The Big Year 2023!

 My friends!

My life keeps evolving, changing and finding it's best ways. I love the change, movement and everything I have achieved. I am constantly in search of a balanced way of living and past 7 years I have put most of my energy to my work. I love that I have been able to help so many of you, I am in awe about how many wonderful clients I have met and how this part of my life came about: I made it work. I was good, I achieved my goals. I am super proud of me!

All this is about my work in healing business, as a massage therapist. In more recent years (yes, after the covid hit) many of you have learned that I am not only a bodyworker, I am also a Finnish teacher and I dream about getting my book published. Yes, I have 3 passions and I have been trying to find a balance between all three. Balanced is Painless - that is my slogan, so I should be really good at this. Am I? Am I balanced and even more respectfully: am I painless? 

I have made some pretty big decisions in my life, like to shift my professional life towards healing people and losing a steady income in educational field, or to move to US and start my life completely all over again. The first one I made out of love to myself, since being a teacher in ever more demanding world was getting harder and harder.  The second change happened out of love to my family, who wanted to experience the life in US. I made it, I created my own way and found my purpose for living here. 

Then, after covid, I found the teaching again. That I can keep teaching the subject that was first love of my life, Finnish Language, in my own terms, create my own curriculums and help my students to feel empowered, skillful and innovative in my own language. That I can be creative with my language in my second home. That I don't have to lose Finnish and my detour to bodywork and healing was the best detour ever, since it gave me a meaning and purpose in my second home country. 

That's life! You get what you give up. So, it is time to let something go, to make room for more balanced and painless life.  I am resilient, I am goal-oriented and I am moving forward in Kata's Way. It means that I will give up bodywork. I will not renew my massage license in 2024. 

This is my number 3 big decision in life. I need to be painless and balanced. I need to give up the work that is taking too big of a toll to my body and give time to be creative. From this point on, Kata's Way is more about Teaching Finnish than bodywork. I am flexible and able to make hard decisions. This is my decision. I still have a massage license for 2023, so if you are an old client, you may contact me, but I am not taking new clients for massage.

But I do take new students, so if you are interested in learning Finnish, I am your girl. Read more on top of the page or contact me via gmail (kataopettaja). 

Thank you and enjoy the Holiday Season! 

Not taking new clients any more!

 

I will be home until the end of August. I am not taking new clients 2022!

Hard decisions

 My dear friends and clients:

I have been privileged to able to treat you for 8 years. That is not in many ways a very long time period, but looking back, it feels like a half of my life. Maybe I feel that way because the other half of my life started when I moved to US. And that happened 2012. That is whole 10 years. I had no idea where my life would take me in the new country, but overall I think I did good. I feel very much at home in States at the moment although there will always be a longing back home - Finland. I am still more Finnish that American and we just have to accept that.

I have learned end experienced so much! I have evolved and being frustrated. I have powerfully pushed forward and achieved. I have been disappointed and what is the most important, I have learned to slow down and listen to, not only my clients bodies, but also my own. So, what it my body telling me (other than feeling so inadequate in written English)?

I have pains and aches like most probably all of us in this age. My back is doing pretty well, but my shoulders tho... they give me constant numbness, achiness and feeling of heaviness. Like, I really have no energy to lift my arms most of the mornings. Yes, I know my routines to help me get going, I know what to do and what to eat for a healthy lifestyle and definitely am not giving up on me. But then I am thinking that if any of my clients would describe the symptoms I am having, I would strongly suggest lessening the workload. At least finding a less strenuous job if nothing else. The question is: do I listen to my own advice?

I love what I do! There is no other way to say it. I feel deeply connected and such a pride of the fact that I am doing something good; that I am helping, and there is no better feeling than that. I want to keep working!

But I can not handle it anymore.

There it is. The sentence that has been lingering above my head for a long awhile. And of course I want to take it back. I don't need to publish this post... 

But hiding won't help me in any way. I already may have ruined my upper back and neck for life and the question is, is it worth it? I truly don't know. 

I don't know what will happen in the fall. 

As of now, my thinking is that I will see how my body adjusts to being work free for 6-8 weeks. I might feel like a new born and (over)book my calendar in September. I may find more Finnish classes to teach, so that I won't have time to treat clients. I may stay in Finland if the climate there suddenly changes to subtropical... I may feel overly energized and finally just use the modalities that are less strenuous to my body. I might truly start my third career and find a living in writing (in Finnish).

I am not able to make the terrifying, long lasting decision of quitting (that is truly how it feels), so I am doing something that is even more scary for me: I am gonna leave it open! 

If you are in my loop, I will text you in September and let you know. Most probably I will still work a day or two every week, but there is a big part of me who wants, finally, to be brave enough to make the bold move: to do something that is just best for me. Just me and nobody else.  

What truly is Kata's Way ponders Kata who has always had it her way. Balanced is Painless.

Plans for 2022

 My dear friends. 

I can't believe how fast time goes. This year has been good to me and my family, but as you all, I am so looking forward to more 'normal'  world without masks and travel restrictions. Many of you may know that the covid situation is worsening in Northern Europe at the moment while we are just accommodating the idea of things getting better here. Please, keep your fingers crossed for the situation continuing getting better everywhere.

Last couple of years should have taught us all to evaluate our lives, lifegoals and thing we want to achieve. It is so easy on the paper when you are pouring your soul into your personal notebook or stamping down the goals and prospects for your company. It gets definitely harder, when you are supposed to put your foot down and tell everybody what you are giving up, doing less and letting go in your life. I am lucky to have people around me who understand my goals of doing less and feeling better. So here are my goals and promises for 2022:

👉I am rising my pricing 10 % (this happens every 2 years just because I am gaining new skills all the time and also because the life is getting more expensive.)

👉I am taking every 4th week off even if it affects to many of my regular clients' scheduling. This is because:

    👊I have reached limits of my physical well-being in this profession (average massage therapist works for 7 years, I am starting my 16th year in this profession.)

    👊I am also working almost every weekend as a teacher, so off time is desperately needed.

    👊I am an avid writer and unfortunately I am the type of writer who needs space and time to get to the creative zone. 

👉I plan on going to Finland for 6-8 weeks on summer!

I still appreciate each and everyone of my clients, but it has been a rough journey to get to this point. I will be steady and more slowly working on my Ortho-Bionomy skills, but won't probably apply for any certification in it. I am perfectly happy doing things Kata's Way, since it is painless and effective. 

Have a Happy Holiday Season! 

Next step

2019 has been a great year after all! I'm back on working 4 days a week, because I just need to. First of all, I have plenty of clients who I love, and there seems to be more waiting to get in. How great is that. Secondly, I am so exited about learning new stuff that I want to practice every day!

As I have mentioned earlier, I'm in a learning process of a new style called Ortho-Bionomy. It has deepened my understanding of human body; it's structure, function and how all different systems intervene and connect to each others. I kind of already knew most of the stuff from my school in Finland, and because I have been working as a massage therapist over 10 year now, but Ortho-Bionomy has opened my eyes to feel and understand the connections in a new level. There is so much to learn!

Human body is not just muscles and bones, as we know, so we can't treat just those layers. We have plenty of knowledge about lymphatic drainage and myofascial release techniques as well as how cellular tissue or nervous impulses operate, and my training has always tried to get deeper into all this information. Now I feel like Ortho-Bionomy is truly giving me practical tools to do this! All I need to do, is learn to listen.

At the moment I feel like everything is about how to meet my clients' body, and then decide what level of that body to work with. It feels like I have finally grown not only eyes, but also ears on my fingertips, so that I can detect what is needed. And as you know, it's not always what your brain want, sometimes we need to work in a completely different level to release the tension on an effected area. I can always keep pushing the tissue and force the trigger point to open, but in that case we have simply over-ruled the nervous system and compromised the healing process. Healing happens in certain order that is individual, and who am I to decide how your body heals?

I am swimming in the deep waters of learning how Enteric nervous system functions and more importantly: how we can help it! Of course I knew the importance of Vagus Nerve, but only in past couple of months I have UNDERSTOOD the significance. Think that we can support our nerves by creating order in digestive system or that opening brain-gut-axis can affect how we feel and support the hormonal balance. For me this is truly amazing and eye-opening!

I am sure you will be hearing me explain these new discoveries and also my frustration with so much new stuff to learn to! I am so happy to keep learning and being inspired by this. My professional framework stays the same, but my understanding of this line of work has already deepened my skills a lot and shift is happening: I won't have any idea about what's going to happen in each and every session, but this works in so many ways. My goal is to be worth it and be the best supporter to Your health in your current situation!

That is, has been, and will be Kata's Way, and that my friends, is Balanced and Painless, but only if I can stay Balanced and Painless. There will be more time off 2020, but also so much deeper understanding of the world we live in. There are so many possibilities, alleys and paths to dig into. For me, this is the only way and I am honored to share it with you!

Check my pricing for 2020 on upper right corner.

I want to wish you Merry Christmas and a Very Special Year 2020. The new decade.

How did I get here?

The schools are getting ready to start a new semester, which means that it's time for the new cycle, the beginning of the (school) year. This is the time when I want to buy a new calendar even though my current one is valid until the end of this year. The beginnings have always been important and powerful times for me; I love fresh starts and  creating something new gives me such a joy and feeling of being in a center of things.

This past July has very much felt like a new beginning in my professional career. Here are couple of the reasons for these feelings: first of all, I have got a several new clients in July and that always refreshes my way of thinking. I love the challenge, and resolving some physical issues together with a client just feels extra good! The second thing that comes to my mind, is the fact that I (finally) got over the hump of turning fifty. I know it's just a number, but for some (hormonal) reasons, the past year has been pretty harsh for me. I have been struggling with some imbalances and it took me too long to figure out that not everything can be solved in the physical level. I have been taking care of me, I have been exercising, I have had a somewhat healthy diet and my family is here with me and everybody is ok. Still, I was exhausted, grumpy and in the surviving mode. Finally I decided to do something about it, and accepting hormonal (organic and natural) supplement has helped me to feel like me again!

The third thing that affects my life in every day, is the fact that I am Finnish! That might sound like a no-brainer, but the roots of the identity are pretty deep in me. You know, I am a Finnish teacher and my training for a massage therapist was not just that, it was the Traditional Finnish Way of holistic, therapeutic bodywork and multi-dimensional treatment. Being a Finn is my brand, my identity and my way of living. Back home I didn't ever think about it, but I had my colleagues and my professional networks to think things over. I was a part of the community in which everybody supported each others, and gave feedback or boost whenever you needed. I lost all that when I moved to the States. I re-created myself and my work (which wasn't easy) and I still take a huge proud of everything I have accomplished (like being able to write this post, which yet isn't without mistakes, but I get my message out there pretty easily) in the past 7 years.

That just brought me to the fourth circumstance: I have lived here for SEVEN years. I have already lived one big cycle in this second home of mine. That became very clear this summer when I spent four weeks in Finland being a tourist. Me -  a tourist -  in my own country! Every earlier visit that has felt awful and heartbreaking, like something gnawing slices out of your soul. But all of the sudden in summer 2019, for the first time, that was okay. I was able to give up an outer layer of my identity to make space for something new to emerge. I can be Finnish living in the US and I don't have to give up what I have learned even when I am starting to learn something new. I let go my pretty obnoxious adolescence and dug deeper into my soul. I found myself eager to return back home, to my current life, in the US.

So here I am. I am creating a new community, learning new style and having my life in order. We don't know what future holds, but at the moment I am full of positive energy, ready to conquer my career to the next level. Everything is changing while everything in my core self stays the same. I will be working next 20 years and future will bring us stronger and deeper Kata's Way. Still, that is the best and the most effective treatment that I have (or will) ever learned, because it's all about the Balance. I might have found a momentary balance in my personal life, in my physical body, in my work and all these other circumstances we call Life.

I am going to enjoy this Balance as long as I can. In my work I do sometimes know what I'm doing, but what's more important: when I have no idea what I am doing, my client's own ability to heal takes over! My job is to keep balancing. And taking care of myself. Balanced is Painless and sometimes life is too. Let's enjoy these moments!

The Big 2019

It looks like the year 2019 is a BIG ONE. In so many ways. Let me tell you.

Right before Independence Day 2019 it will have been seven years since my family, including me, moved to the United States. SEVEN years. In the mysterious life of mine, and so many others, seven year cycle is an important and meaningful period of time that marks change, renewal and (self-)reflection. That is how it has always been for me. As many of you also have been reminded (not that I have been complaining too much, right?) that I just had a big birthday, which really didn't go as planned, yet I survived. I'm not saying that I feel old, but I am experiencing that this life of mine has brought me so much more understanding and maybe even wisdom, but it sure has introduced me to some stiffness, longer recovery time and funny hormonal changes. But let's not get too deep into that this time.

Most of you know me as an energetic and straightforward, but also creative and enthusiastic person, and those of you who are close to me, also know that I can be pretty introvert at times. But, more than anything, I do need something to be excited about, to be able to thrive and go forward. That excitement has been missing for a couple of years and I have been trying to tell myself, that this period of calming down is desperately needed. Maybe it was; I needed my time cocooning and gathering my thoughts, since something strong and powerful is evolving.

I need the change to stay alive! That's the truth, so I'm happy to be in the beginning of a new cycle. I am creating a new, better, less sustainable way of living and working. It will include some self-reflection, but even more recilience and perseverance towards me and my own ways. I know what I'm doing and I will learn to do it in a less wearing way. My inner turmoil and learning process will have some effects to my clients: I will upgrade my skillset this year and raise my rates next year. I will bring more ease to my work, lessen the pressure I have taught myself to use and be more perceptive to my clients needs. That will not work for some of you, so I truly won't mind if you decide to find an another therapist (I will recommend one for you if needed).

I need to do this for me, to keep learning, to find the passion that was lost for awhile. I want to keep some variety in my work (like extremely interesting neuropathy work and frozen shoulder protocol), but my style of working will definitely lighten up and have more and more pieces of Ortho-Bionomy. Some of you won't experience any changes since I already have changed some pieces of my protocol, some of you will experience the big shift in their treatment plan, an all this happens because I can't physically keep working the way I have been past years. I just can't!

With my new style there's going to be some days that nothing seems to be working, and there will a lot of explaining what I do. It's actually pretty funny; I need to talk myself through some pieces where I usually tend to start pushing and forcing the tissues, verbalizing seems to help me keep focused at this point of learning process. Feel free to tell me if you need your relaxing time on my table to be quiet. I promise to do my best.

I will definitely explain more later, there is so much to learn! I feel like my whole belief system needs to be changed in a way. But nothing will change, that's the beauty of this treatment. I will always do my best to help you in your issues and aches. This is Kata's Way and that means Balanced is Painless. Let's make it painless for me too!

See you in July, I'm off to Finland for a month.

Change of my Location

Some of you already know that our lease in the current office will expire at the end of the June. It means that I need to find a new office close to Ballantyne as soon as possible. I have 3 choices to choose from: 1) Stay with Dr. Snipes (most probably at Carmel) 2) find a place of my own (everything is pretty expensive around here, but I have done some research and there might be something interesting) or 3) work at my house for awhile.

Well, like you all know, we have to think these big changes from several different perspectives one of them being a financial situation. It's simple to think that working at my house would save me the rent (my biggest monthly expense for sure), but we would also lose some privacy even if I would restrict my hours between 9 and 5. I also like going out of my house for work, so working at my home would cost me more money spent in coffee houses...

One really important part for me in this decision is who to work with. My goal still is to be surrounded by people whom I can learn from, and working by myself would keep me at the current level of skills (well, I do need to take some continuing education classes, but everyday learning in a contact with other professionals is a completely different thing). On the other hand, my treatment is so special and different, that maybe I should actually be teaching others. Another big decision for the future to make.

The third, and the most important thing in my life at the moment, is to work the way I really want and am able to handle. To help others in their healing process is pretty demanding job, and although I have already done changes in my schedule, I will need to monitor my own capability to work even more carefully. I do have aches and pains, and sometimes 3 day weekend is not enough to compensate my work load and recover physically. No, I'm not getting old, I'm just giving more thought to the important aspects of life and, I really love what I do, so I want to keep doing this for years to come!

After all this being said, I really hope to find a perfect office space for next fall! Meanwhile, I will work at Ballantyne Village until the end of May and enjoy a bit longer  summer mainly in Finland (from  June 13th until July 9th). I know that it's a long time (5 weeks altogether) to be away, and the rest of the July I might still have restricted hours. But I do have some new ideas for the fall to serve you better in facilitating your health. What is manageable depend also a bit about the size and location of the new office.

I am so excited about this vacation and new possibilities to explore next fall! I will be back with a burst of energy and new things, so stay tuned. Kata's Way will be stronger, because Kata will be more balanced and as you already know: Balanced is Painless and that is Kata's Way!