The Metro Detroit Touch

Personal hype aside, the goals of our group are, well, less ethereal. Some are considering massage therapy as a second career (which it often is); a few are here because their partners say so. Meanwhile, a neighboring pair starts in on some extracurricular hokey-pokey.

We're barely alone in desiring good vibes. According to a 2007 American Massage Therapy Association (AMTA) survey, in the past year 24% of American adults received one. And the Society for Human Resource Management reported in 2007 that 13% of its 210,000 member companies offered massage as a workplace benefit.

Exp-handing locally

Unsurprisingly, the demand for tactile therapy (call it hands-on counseling) is strong. Julie VanAmeyde, director of Spa Julianna, says "I think a lot of people right now can't get away from work, so this is a little mini-vacation for them … it's their place to get away." The downtown Plymouth spa was recently lauded by Allure and Hour Detroit magazines and employs a dozen nationally certified massage therapists.

It's an $11 to $15 billion industry, says the Association of Bodywork Massage Professionals. New national chains, offering monthly memberships and reduced pricing for new clients, such as Massage Envy and Elements Therapeutic Massage , have recently opened several metro Detroit studios.

Pressing the issue

"There's something very magical and magnificent about human touch that, unfortunately, our society has shied away from over the past many decades, due to ignorance," says Kathy Gauthier, executive director of Irene's Myomassology Institute. She points out its litany of perks: pain and stress relief, alleviation of athletic injuries and health problems from the common headache to fibromyalgia, and improved circulation.

Oh, and the provider of the healing touch is a massage therapist – not a masseuse. Gauthier calls the term archaic. "It's not really used in the professional arena much anymore at all. It almost has negative connotations that stem back from the old days of massage parlors, and that kind of blossomed into a front for prostitution."

Over the last few decades, though, professionals have untangled the therapeutic from the kinky. Thus, if your plan is to grab a padded table, pop a bottle of vegetable oil, and bam – business time – better sleep on it. Indicative of the trade's advances in Michigan, a bill recently signed into law requires massage therapists to be state licensed. Practitioners must graduate from a state-approved school with a minimum of 500 supervised hours and pass a licensing exam.

Body of knowledge

The Southfield school, whose 88-year-old founder, Irene Gauthier, has been practicing for 50 years, offers instruction in dozens of different massage modalities, says Kathy Gauthier. Electives include crystal healing, Chakra balancing, and "all these different things that sound kind of woo-woo, far out there, but they've all got their place."

While massage therapy is rooted in ancient Western culture (first documented by Hippocrates around 400 BC), it touches on contemporary trends. The canine massage course, for instance, is reflective of the profusion of pet psychologists and glam doggie boutiques and spas in trendy downtown Birmingham, Ann Arbor and Royal Oak. After all, simple petting is so pass é.

Enrollment declined a bit three years ago but has since held steady, Gauthier says. It takes anywhere from six months to two years to complete the program, at a cost of roughly $14 an hour. In total, that's about nine grand, but Title IV funding, which provides access to Pell grants and loans, is available.

Apprentices spend 625 supervised hours in the classroom, other venues, and in the school clinic, which is open to the public for $40 an hour. As part of the field-training requirement, they offer free massages at charity functions, festivals and athletic events like the Detroit marathon. After the recovery bagel and OJ, dog-tired runners can have their calves and quads expertly un-kinked.

Therapists work in private practice, day and destination spas, hair salons, cruise ships, chiropractic and physical therapy clinics, and hospitals. As the public is looking for more natural, rather than chemical, solutions to ailments, employment demand has increased most notably in the medical field, Gauthier observes.

And insurers are paying. To wit: between 2004 and 2006, the number of hospitals offering massage therapy increased by 30%, according to AMTA. Beaumont hospitals, for instance, now have a program in oncology massage.

According to the U.S. Dept. of Labor, employment for massage therapists should grow 20% from 2006 to 2016, faster than average for all occupations. Caveat:
while employment growth figures look good, Gauthier says, providers are schooled in the proper posture to prevent early career-ending burnout and injury to their wrists, arms, and backs.

The bottom line

The physical implications are very evident in my course; Szwabowski stresses bending at the hips with legs apart, knees bent, gentle swaying, relaxed hands, and the use of body weight (not, as one would think, the arm and hand muscles) to apply pressure. By day's end, I'm adapting to the graceful stance.

Which brings me to the question on every aspiring massage therapist's mind: if Lisa (who forgives my spilt massage oil) pays for my master bodywork, what will I clear?

Rates vary widely, depending on the establishment and metro area, says Erik Hornung, a nationally certified massage therapist based in Auburn Hills. Local independent therapists generally charge from $50 to $70 an hour – more if travel to the client's home or business is required. High-end spas ask $75 to $130 an hour, depending on complexity and whether other treatments, such as hot stones or hydrotherapy, are included.

In different parts of the country, as well as Europe and the Far East, therapeutic touch is more of a necessity than an indulgence. "Out west, it's used a little more regularly. In other parts of the world it's [as common as] going to the doctor," Hornung explains. "Some people still think of it as a luxury, but in my experience there are so many benefits to massage, that when people who get it regularly [stop], they definitely notice a difference in their bodily functions: how they feel physically, mentally, spiritually, emotionally, all those things."

A full body of studies shows the efficacy of massage therapy. Interestingly, a 2000 study conducted at the Touch Research Institute at the University of Miami School of Medicine found that subjects who were massaged for 30 minutes had lowered their voice fundamental frequency and sound pressure level.

Which brings to mind an unexpected benefit of massage – the bedroom voice.