Earlier I was nervous about writing my first blog. I had no idea what topic I would choose to write about. As I was brainstorming I found out some terrible news about a client of mine. Apparently, he had gone into cardiac arrest. Although they were able to restart his heart, he never regained consciousness, was declared brain dead and has since passed away. As you can imagine the blog became the farthest thing from my mind.
Later in the afternoon I was in the middle of an hour and a half massage, and could not stop thinking about this client. I finally decided I needed to turn my mind onto something else, which brought me back to the blog topic. My thought process went something like this…
“I really need to decide what to talk about. (several minutes go by) Maybe I should write about how I’m feeling today? No, my first blog cannot be about the loss of a client; it’s too sad a topic. Wait, why not? Losing a client is something every therapist is going to experience. Loss is something every human is going to experience.”
Throughout this thought processes I realized there are positives. I am so happy that I knew this man. I was able to spend time talking to him and helped him with his pain through massage therapy. This led me to think about all of my clients, and how lucky I am to have them in my life.
I belong to a massage therapy group on Facebook. One day a while back someone raised the topic of becoming friends with clients outside of massage. I was shocked at how many therapists were so adamant on saying “absolutely not”. My first thought was “these people are taking themselves way too seriously.? I fully understand that as professional massage therapists we need to have boundaries. With these boundaries also comes human nature. They open up to me, and I have opened up to them. My clients absolutely become my friends! How could they not? I see some of them more than I see my best friends. I chose this career because I’ve always been a kind and caring person that enjoys helping others. Yes, because of them I am able to eat and have a roof over my head. To say I’m grateful is an understatement. I’m also grateful that they enrich my life in other ways as well.?Every day is a different day for me. I am constantly welcomed into the homes of my clients. Work is never a burden. Meeting their families and even their pets is always a joy.
Am I sad over this loss? Of course. I’ll be sad for a while, but I’ll be smiling on the inside whenever I think of him.
RIP, my friend.
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