“This is one of the most important books ever written in the massage profession. Finally an honest look at what it is really like to be a massage therapist.”

Julie Onofrio – bodyworker.com

“Thought provoking and also quite entertaining. I have to admit I laughed to tears a couple of times and also got quite pissed off a couple of times!”

Teresa Bigley

The act of touching other people in exchange for money can be seen as a metaphor for everything that happens in life. In this book I’ve attempted to distill what can be learned through this act. In order to do this, I have had to come to terms with some of the less talked about aspects of the profession. The truth is that massage has been around for hundreds of years. Often, it was a profession populated by slaves or prostitutes, and it still is today. By averting our eyes from this truth, we do nothing to change it.

With massage, we have a unique lens through which to view much of human behavior. Want to learn more about adultery? What about impotence?  Or the nature of money? Massage, counter-intuitively, can fill many of the gaps we have in our understanding of human nature. My hope is that this book will be both educational and also entertaining, with real-life stories about what it’s like to work in a field that few people know much about.

Here are the opening paragraphs:

“As a child, I never dreamed of becoming a masseur. The thought never crossed my mind. I wonder if a single child, anywhere in the world, has ever lain there in his bed at night, with his little head on his little pillow, dreaming of becoming a masseur one day. Somehow, it doesn’t seem likely. Like most little boys, I dreamt of becoming a fireman, or an astronaut, scientist, doctor, inventor, spy, soldier, or some other respectable, glamorous professional. When I was a little older, I dreamed of becoming a famous author.

But that’s not the way it worked out.

Instead, I’ve ended up rubbing the naked bodies of thousands of people for basically my entire adult life. When people ask what you do, and you tell them you do massage, they immediately start asking questions. Why would someone get involved in this field in the first place? What’s it like to do massage for a living? How did you decide you wanted to touch other people and then expect to get paid for it? Isn’t it weird? What if you get turned on? Or if the client gets turned on? And what about fat people? Or yucky people? How do you deal with touching them? These, and many more, questions have surfaced countless times during a life spent in the massage biz.

Massage is strange. You meet people, say a brief hello, sometimes speak for a few moments, ask a couple questions, and then they take their clothes off. You spend an hour, or more, with them, just the two of you, in a quiet room, with the lights turned down low. You touch them the entire time, all over their bodies, focusing all your efforts and attention on them, communicating with them both verbally and non-verbally. Then, at the end of your time together, they get up, get dressed, and before they leave they pay you.

It’s just plain weird. But also, it’s quality time. One-on-one time, with no distractions. And this quality time allows us massage people to get to know certain things about you, the general public. During a massage, you come clean. You let go. You talk, and sometimes you behave in ways you would not behave under normal circumstances.

People become vulnerable when they’re naked. They treat you like a confidant, a long lost friend. And yet they pay you, so the exchange is also one of employer-employee or even master-slave. Often, people expect you to heal them in some way. They want you to make them feel better. Yet they don’t want to pay for this physical improvement by going through any pain or discomfort. No foul tasting medicine. No invasive procedures. They just want the pleasure. And they want to tell you their problems, expecting a sympathetic ear, a shoulder to lean upon, a secret-keeper, a ready-made friend. Sometimes, inspired by the intimacy of the setting and the depth of communication (and all that touching), they want something more than friendship…“

The book is available from Amazon both in Kindle format and as a paperback.