Making A Difference...
One Act of Self-Care
at a Time with
Lisa Wamsley
Written with Love by C.K. Kochis
The human touch has a healing quality unlike any other. It can bring comfort to someone feeling lonely, depressed, and sad. It has the power to release tension and calm aggression. It enhances joy, love, celebration and appreciation. It can also be our greatest teacher.
Lisa Wamsley, CMT, LMT, is Making A Difference One Act of Self-Care At A Time. I met Lisa in November of 2005 in a writer's class taught by Elizabeth Buzzelli. Lisa is one of those individuals that lights up a room when she enters and gives a hug like no other. She is a woman of many talents and in this article, I am focusing on her career as a massage
therapist and her experiences with diabetes.
When she's ready to publish her novels, I
hope to be there celebrating her
accomplishments.
When I interviewed Lisa, my
intention was to gain a better
understanding of the effects
massage has on the body.
What I received in
addition, was a heartwarming conversation about one woman's courageous determination to lower her blood sugar levels from the 280 range to an average of 99.
The seed to her career as a massage therapist was planted when she was a child. Lisa enjoyed giving her mother foot rubs, and giving her friends back rubs. “I always had my hands on someone,” she said. When she was a young adult, Lisa received a generous gift from a couple that allowed her to attend school to become a certified massage therapist. Lisa opened her practice in Traverse City, Michigan, eighteen years ago.
One of Lisa's specialties, is working with pregnant women, offering maternity massage. It was her sole focus when she first started her business. “I discovered that it was too narrow a niche market to make a living at. I now have clients ranging in age from ten – twelve years old and those who are well into their eighties. Women, men, those with chronic pain issues; just about anything people need massages for, I do,” said Lisa.
“What most therapists do in their private