoned massage therapist or in a group of your peers who have practiced one of the basic rules of peer supervision which is "no fixing, no saving, no setting each other straight" (which comes from Parker Palmers' circles of trust idea.)  In learning to actively listen to others, you also learn about yourself.  In actively speaking about your issues that you are faced with on an everyday basis in your practice or massage job, you can come to know that you have all the answers that you need inside yourself and that you are good enough and that you are loved.  Having this clear sense of self and self support is like having the wings to fly.