Some people think that being a massage therapist is all just nice smelly oils, candles and warm towels. At Ellis remedial that is far from the truth. The warm towels part is right but you won’t find many smelly oils or candles here. The reality of being a remedial therapist focusing on sports and deep tissue treatments is far from glamorous.
My day starts when the alarm goes off about 6:30 for my partner to get up. Of course there are a couple of snooze hits in there before anyone actually gets out of bed, it’s a ritual! While she gets up and gets ready for work I quickly check emails for any bookings that have come in overnight that need confirmation, any messages that may have come through on the FB page and finally who I have in for the day. After all of that I jump out of bed, shower, eat what I hope is enough to sustain me for the morning sessions, get dressed, stoke the fire, grab the kids and head to work. Just like any normal parent we are always 5-10 minutes later out the door than I would like! The drive to work is usually non eventful but on a day when you seem to encounter many not so good drivers on the way in, you generally get a feel of what the day is going to be like.
I arrive at work about 9 with the first client due in at 9:15. The treatment room is already warm thanks to those brilliant things someone invented, I think they are called timers! I have enough time to re check emails, run the vac over the floor, put the heat pump on, open the blinds, take or return any calls that I have missed during the morning and greet my first client for the day. They will be followed by 2 more to complete the morning session from Monday to Friday. In the 15 minute gap that I have between clients (usually 5 minutes by the time they get dressed, pay, re book, have a quick chat etc) there are always towels to be washed, more calls and messages to be returned and emails to be checked. Lunch time hits around 1pm. If I’m lucky I might have time to do some exercise but for most days it’s off to the laundry to dry the towels, run any errands that need to by done, try to catch up on some paperwork, return to collect and fold towels, have a bite to eat and be ready to go for the afternoon shift by 2:45. 1hr45 seems like heaps of time but when you are running here and there and everything is timed, it soon flies by. The afternoon session is repeated as the morning, clients, towels, phone calls, emails, etc etc. On top of all of this there is the actual physical aspect of what we do. It doesn’t matter if our bodies are sore and killing us, we still have to provide our clients with the treatment they come to expect from us. My day generally raps up at 6:15 with clients. By then I’m exhausted and just want to get out the door. Last calls are made for the day and emails etc are checked and replied to once again. It would seem a lot of emails get the delete response, how much spam can a person get in one day? I walk in my door at home around 7pm most nights. Mondays I actually finish early and it’s nice to be home with the family in daylight hours to cook together and eat at a decent hour. Eat, sleep, repeat. Add to that the stresses of running a small business and a head that never really switches off and you have massively exhausting days.
Now I’m not complaining, I love my job, it’s what I trained up for and the opportunities that have come my way through my work have been nothing short of amazing. We are very lucky here. We very rarely have no shows or late cancellations but when we do it can really put a dampener on your day. Especially when they come in multiples. Imagine going to work all ready to earn your keep and the boss says ‘oh, I forgot it was a work day, I’m not coming in for a couple of hours and I’m not going to pay you either’. It’s unfortunately a really hard side to our business. So cancellations and no shows are a down side and washing what feels like a million towels every week is not much fun either but here at Ellis Remedial, we care. We care about you, we care if you are comfortable during your massage so if keeping you warm means I have to wash a mountain of towels every week then that is just what I will do. We love our work, we love our clients and as exhausting as it is, I love my life. Massage therapy, the not so easy job!
