Mariposa Oracle: Queen City Licensed Massage Therapist

By Trisha Barry

This, the first novella in the Mariposa Oracle series, is the kickoff to Mariposa's often hilarious real-life adventures. Laid off from her job as an online producer, Mariposa enters the world of "skin" quite by accident or by divine intervention. Never intending to use her massage license professionally, life has other things in mind. She ends up buying a massage business in the Queen City (Charlotte, NC) just as the state implements regulation of massage.

But, Mariposa has never run a business. She has never even given a professional massage.

Mariposa Oracle's first year of business ownership shows how crisis and intense stress can be a healing opportunity in disguise in this historical fiction meets memoir reveal with an upbeat vibe mixed with can-do grit.

Offering often little-known details about the licensed massage industry, the novella is part confession and part insider's guide to massage - everything you wanted to know, didn't want to know - and more.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Aug 12, 2020
• ISBN: 9781098327415

Book preview

Note

1.

I knocked on the door, All set? No answer. I opened the door a small crack and peered around the room. I saw my client naked, face down, lying on top of the sheets, with the narrow green silk decorative massage table runner (meant only to decorate the table) draped over his butt like he was a present.

Trying to be professional, I choked back an outward laugh. Then I heard a rumble, which turned out to be a muffled snore. As it turned out, he was already fast asleep.

I took a deep breath. Excuse me, sir. I’m so sorry for any confusion. I’m going to step out: please get under the sheet. Ok?

I saw movement and a glimmer of understanding. As he started to move, I quickly left the room before I potentially burst into laughter and before he possibly went full frontal on me, as some clients like to do.

My name is Mariposa Oracle. I am a licensed massage therapist. I got my training and license at The Swedish Institute, arguably the country’s most prestigious massage school, located in the Chelsea neighborhood of NYC.

Contrary to continued public stigma (and ignorance), becoming a licensed massage therapist is basically pre-med. It is anatomy, pathology, CPR, first aid, infectious disease training and more. Training hours and required continuing education vary from state to state. Not only is the foundational training intensive, but continued education - and appropriate adherence to the regulations of the field - are required to maintain a license in good standing.

NY has one of the most stringent and most respected programs in the nation, requiring 1000 hours of training compared to the more common range of 500 - 750 hours that most states require. Currently New York and Nebraska are the only two states that require 1000 hours.

NY’s medical massage association of the 1920’s is said to be the first medical massage association in the country. And NY had massage legislation in place as early as the 1960’s. That said, in 1915, Ohio became the first state to require licensure in the nation.

Between those who frequent professional (licensed) massage therapy and those who only frequent its tantalizing alter ego of massage parlors, more stereotypically tabloid than licensed therapeutic trade, (licensed) massage therapy was gaining mainstream popularity and acceptance. But rarely without a few ongoing nod, nod, wink, winks when asked what I did for a living.

Even today, the media often blurs the lines, incorrectly using massage parlors and massueses as their understanding of the lingo of the industry. In truth, those with a license do not work in massage parlors. Rather, licensed massage is found in spas or office settings and the correct nomenclature is massage therapist.

I knocked again on the door and walked back into the client’s room. I saw my client was now appropriately draped, lying under the sheets. As I poured warm oil into my hands and began to lay my hands on my client to connect, my focus was to be healing, soothing, relaxing. My thoughts were of making his neck, which he had listed on his intake as sore, feel better.

To those who are desperate to ask the question, here’s the answer: No. I honestly don’t assess people’s bodies. I honestly don’t care if someone is obese or even subjectively attractive or unattractive. I really don’t.

I am truly not in the room looking at people in that way at all. Some when I tell them this, can’t believe it, and that is because of the way they see others. And that is probably why they are not drawn to the work. Their personality is not a fit to the work, which is giving and compassionate.

I actually think this is the same reason that those people who assume all massage is somehow sexual or shady, is because the person making the accusation wouldn’t have the impulse control or perhaps the professionalism required. So they can’t even fathom how someone else could. Or, it’s because the only massage they have ever had or want is the type they accuse of being wrong.

Unconsciousness usually has its roots in not understanding that which one sees in someone else often shows a reflection of one’s self. This is to say that life is a continuous offering of a mirror to point out places in ourselves that need attention; whereby, pointing a finger at someone else, allows us to stay in denial and avoid confronting the imperfections, flaws and humanity in ourselves.

That said, pathological lying, along with complete fabrication of loosely held facts mixed with outrageous imagination are most likely a sign of mental illness and/or manipulation. In some cases, there has been a complete loss of commonly-held societal values due to poverty, intense trauma, abandonment, neglect, deprivation, war, etc. These are much more extreme cases of unconsciousness and could mean the person is unsafe to others until they address the (usually destructive) way their behaviors impact others, if they are ever able.

Often the ones who accuse another or others the loudest, have the same wounds/faults in themselves and have not yet uncovered that history or truth, as it may be so painful that it is hidden deeply from the awareness. One is not yet strong or mature enough to take on the ugly reality that is dark only because it hasn’t yet been healed into a higher understanding. Such insight is the gift of any challenge or wound. In this case, the difficult role is to intervene by confronting the damaging behavior and not condoning the lies and damage done to others.

Each of us has quite enough wrong with us to spend our whole life merely focused on cleaning up our own flaws before making judgements on others. Yet, some justify not fulfilling responsibilities (such as being a parent) - or being unsafe to others - as a result of what they believe they missed or because they were treated badly. This shows a progression from someone who went from being hurt to hurting others. And it seems to suggest a perspective of: I’ll do absolutely anything I need to do to get what I want and think I deserve. This translates into my needs matter more than yours. Your life and needs have less or no significance next to mine.

Usually those drawn to each other are suitably supplying the key elements of relationship that each person values in some known or unknown way. For the many who crave ease, harmony and a lack of self focus, a relationship can surprise with forced growth into greater maturity as the uncomfortable gift of unwanted, and often unexpected, difficulties of the relationship.

Breaking free from lives and behaviors of unhealthy family beginnings can be a lifetime’s work. In many cases, generations of those not completely functional or mature come forth to connect with other partners who are on the same level, even if they’d prefer to scapegoat the other person. Finding a way to break the chain may remain hidden. It’s not impossible, but it isn’t easy.

Healing the body/mind requires doing something differently. Massage is one of several tools that can help. Why? Because the body is the temple of our soul. It is the container that holds our experiences, feelings, memories deep in the muscles and tendons that connect and hold together like braided pieces of sensory awareness.

As the body is touched with a neutral energy, kindness and safety, the unraveling of unresolved and unintegrated life experiences can occur. Our