My Massage Journey, Part 2

The World School of Massage in San Francisco had been around for about two decades by the time I enrolled in Summer of 2000 and I had no idea what to expect when I started classes soon after. The environment was a bit - all over the place, disorganized and chaotic. However, the instruction was mostly solid and I knew to wade through the extraneous New Age talking points and focus on the hands-on part. After the instructor  demonstrated techniques - the back, then the arms one day, legs another day - we practiced on each other. I could feel something come over me, difficult to describe, but it was clear and familiar. 

At the time, certification in California was regulated by each city which had wildly different requirements. So, in San Francisco at the time, there was a minimum requirement that the massage school covered, so I received my official certification in a few months (Since 2010 there has been a State certification organization). It was fast and I still didn’t fully understand what I had stepped into, but the thread had been put into my hands and it kept tugging. And there were literal signs: on the bulletin board of the massage school I came across two flyers, one for a Zen Shiatsu class in Marin County taught by a Zen Shiatsu master and a flyer, hiring massage therapists at “Family Sauna” which was 2 blocks away. I ended up taking that Zen Shiatsu class and working at Family Sauna for over a year - both were transformative and both solidified my path in the work.