Being a self-employed

AI have worked in US for about 2 years and 3 months now. I am so lucky to have found the best possible people to help me with this journey and I want to thank you all from the bottom of my heart! You all know who you are, so I am not naming anybody here in public.

I am also blessed to have a bunch of open-minded, super-nice and wonderful clients, who challenge me and my knowledge, but most of all, who grow with me and are patient to take in my learning experience as a body healer. I could not do this without you!

But I am still a sole proprietor, which means that at the end of the day, I got to make all the decisions and I am the only accountable person in my business. That has led me to do certain decisions like starting my LLC to be sure that I am covered if anything would happen. I am also adamant to make my living out of this (that my friends, as a massage therapist is everything but easy), so I need to be able to compete with all the other massage therapist in the surrounding area. And I want to be able to work in this business for years even if I am not getting any younger, so I have made some plans to take care of myself.

It also means that I need to do everything myself for my business: I do my laundry (yes, I hate those sheets once and a while because I am washing them every single day), my bookkeeping (I don't like numbers at all, but I like being in charge), my marketing, networking and all the planning. I know that I could easily pay someone to do certain things for me, but here comes the truth: every penny that I pay for someone else, is out of my salary and I can not afford losing those pennies. I am simply trying to make my living here. And yes, I like learning new things; especially I like it, when I figure something out and manage to solve some problem.

I am in a good place in my life because I have supporting husband, life skills and something special to offer. The most important thing in my business is my wide range of massage therapy skills to help and heal my clients! For me that is simply giving them the best possible care each and every time they come in. I can not have bad days (but if I do, I'll let you know and apologize). I also believe that one happy client will bring you two new ones if I do my job well.

And still, this is just a tip of the iceberg. I also know that having a successful business you need to keep on track with the newest marketing tools and inform your potential clients about my way of doing this work. Because my way is original Finnish and it is different.

Recently I have put some effort on marketing and learning new skills, since I haven't been using my computer too much lately (except wandering around in facebook).

Today I am especially proud of myself because I have been able to handle my facebook business page, opened my new business instagram, and was able to create pdf-files to embed into my web page, which actually is my blog. All these business tools, that we should be able to handle, and this it my decision: I only use free marketing tools! So please, understand how much effort a middle-aged massage therapist has to put to all these new tools and then: share, like and let your friends know that I exist and arrange these workshops!

To get any coverage with these free tools, my posts need to be liked! If one person likes my post, it will be shown to dozen others. The facebook, of course, wants me to pay for this coverage, but I refuse to. So, please, keep helping me out and hit that like-button for me! 

Thank you all and it is Kata's Way (or no way).

My facebook
My Instagram

And check out our Workshops this fall!
Pure Haven Essentials Workshop
Breast Health Workshop

New Pricing 9/1/2016

My new pricing includes 30 and 90mins sessions to serve you better. If you wish to have the whole body treatment that would be 75min appointment for $95! 

You may buy your sessions with the old pricing if you book your next appointment in August. 

New Client Special $75 / 60-75 minutes

30 mins treatment

$40 

3 x $115 (38.3/session)

5 x $175 (35/session)

45 mins treatment

$60 

3 x $165  (55/session)

5 x $250 (50/session)

1 hour treatments

$80

3 x $225 (75/session) 

5 x $350 (70/session)

75 min treatments

$95

3 x $270 (90/session)

5 x $425 (85/session)

90 min treatment

$110

3 x $315 (105/session)

5 x $500 (100/session) 

This is Kata's Way and Balanced is Painless. Take care of yourself! 

Take time to yourself and believe in what you do!

Two of the most important and the most difficult things for me, and I believe I'm not the only one with this, are to remember to take care of myself and to believe in my skills. It's easy to say, but sometimes difficult to achieve, to stay in a balance with your work, social life, taking care of yourself and free time. Yes, taking care of me just can not be considered as free time, not in this profession.

My work is quite physical, but even more intentional and staying in the moment. My job is to discover misabalance and disstress in my clients' bodies, and to be able to do that, there cannot be a huge misbalance in my own body, nor distress in my life. Or, I should say: there shouldn't be, since I'm struggling with the same issues as you are. I have muscle tension, overly stretched ligaments, reduction in lymphatic flow, my hip tends to rotate on one side and I do have a tension neck most of the time. Not fun, since I cannot treat myself.

So how do I cope? Of course I have a bunch of  great therapists around me and they certainly help me a lot, but I'm also getting better in taking time to be with me. For me and my overly sensitive body, it's a necessity to recognize why I get stuck. Sometimes it's just an amount of clients I take care of some week, but most of the time there's something else happening in my life, that I have ignored. Let me tell you an example.

I'm living one of my most interesting summers at the moment (I have only once been more excited than now and that was four years ago when we moved to States in the beginning of July). I had visitors from home to take part in my daughter's graduation and they stayed for over three weeks. On that time we drove to the beach and to the mountains and arranged a party for my daughter and also for Midsummer celebration (this is my family's tradition; to bring a piece of Finnish roots with us and celebrate the midsummer sun). And I was working. In a week I will travel to Minnesota, Duluth, to teach Finnish language at a week long seminar. After that I will be moving my daughter to the dorm for the first time.

I am super excited about all this, but it is taking a toll on my body. So what can I do? I just need to make sure that I have enough time to do nothing and enough time to exercise. I have just joined back to my book club, so I'll actually read something interesting (besides Principles of Osteopathy) and I have also started Pilates classes to challenge my body to work in a different ways. How exciting! To have someone guide me on-in-one for a couple times of week.

Because there is so much more to learn about human body. There is things you can learn from books, but that is not the only way, especially if you are a bodyworker. We all need touching, palpating and sensing what happens under our skin. And at least in my case, sensing needs time, you cannot rush the tissue for a quick reaction! I have decided to take that time and slow my process, feel the touch. If you feel like I am rushing with your treatment, please tell me that immediately. I believe that only working slowly with your tissue, in your body's allowance, all the sensations can reach the brain, parasymphatetic nervous system will activate and channels for refreshing and healing blood can flow to help the tissue.

I know, that this is the truth. Sometimes I still keep rushing and trying to prove that I can treat your whole body in an hour. Well, I can't! That is why I have added 90 minutes treatment to my services:
until the end of August, you can get 90 minutes treatment for $100 (or 3 sessions for $270, or 5 sessions for $425). I will update my pricing September 1st!

It is still Kata's Way and Balanced is Painless. 

Summer time Greetings

Hello everyone!

Yes, I am working even if I haven't posted anything for a while. I just haven't been motivated to create new informational blog posts because there has been some more interesting things in my mind. 

Like my daughter's graduation! You can consider me as a proud parent of UNC Charlotte freshman. Ardrey Kell High School graduation seremony at Time Warner Cable Arena was a great experience and we also celebrated with sparkling drinks and Finnish pastries at our house. I am so thankful for all who could share this milestone with us; and special thanks to my sister and nieces. They came from Finland to celebrate and help us with all the baking.

With our family visiting, I will be absent from work next week (June 27 - July 4th)! We are going for a relaxing week to the mountains. I am back to work Tuesday 5th and there is 2 open slots that week. On July I won't be working on Fridays, so take that into considerations when you plan your scheduling.

I wish you all a very nice and relaxing time! We all need some time to recuperate because Balanced is Painless and that is Kata's Way.

Some concepts

This time I want to explain some of the principles that are important to me. I have learned these concepts already in my original training, and they all came back when I was taking my Total Body Balancing -class. These principles originate to osteopathy.  

We all tend to get some biomechanical dysfunction and lesions in our tissues (by that I meant all the tissues: fascia, muscle and joint). What is a lesion? The lesion is an abnormality of tissue that prevents us achieving optimal BALANCE and FUNCTION. How do we get these lesions? By living our life, spraining an ankle, having inflammation either in systemic or local level, suffering from allergies or other sensitivities, having hormonal imbalance etc. 

How can we get rid of these lesions and dysfunctions? We simply have to remove the restrictive  barriers in fascia, muscle and joint, so that our incredible self-regulating and self-healing body can heal itself! 

This means simply:

- Increasing range of motion (this is a functional treatment),

- Improving circulation (arteries, veins, lymphatic and axioplasmic flow) and reducing impingement of nerves,

- relieving pain and other possible symptoms,

- reducing swelling,

- balancing any asymmetries in your posture (the structural part),

- relieving tension and

- stimulating parasympathetic nervous system.

By doing all this bit by bit, we are also creating a better enviromnment for healing and total body homeostasis. In one word, we are bringing (both structural and functional) BALANCE back to the body. And your body will know how to do the rest, but only if you allow that to happen by reducing stress and allowing a balanced mind set with enough rest and optimal activity.

During the treatment it is crucial to stay away from pain, since while in pain you are also in the state of symphatetic overload. Overload means not just pain, but also an excessive tension when you are unable to relax (part of) your body. Calming down the nervous system will create a homeostasis to allow more healing to happen. Triggering a pain by trigger point therapy is kind of working against this principle, so there is the reason why I rarely do really deep muscle therapy. Believe me, muscle tension can be released without pain in a very efficient way and that is my way.

I am here to help you to achieve your goal! And my way is painless, because Balanced is Painless and that's Kata's Way.

I wish to see you soon! 

You want to know a bit about me?

I think (well at least I hope) that you, who are reading this blog already know bit or pieces about me, but since I also hope that you refer my blog to your friends and colleagues, I want to tell a little bit about myself.

I am originally a Finnish Language Teacher from Finland and I never thought that I'd move anywhere farter away from my home than Tampere, where I lived over 20 years. And yes, I found my hubby at that city and my daughter was born there. She is our only child and currently a senior at Ardrey Kell High school, so we are soaked in a process of trying to find a great (and reasonable) college here.

So, what does a Finnish Teacher do in Charlotte, North Carolina? She is learning her way to resolve some physical issues that are causing a discomfort or even pain in our bodies. I started my way to this second profession because I had some back pain of my own, and I certainly did not like the way my doctor treated me. There had to be a better way to help than give a bunch off pills and tell that it's just a matter of growing old. I was in my early 30's at that time! I tried some massage (it helped me a ton!), some foot reflexology (so relaxing if it is done that way) and then I finally found a therapist who was called a Bonesetter.

He changed my life! He was a welder in his 60's and his office for this bodywork located in his garage. He glanced at me and said: "You little girl (33 yrs and a mother of one) have a major issues with your right knee. That need to be placed back in it's place, so that we can relax those muscles in your spine. Seems like you have issues at your right wrist also." All that in 2 minutes. I was blown away and thougt that he must possess some magical eye! And then he did his assessment and treated me 3 times.

I had seen my chiropractor 4-6 times a year 5 previous years to keep my body functional and able to work, and this man took all my pain and discomfort away in 3 sessions! There was absolutely NO PAIN or discomfort during the sessions, but my body felt a bit 'off' after each treatment for a day or two. I enjoyed every minute of his his sessions (no need to anticipate what's gonna pop next like with chiropractic adjustments) and: I was amazed!
So, I learned that this treatment is an 'ancient' and organic and kinda folklore's  way of massaging people and there has been quite a bit of these masters mainly in the Ostrobothnia area in Finland. I also learned that there's an association whose main purpose is to document this treatment as authentic as possible and educate newer masters to keep this historical treatment alive. There was not two words about it, I headed to learn this treatment myself and found my calling.

It took me 3 1/2 years to master enough skills to get a certificate and start helping my clients. I also certified as a licensed massage therapist and learned some reflexology, head massage and aromatherapy on my way, but there was never a question about what I truly want to do and which way to develop my skills. It is this Integrative, Structural, Functional, Medical, Therapeutic way of soft tissue treatment that I do the best. And yes, sometimes it is called as a bone setting, but I really don't like that name, since we don't set any bones in 21st century. We have a great amount of surgeons to do that; my work is to make sure that your bones have enough room surrounding them and by that I'm talking about muscles, tendons, ligaments, nerves and lymphatic system among other things. Those are the areas and systems I work with. And my work always includes touching.

Well, life is full of surprises and one of them was a chance (well, chance for someone, more like a challenge to others) to move to U.S. since my husband was relocated in his company. So here we are, and now a Finnish Teacher is re-educating some muscles and kinetic chains to move better, more effortless and painless ways. After 4 years in Charlotte I am definitely loving it and finding my ways to learn and treat my awesome, open-minded clients. I still don't know everything (ha ha, never will), but I am surrounded by these great therapists and co-workers I can learn with.

I had to accomplish massage therapy license here in NC (yes, I went back to school) and I have been working as a massage therapist practically 2 years now. I have done some CE (continuing education) classes and found myself a great office with the best possible chiropractor to work with. I am ready to do this!

But I am who I am, and I need to work my way. I wish that you will challenge my way, ask me questions and make me explain what I do and why I do it the way I do. I am here to learn and since I don't have many colleagues in U.S. (that's not completely true, there is one in Gainesville, Florida), I have to find this way as I go. Step by step. And every step is with a pure intention and an open mind. I have a great background education, but that is only the beginning in this career.

I hope You will enjoy this path with me: It's Kata's Way and Balanced is Painless.

P.S. I am struggling a bit between keeping this blog as authentic as my written English is or ask someone to proof read it. What do you think? Can you manage with my mistakes, this a blog, not my official web page, after all.

How do I work?

"What are you doing during the treatment?" is a valid question to ask me. And I am trying my best to explain, but sometimes I can not find the correct words. At the moment I am studying for my CE (continuing education class) and here are some explanations that I have learnt years ago, but now am reading in this book. This explanation is my own version and will not give the whole picture about your pain or nervous system but explain the way I look at things.

*Tissues want to be in an ideal position of comfort. 

This is both good thing, since the body always is trying to avoid (local) pain, and a bad thing when the most comfortable position is a learnt habit/posture which is not ideal in the big picture. I give you an example: our right leg is so used to be active during driving a car that our nervous system makes an assumpion to use that leg more than the other. That leads to over-compensation which leads to constant rotation of (right side of) the hip. That is comfortable and 'ideal position' for a leg, but not at all for the hip. 

*In an injury of any muscle, protective muscle spasms are activated to guard the injured. This is pretty much a reflex at the muscle level which means that you can not prevent this reflex to happen. 

Reflexes are amazing functions of our bodies and they are switched on instantly, but how can you switch them off, when this guarding function is no longer needed? That is a very complicated question, since our body very well  adapts to it's current levels of functioning (for example, you need to check your blood pressure and blood sugars because you can't feel changes happening). Our body adapts itself in a various, complicated ways and in my work we sometimes find a client's kinesic chain of movement functioning in a weird, adapted way because it is used to do so. In these cases we are trying to re-educate the muscles (and other soft tissues) to function in a better (and usually also original) way. 

One example of this can be a wrist pain after falling down: nothing is broken, but using your mouse on your computer  will be a bit uncomfortable the week after and you will adjust your wrist and forearm movements a bit. So,  first, muscle spasms were activated during the fall to guard the joints of your wrist. Second thing happened litte later, when muscles of the forearm adjusted to this and changed their ’normal’ pathways. Two or so weeks later there is no more pain in the wrist, but your elbow is getting to feel funky... So which one is to blaim: the wrist, where a protectice spasm did it’s job after a fall, or the elbow, which tried it’s best to change it’s movement patterns to adjust to the wrist? 

This is a simple example of one pattern of kinesic chain I am trying to figure out in my work! Each and every part of the body functions with others and sometimes my work is to be detective. And, again, I need your help to do that: You are the expert of your body and your feedback during the treatment is essential! I can not make a change, but I can lead the way for your body to make it’s own changes.

You are very wellcome to experience my treatment: Balanced is Painless and Balance is Kata’s Way!