By Dar Mikula
At the age of 47, Beckie Dale decided to quit her job as the screen print manager for Dragonfly Graphics here in Gainesville. She says she was still figuring out what she wanted to do with her life, with one pressing complication. Beckie learned seven years prior that she had an inherited eye condition called retinitis pigmentosa. She was told RP is a progressive disease, with slow changes in one’s vision that can lead to total blindness. Beckie was noticing enough changes, and she was anticipating their might be more, so she reached a tipping point.
“I was seeking a new challenge, a new interest,” Beckie said. “I wanted to go down a different pathway.” Asking herself the central question, “What do I really want to do with my life?” led her to choose the Florida School of Massage in September 2000, three months after leaving the world of t-shirt production.
Although Beckie is legally blind, her vision continues to be stable with 5 degrees of central vision. She says it’s the peripheral vision that’s funky, so “It’s kind of like looking through a tunnel.”
Today Beckie sees between 15-20 clients on average per week. She talked with us recently about the business aspect of massage. Below is an excerpt from our conversation.
What were some of the challenges you faced in starting up your massage practice, and how did you overcome them?
The biggest challenge, and it still is twelve years later, is the part of learning to run a business. All those details like keeping track of finances, doing taxes, tracking appointments. At times it still feels contradictory to the spaciousness of doing massage.
The business part was a big challenge. The Division of Blind Services in Gainesville provided financial support to help me set up my business. They sent me to someone who could help with small business set-up. There I developed a one-year plan, a five-year plan, and a ten-year plan. It was incredibly tedious but very helpful, especially figuring out what it costs to set up a business and how to make it work. My income looks like $60-70 an hour, but a whole chunk of that goes somewhere else and not in my pocket.
When I was in massage school, I didn’t really want to hear the business part in class. In retrospect, I wish I’d paid a little more attention. Even if you don’t love it, you gotta do it! I remember when Insurance Billing class came up, I thought “I’m never going to do that!” Then about eight or nine months later I had to call up the class instructor and make an appointment to come in and talk to him about insurance. I thought, “Oh wait, that WAS important!” I imagine this must be a challenge for the staff at FSM.
Another challenge was actually getting people into my practice, learning how to market myself. At the time I had more time than I had money, so I gave away a lot of massage. To this day if someone asks for a gift certificate for an event or whatever, I give it away. I give to friends and their friends and their friends! I don’t know when it will come back, but I find it often does.
Do you have any advice for prospective students who may have a vision impairment but who are interested in a career in massage?
I have been physically active my whole life. I have a job where I can engage myself physically in a small environment. I have a lot of control over what happens in the massage room. I don’t have to navigate the bigger physical world.
For a visually impaired or blind person, massage is a really good option. But I would say don’t do massage if all the other parts of being a massage therapist don’t interest you, even if it’s a job you could do with your eyes closed! Massage is very physical, but it also engages me psychologically, intellectually and spiritually. And it’s emotionally satisfying. For me it’s the best job ever!
~~~~~~~~
Related information and links:
The Division of Blind Services can sponsor clients in massage school if they are eligible for services, have interest in the work, and have the potential for successful employment. See contact information here:
http://dbs.myflorida.com/about-us/contact-blind-services.php
World Sight Day is a global event that focuses on bringing attention on blindness and vision impairment. It is observed on the second Thursday of October each year.
http://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/un/world-sight-day
The National Blind Massage Therapists Association (N.B.M.T.A.) is the only non-profit professional association exclusively serving blind and visually impaired massage therapists and blind and visually impaired massage therapy students nationwide.
