My friends and family regularly comment that I am glowing after a day of giving bodywork and teaching embodiment practices. I love my work because I believe deeply in the benefit of conscious, caring, and skilful touch, and it is wonderful to bring this for others. When we touch as practitioners, we are not just working with muscles, ligaments, tendons, bones, and fascia – we are working with the whole person. As bodyworkers, we can be supporters in people’s lives, and that is meaningful and precious work.
My journey did not begin with ITEC, but when I did the Level 3 Diplomas in Massage and in Anatomy, Physiology and Pathology at the Brighton College of Classical Massage, I levelled up. I chose this school because of a recommendation by one of their former students. It was the right decision, even though it meant travelling between Brighton and my home in London to attend course days. The depth of knowledge I acquired through this College is thanks to the dedication of the skilled and engaged teachers, whose love of the work and the learning seems endlessly renewing. No wonder they produce skilled and engaged therapists.
My career has developed over time to include holistic massage, Thai yoga massage, and most recently Sarga barefoot myofascial massage (in which I became the first certified practitioner in London). All of these modalities act as a beautiful means by which I serve my wider purpose of Somatics – teaching people to experience more awareness and presence in their bodies in the present moment, and to claim and express their body agency. In the last few years I have developed sub-specialisms, working with grief, trauma and neurodiversity.
If I could offer any advice to those considering training (or re-training) to become a massage therapist, I would suggest they give thought and feeling to what it is that draws them to the profession. There are so many ways we can bring benefit and make meaningful work – it is for each of us to discover our unique offering, pursue it with training and practice, and then to deliver it with a full heart and clarity of purpose. Enjoy it all!
Find Max here: Max Mora, MFHT, Integrated Somatics