Soma Massage Blog

Attend Soma. Change your life. Proof inside.

We asked a recent Soma graduate to reflect on her time here at Soma. Here are her responses.

What were your feelings on entering the program?

I was nervous. Curious. Questioning myself if I made the right decision to make a career change. Wondering if this career really was for me. But even with all that, I was excited. I had explored multiple options, disappointed with each one more than the last until I came to Soma. This school and its program stood out from the rest.

Why did you enter the program?

I was looking to change my career. Working full-time as a Chef ruled my life. With my shifts ranging from 12 to 16 hours a day, 6 days a week, only making just enough to pay my bills... it was draining. My friends and family began to ostracize me for never being available. I missed birthdays, weddings, baby showers, anniversaries, and everything in between. I was pushing my body to the limit, and with the lost support and understanding of the people I cared about I slowly sank into a deep depression. I knew something needed to change, and it needed to change fast. It took me a while to realize, but when I made the decision to go back to school, it gave me something to work towards again. It gave me hope. I turned back to one of my original desires, to enter into physical therapy, and went on researching all options available. Before I knew it, I was filling out an application (on the spot, I might add) after my walkthrough with Stan. I was sold immediately. It was the focus on clinical work, and the confidence. Confidence in the teacher's and student's capabilities radiated from Stan and anyone else I spoke to, and I think it was that confidence that gave me the extra little push I needed.

What were some high points and low points in your time here?

The classes were amazing. Really, so much information was given, it kept me captivated. I soaked it up like a sponge. And the teachers were so helpful and engaging; you could tell they enjoy what they do, and that made things all the more interesting. I finished the program on a high note with lovely new people. It was more than I expected, and I was (and still am) extremely grateful for that opportunity.

Did you learn everything you wanted to learn/ do you feel qualified to start your career now that you've graduated?

I absolutely learned what I wanted! That confidence I mentioned earlier? I feel it in myself now. I am beyond happy with my decision to go back to school, and I can't imagine where I would be now if I hadn't. I can't wait to get started in my new career! The decision to attend Soma changed my life in more ways than I imagined.

Medicine Massage Therapist

Day in the Life of a Integrative Medicine Massage Therapist

Massage Magazine recently profiled UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Medicine’s full-time massage therapist, Marcia Degelman. Integrative medicine addresses patients from a whole-person perspective, rather than individual, separate parts. Cancer patients, trauma survivors, and even infants in the intensive care unit have all benefited from Integrative Medicine—and in particular, from massage therapy.

According to the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, integrative medicine is growing significantly in the United States. Therapies included in this growing field are homeopathy, yoga, meditation, and massage therapy, among others.

On a typical day, Degelman sees several patients suffering from varying illnesses. She uses a range of techniques from deep tissue to light touch depending on the patient’s specific circumstance. “I see all kinds of patients, from 90-year-olds who are having their first massage ever to doctors with pancreatic cancer to people with fibromyalgia, MS, scoliosis,” said Degelman,

The Osher Center conducted studies with patients undergoing a variety of treatments, from cancer related surgery to marrow transplantation, and found that the patients who received massage therapy as part of their integrative medicine had less pain and depression, and found relief from stress and anxiety. “We believe that massage can bring patients out of their worried minds into a more relaxed body, where they feel they have—and can tap into—resources in their body to help its healing process.”

Student loan debt or a rewarding career? You decide.

Which of these scenarios would you prefer?

1. You've struggled for four years to earn a college degree only to find there are no jobs applicable to that degree. But doesn't a degree in Communications apply to everyone? And isn't Anthropology everywhere? Perhaps, but not in the want ads. On top of that, you now have to start paying back those student loans, and let's generously call that a soul-crushing debt. So now you're living in your parent's basement, because your old room is now a yoga studio/knitting den, you have no money, no job, and just to make this the perfect country song, your girlfriend left you for your best friend.

Or, how about this:

2. You've gotten a degree from a certified training program, and after graduating in a mere 11 months, you find that there are good paying jobs just waiting for you to fill them. You've got your own apartment, your friends are all jealous, and now your best friend's girlfriend is leaving him for you!

Simply Hired has recently compiled a list of the Top Ten Best Jobs you can get without a college degree. Not surprisingly to us, Massage is number seven on that list.

Massage Fights Heart Disease

Top 3 Risk Factors for Heart Disease

February is recognized as American Heart Month—a time to recognize heart disease as the number one killer among Americans.  The American Heart Association has published the top 3 risk factors for the disease and what you can do to minimize your risk:

1. High Cholesterol
2. High Blood Pressure
3. Inactivity

There are many way to manage your risks, including a healthy diet, more activity, and massage therapy.  Recent research suggests that including massage therapy into your exercise routine is beneficial to heart health.  The Buck Institute for Research on Aging conducted a study in 2012 that says massage therapy reduces inflammation of skeletal muscle acutely damaged through exercise. Evidence suggests that massage affects inflammation in a similar way anti-inflammatory medications do.

If you’ve ever considered a career in massage therapy, now is a great time to look into it. With more people turning to alternative methods of care, massage therapy is becoming more and more mainstream. Massage therapists are in the unique position of being able to help patients with a myriad of health issues through natural methods—reducing medical costs and trips to the doctor.

If you’d like more information about a career in massage therapy and The Soma Institute’s Clinical Massage Therapy Program, give us a call at 1-800-694-5314.

Sports Massage and Mental Focus

There are many theories as to why athletes seem to have improved performances and faster recovery times after receiving a massage. Unfortunately, we’re still lacking in evidence as to why exactly a sports massage seems to enhance athletic performance. Nobody really knows the physical mechanisms that occur when we lay hands on an athlete. Are we improving their circulation, allowing for more oxygen-rich blood chock full of nutrients to reach starved muscles? Are we reducing edema and thereby speeding up recovery following an injury? Are we, with the use of proper stretching, resetting the muscles to their correct lengths for proper functioning?

We’ll give you a solid maybe on all of those.

We’d like to propose that those may not even be the most important things that sports massage can accomplish.

We’d like to propose, in fact, that the mental stimulation given to athletes pre-event can be monumentally more profound than any actual compressions or stretches.

Sound a little new age-y to you? Well, we’ll give you a solid maybe on that, too.

But consider this, during your activities of daily living, when do you perform your best? Let’s use your commute to work as an example. You’re in your car, stuck in traffic, and you need to be at work ten minutes ago. The left lane is going to end soon, and everyone knows that, but for some reason people keep zipping past you, like they didn’t know two miles ago this lane was going to end, like they don’t know what taking cuts means. You’re listening to the news, and it’s not good news, it’s never good news. You could have made that light, but someone on a bicycle cut you off, even though bicycles are vehicles and need to obey all the same laws as you do. And now you’re not in time for the early-bird parking so it’s going to cost you an extra ten bucks just to go to work. You’re already worked up into an angry frothy lather and you haven’t even gotten to your desk yet. Do you think you’re going to be performing at your peak the rest of the morning? Or will you be dwelling on all the insignificant incidences that got in the way of your commute?

Now consider this alternate commute option. What if you had your morning cup of coffee, said goodbye to your loved ones, walked out your front door, and then stepped into a helicopter that would fly you over top of all the traffic? What if the entire ride (which would be considerably shorter than driving, of course) you didn’t listen to the depressing news, but the pilot had just received his copy of Eighties Power Ballads, and you blared that the entire flight? You could see the congestion below, but it no longer affects you, and you find yourself smiling at the banality of it all. You arrive at work with a skip in your step and a song in your heart. Won’t you be more productive if you arrive to work that way?

We don’t offer this as an actual alternative to your morning commute (although, how rad would that be?). We offer this as a metaphor. We believe a pre-event sports massage can be a helicopter ride for the athletic performance commute. Many athletes will tell you that “being in the zone” is just as important, if not more important, than being physically ready for an event. If you’re busy worrying about the economy or some little argument you had with your wife that morning, then your head is not in the game and it will affect your performance. But if you can push all of that nonsense out of your thoughts, if you can concentrate on the task at hand, and if not only are you thinking you’re a big winner but you have a therapist who is telling you that you are a big winner, then that’s going to make a huge impact on your performance.

Sports massage, at its essence, is a way for athletes to reconnect with their bodies, to put aside all other worries, and simply focus on being their best. Whether any actual physical benefits come from massage is yet to be proven (but it will be proven), but it is very clear to anyone who has ever played a sport, run a race, or even just played darts in a bar, that if your mind is distracted, you will not be as competitive. Sports massage is a wonderful way to bring your focus back to the task at hand.

Jason VonGerichten – Instructor

“I love working with students who come from all walks of life, and I love that they have come together with one common goal: to learn how to make a profound impact on the lives of others. I very much believe that only Soma can fully prepare them for that. Here at Soma we delve deeply into the methods needed to work in a clinical setting, where real change can take place. We also teach students how to use their clinical tools and techniques in a therapeutic setting, where change can take place, too. I’m very happy to be a part of this process, and I hope whatever positive influence I have over my students gets paid forward in some small way, from me to my students to their clients and onward.”