Success Story Featuring Susie Vought, LMT
by Dar Mikula
Often the seed for attending massage school gets planted years before a student actually makes it to our door. Take the case of Susie Vought, a 2012 graduate who said she kept putting off her desire to come to school here until finally getting overwhelmed with retail life. She didn’t have a plan, but she did have a sense of responsibility to herself. 
“In general in my life, I’ve found that when I take responsibility for myself and my actions and what I’m doing, then I tend to move forward more easily,” Vought said. “I become more confident in my power to change, and it then becomes about me making decisions for my life, and not other people dictating what’s happening to me.”
Recognizing this, Vought quit her job after 10 years at Earth Pets and started a cleaning company so she could set her own work hours around prioritizing school. The ground leading to massage school continued to magically blossom when the Florida School of Massage started to shop around for a “green” cleaning company and Vought’s “Squeaky Green” company won the bid.
Vought was uniquely positioned now to hold a cleaning contract with the very school she had wanted to attend for nearly the last decade of her life. So she enrolled in the October 2011 program and became a massage school student by day and the school’s cleaner by night. In April 2012, just a year after landing the school cleaning job and seven months after enrolling, Vought became a Licensed Massage Therapist.
“My favorite memory is being with my group and having a closeknit community,” she said. “We all grew together and became therapists together. The best part was connecting with each other, working with each other, learning how to communicate with each other, and building relationships.”
Early on in massage school, another seed was planted. In a 30-minute introductory Feldenkrais class, Vought said instructor Josie Davenport helped her learn how to sit and be in her body more comfortably. “It was just one exercise and I was completely fascinated!” Vought recalled. “I went on to take Josie’s six-week Feldenkrais elective class and loved it. I knew then that’s what I was going to do.”
Again, she didn’t know how or when. But after she graduated she met with Davenport, who highly recommended Vought go train with Mia Segal in Germany.
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Mia Segal demonstrates a Feldenkrais exercise. Student Susie Vought is standing in the back.
“I again set my intention,” Vought said. “I was really clear what I wanted to do. I had a year until that training was starting, so I said, ‘It’s time to save money.’ That year after massage school was definitely an exercise in saving money!”
Vought said her “exercise in saving money” continues. She has another 18 months of Feldenkrais training in Germany, but will also have some benchmarks along the way that will allow her to start teaching group classes and eventually offer private lessons.
The intensive Feldenkrais training has changed the way she practices massage therapy too. “My approach has become allowing the client to be more aware of what’s happening in a session,” she said. “What’s different between when we started and halfway through? When a client is making those connections between their body and their brain, change happens faster. I try to help my client connect with what’s happening in his or her body – this dominoes the change.”
Vought said it’s also easier for her to be in her own body since Feldenkrais. “I’m not as sore or tired because I’m moving better and with more awareness.”
When asked if she had any advice for prospective students or graduates, she said, “Follow your passion. I know that sounds cliché but believe in yourself and do what you want to do. Understand that the only obstacle is yourself.”
Vought’s massage therapy office is located at 1212 NW 12th Ave., Building C/Suite 2, in Gainesville. For more information or to book a massage therapy appointment, call (352) 575-4103 or visit her website: www.susievoughtlmt.com
