Podcast

Discussion Topic

• Dr. Tiffany Ryan, co-founder of YomassageⓇ joins the podcast to talk about Including mindfulness in massage treatments and the benefits for both practitioner and client.

Learn more about YomassageⓇ at their website yomassage.com and join their Facebook community here. $50 off Jan-Mar Yomassage Signature and Barefoot Yomassage Certification trainings with code MBB.

Transcript:

Sponsor message This episode is sponsored by Yomassage. Yomassage was founded on the belief that everyone deserves access to therapeutic touch. In order to make this happen, they created a modality in which clients can receive therapeutic touch in a small group setting in addition to offering massage at an accessible rate. Yomassage classes appeal to more people because they are fully clothed and offered in a safe environment. The "yo" in Yomassage is based on the principles of yoga: focus on the breath, and the yogic philosophy of looking within. The combination of touch, gentle stretch, and mindfulness provide an avenue for relaxation and healing. Our Massage Business Blueprint listeners can get $50 off January through March 2021 Yomassage Signature and Barefoot Yomassage certification trainings with code MBB at yomassage.com. Visit yomassage.com to check out all the course offerings and use code MBB for $50 off Yomassage Signature and Barefoot certification trainings January through March 2021.

Michael Reynolds Hey, everyone, and welcome to the Massage Business Blueprint podcast, where we help you attract more clients, make more money, and improve your quality of life. I'm Michael Reynolds.

Allissa Haines I'm Allissa Haines.

MR And we're your hosts. Welcome to a special expert interview podcast episode today. We are so excited you're with us. We love these episodes because, as the name implies, we bring on an expert, and then we interview them. And it is awesome.

So Allissa, would you like to introduce our guest today?

AH I would like to say welcome to Dr. Tiffany Ryan, co-founder of Yomassage. Hi, Tiffany.

Tiffany Ryan Hi, Allissa and Michael. Happy to be here.

MR Hello, Tiffany.

AH So let me do a little intro. Some of you have already met Tiffany at various online venues and in Yomassage training. But if you've never heard of anybody or anything I'm talking about, you should know that Dr. Ryan has been a social worker for more than 15 years. And after completing her Ph.D., she decided to learn more about integrative care, went to school for massage, went to school for yoga. She is super excited about the mental, emotional, and physical benefits of therapeutic touch and stretch and mindful breath. She's a co-creator of this thing we keep mentioning called Yomassage.

Tiffany, take it away. Tell us anything I missed about you that you think is relevant, and tell us what Yomassage is for people who haven't heard.

TR Yeah. So just a little bit about my background that's relevant to Yomassage: I was a social worker for a very long time and went to get my Ph.D. in social work. And I focused, at that time, on child welfare and trauma. And so when I decided that I wanted to learn more about integrative modalities and approaches to treatment of trauma -- but not just trauma, also just wellness, right, things that people struggle with whether they've experienced trauma or not, anxiety, depression, things like that -- I went to massage school and yoga teacher training to learn more about the mind-body connection. And that's really, I think, what we're going to be focusing on today, is the mind-body connection and how massage is just the place to do it and to help your clients in a way -- a different way than maybe you're used to. So I'm really excited about that.

And yeah, Yomassage basically combines several different approaches to facilitate the mind-body connection. And we're all about educating clients on how this can improve their well-being and basically providing an accessible, affordable way for them to receive a super relaxing experience so that they can start to feel better emotionally as well.

AH Thank you. So we are excited because Yomassage is doing a special offer for our listeners. You can get $50 off, January through March, Yomassage Signature training and the Barefoot Yomassage certification trainings with the code MBB. And you can check all of that out at yomassage.com. I don't know why I stumbled on the website address. It's pretty obvious.

TR [Laughing]

AH We're going have all of this info in the podcast notes, and we're going to mention it again later. Actually, why don't we take a second: What is the Signature training and what is the Barefoot Yomassage training all about?

TR So these are two ways that you can become certified Yomassage therapists. The Signature training is where we utilize more traditional Swedish techniques. And then the Barefoot Yomassage certification is the same as the Signature except instead of doing Swedish techniques, you learn a barefoot Ashiatsu routine basically. And there's different -- there are different restorative stretch positions in each of those because different ones are appropriate for different types of massage and need to be supported in different ways. But they're both ways that you can enter into the Yomassage Community and become certified.

AH That's awesome. Then we're going to move into our topic, which you already mentioned is the inclusion of mindfulness and mind-body tools in massage. And we know so many practitioners have started veering into this and are learning more about it as we find we have more and more clients coming, specifically, to treat depression, anxiety, trauma, and people who just want to get in better touch with themselves and feel and function better. So tell us how we can do this. Tell us what we need to know.

TR Yeah. So I think that massage therapists have -- are starting to see the demand from their clients for this type of service, especially, I think, among maybe a younger demographic of people who really understand the importance of the mind-body connection. They understand that they -- that meditation is good for them, that mindfulness is good for them. And I -- one of the big problems, though, for people -- so I would say that the target demographic here is generally going to be people in their 20s to 30s, maybe even early 40s that are -- really understand these concepts, and it's not something new to them. It's something that they want and are seeking.

But the problem is that if you go -- let's say pre-COVID -- or even not. Even in -- now -- we can talk about now doing virtual things. But if I want to go take a medication class or a facilitated guided meditation, and then I want to go take a yoga class, and then I want to get my massage, and then I'm going to go exercise -- there's all these different things we know we should do for our health and wellness, but that's expensive, A, and B, it's time intensive. Who has time to do all of that? So that's kind of where Yomassage comes in in terms of making this mind-body experience something that people can access easily and affordably.

But I don't want to just talk about Yomassage with this. I just -- I really -- we are wanting to promote massage therapists including mind-body approaches, whether it's in Yomassage or it's in their traditional table sessions with clients. The reason that I think massage is the place to start with this facilitation for clients is -- I mean, you already have them -- you have them in this space where they can focus on the sensation in their body, where they can start noticing their breath or what feels tight or what feels good, what emotions are -- or maybe even are coming up for them. And so it's just capitalizing on that time with our client and being intentional about facilitating that mind-body connection because I'm sure everybody relates to this: When you get on the massage table, oftentimes as much as we want to just be able to be in the moment and mindful, we're focused -- or not focused, but our mind wanders to stressful things, right? I know I do that. I'll be on the table, and then I'm like, no, this is your hour; focus on what you're feeling and the sounds and the scents and the sensations. But then my mind wanders again. And if my therapist -- if my massage therapist is actually helping to remind me and guide me in that, then that changes things, right? You have a whole different experience.

AH And I think -- I'm going to pop in here. I was thinking of this -- it popped into my mind, and then I went, wow, I've been hanging out with Michael too much, is that this is a really good value-add to your service.

TR Yes.

AH We get a lot of questions. One of the things we do when someone joins our premium community is we ask them what the biggest challenge is in their massage practice right now. And so many people answer saying, competing with the chain giving $50-dollar massages around the corner, or attracting clients that like the kind of work I do. And this is -- this could be -- getting better and learning to implement various kinds of mindfulness into a treatment, actively doing that and being able to advertise that you do that is a huge differentiation (sic). I'm using that word wrongly. But it -- there's a huge way to stand out from all of the generic "I do all kinds of massage" practitioners that are all around us.

TR Yeah.

AH And it's a great foray into niching on -- in anxiety, depression, trauma, or just people who want a little more wellness. So I think that, if it's something -- if someone started to cringe when they heard this and they're like, I don't want to be doing this, there could be a really good reason why you should explore it more, especially if you're working with people with certain mental health issues and want to keep doing that and to serve them better. Okay. I'm done.

TR Well, exactly. And it -- I mean, Allissa, exactly. The niche thing, this is an up-and-coming niche for people. This is something that clients want. And so if you can market yourself in that way, use the -- well, first of all, you need to be trained to be able to do it effectively and then be able to say, listen, I am trained in this. I can provide you with not only really physically but also emotionally. And it's the education component. And Yomassage is huge about that. We spend our first full week of training just on mind-body connection content so that you can easily talk about these things with your clients and easily educate your clients on why this is important, how it helps them, and for you do understand what you're doing, what you're actually doing to body and the hormone production in your client's brain as you help them with this mind-body connection.

So yeah, I think it's definitely going to be big, especially as the years go on. And we have -- we already have this base of clients, like I mentioned, I think, probably from 20 to 40 years old, that know about some of these benefits. And that's just going to keep increasing.

AH And I think being able -- being helped along with the vernacular on how to talk about this is huge. I took a class a couple weeks ago where I learned that they've done actual studies on the brain and found that regular meditation changes the neuropathways in the brain.

TR Yep.

AH And it actually -- I think what they said was that it -- brains that have meditated more have an increase -- or have a -- an increased pause in response time between stimulus and reaction.

TR Yep. Uh-hum.

AH It actually changes the amygdala. And that was so interesting to learn. And I've taken a bunch of classes on mind-body stuff. And every time I take one, there's something the last one didn't cover, which is awesome because there's just so much to learn and so much more that we're learning. Every couple of months, we hear something new about this.

TR It is. Yeah. It's fascinating. And I think part of what you're talking about is neuroplasticity where the brain can change. We're not stuck, right? We can change; we can learn new responses. And that's a -- that's what we're doing. That's what we're trying to do with the mind-body connection in bodywork and massage because you have this opportunity to give the brain and the body an hour, 90 minutes, or however long it is, to rest and reset. And when the longer you're -- you can be in that mode, that parasympathetic mode, the more your body and your brain are going to expect to be in that mode. So if you're constantly stressed out, your body expects to constantly be stressed out. But the opposite is also true. And so if we can lengthen that period of time for people, it gives the brain an opportunity to reset and to develop new expectations. And so that's the power of it. I mean, it really is just -- it's so fascinating and -- the mind is so powerful. We have so much more control over things than we realize we do.

And for people that have chronic pain, it often is -- the source is often emotional. And there is this connection, this evidence-based connection that when we address our stress response, that our body starts feeling better, oftentimes, depending obviously on what -- where the -- what the pain is related to. But I mean, I don't know about you, but I've experienced that where all of sudden I'm like, oh, my back. And then I'm like, what's going on in my life? Oh, yeah. I'm insanely stressed out right now. And so educating clients on the power they have when they are able to focus on how their mind is impacting their body and how their body impacts their mind is just so powerful. And when people feel the relief from your sessions with that, they're going to come back, and they're going to tell other people. And it really is life-changing for a lot of people.

AH So tell me a little bit about -- and I might be getting to this before you because I saw it in your notes and I'm really excited -- when we're dealing with the effects of trauma and the common response to disassociate. I've heard that term a lot lately, and I don't fully understand what it means.

TR Yeah.

AH So can you talk a little bit about trauma, that response, and what it is?

TR Sure. So disassociation is basically a coping mechanism related to trauma. So you might notice somebody who maybe has a flat affect. They -- and what I mean by that is that when you look at their face, there's not a whole lot you can tell that's going on in their facial expressions. It might seem like they're just kind of zoned out, out of it. Basically, disassociation is you're walking through life kind of outside of your body. You're sort of observing things, but you're not really in the experience. And it's a protective mechanism, and it's not something that's -- I mean, obviously, we don't want to walk around just in a dissociative state all of the time. But there are a lot of responses to trauma that they're there to protect you. So it's not necessarily bad per se, but you don't fully engage in life that way.

And so when I did work at the Integrative Trauma Treatment Center here in Portland, this is the work that I did mostly. So it would be clients who mostly had experienced sexual trauma, and they had been diagnosed with dissociative disorder. And basically, what we would do is, through the bodywork session, have them really focus on the sensations they're feeling in their body. What are they noticing? What do they feel? And it -- not necessarily emotionally, just literally, what's the sensation they're feeling in their body because it gets them back into their body. They feel their body again. So a lot of people are walking around not even feeling anything in their body. And so what we notice -- I did some case study research while we were there. Nothing that's evidence-based per se, but what we found with our clients there is that it would maybe last up to a week. So they might feel back in their body for up to a week, and then they would need another bodywork session.

But yeah. It's fascinating because I think a lot of people probably do this. You walk around not even noticing what's happening inside of your body. And then once you quiet and take the time and you're intentional and maybe you're being led through it, now, all of a sudden, you're in there and you feel it. And so it's really, really powerful. And this is stuff that you can do as a massage therapist. I mean, this is your work. And it doesn't necessarily mean you have to be -- I mean, I do want to make the distinction between being trained in trauma-informed bodywork and then doing this kind of mindfulness-based bodywork. There's definitely overlap, but I think everybody can benefit from this, not just clients who have experienced trauma. But if you do want to work with the trauma population, I would say make sure to get that specific training as well.

AH When I was a very new massage therapist, I had -- one of my clients was a track coach. And every so often, he would send me -- he was a high school track coach. He would send me some of his athletes. And I remember one particular athlete that had a groin pull, like an inner leg thing. So I got this 16, 17-year-old kid coming to me for this groin pull. And he was such a cool kid, and it was great for me to do the work and learn it and learn how to work on young people and learn how to work on athletes. And a thing that he told me has stuck with me for like 15 years where I said -- I asked him, how did you feel when you ran last week? Did you feel better than the week before or worse? And he was like, about the same, but I feel like I understood my leg better.

TR Yes.

AH Learning how things felt when he was recovering from an injury and when I was poking at different things and when I was having him resist certain motions and do certain things, he really -- he was so able to articulate. And later on, he told one of his friends, like, you should go see her; she helps you know your body.

TR Oh, that's awesome.

AH Oh, okay, I'll take it.

TR Yeah.

AH And being able to feel his leg better and knowing how his body should feel and exist in the space around it was really, really cool. And I don't -- I didn't have the words for it then to understand, but it's cool.

TR It's -- yeah. It's so powerful to give that knowledge to people because -- I mean, I think I was that person before I went to massage school. I don't know. I remember sitting in class in massage school and thinking, wow, I had no idea my body was so beautiful and complex and integrated and this affects that. I mean, it's mind-blowing. And most people don't go to massage school or medical school or whatever. They don't know these things and especially, I think, around the hormone production. This is an easy thing to educate our clients about. It's not complicated. It's, hey, safe therapeutic touch decreases our stress hormones, which cause inflammation and disease and depression and anxiety. And safe touch also increases our hormones that make us feel connected to people and happy. And these are just things that -- that's for everybody. It doesn't matter what your reason is for coming in. This (indiscernible) --

AH And the marketplace for that is going to be huge in coming months.

TR Yes.

AH And I -- it's a horrifying silver lining of this terrible situation is that there will be no shortage of people who appreciate and seek out touch and skilled touch.

TR Yes.

AH In -- when we get to vaccine and post-vaccine times, we will all be able to run full careers through this. I really believe that this is my job security.

TR Yep.

AH This is a horrifying situation that has led to our job security as skilled touch providers. So I think it's -- and that's part of why I was so excited to -- for you to cover this topic because people are now understanding how touch-starved they are.

TR Yes.

AH And not being able to see our families and hug our -- and especially for people living alone, it's really something. And this is job security for us if we can get skilled and improve the services we provide to fill the void that's happening.

TR It's so true. And talking to people outside of the industry, a lot of them are like, well, how are -- I mean, you guys must not be doing very well, and da-da-da. And it's like, you know what? I am not worried one bit because of exactly what you just said, Allissa, the conversation around touch deprivation. And there's actually -- those terms in the literature and the academic research literature around this -- it's touch deprivation and skin hunger are the two terms if you're -- if anybody who's listening is interested in just googling that and finding what academic articles you can find on it. We cover all this stuff in our Yomassage training in week 1. But that's the -- it's a real thing. It is a real thing, and there are consequences to touch deprivation and skin hunger.

And I mean, we've had people -- and as I'm sure many of the -- your listeners have had where they come to us after not having receiving touch for like years. I remember this one woman in our Yomassage class just started crying in the middle of class. And it was like, what's going on? And she said she had been in a terrible car accident and had been in a lot of pain two years ago. And she just hadn't let anybody touch her until then, and it was emotional. And we -- one of -- our master trainer, Letty (phonetic), was just saying she had a woman -- single, older woman -- come in, really wanted her massage, but she had just had -- I don't know, it was some significant health issue that was totally contraindicated for massage. She couldn't receive massage, and so what Letty did, because she's trained in it by us, is that she said, you know what? What if we do -- what if I do a guided meditation with some mindful touch, which is like a light touch; it's not manipulating tissue. And the woman just broke down and said, that was so wonderful. That's exactly what I needed.

And so oftentimes, it maybe isn't even that -- it's not the deep tissue work that people are craving. I mean, obviously, that has its place. But also, there's a huge market for people who just need to feel connected. I mean, I -- that's the biggest thing is that feeling of somebody holding that space for you and being intentional and safe. And yeah. It's really, really powerful. Obviously, I'm very passionate about the -- that kind of work because we see the impact it has on people's emotional and (indiscernible) --

AH So you mentioned guided meditation. What else does this kind of mindfulness integration involve? I understand what meditation is; I understand what a guided meditation is. What does that look like in a massage room? What else -- and what else are we talking about here?

TR Yeah. So I mean, there's several different ways you can implement mind-body approaches. One is maybe you have a guided meditation that you're reading, and it's -- maybe it's a visualization for somebody just to have something to focus on to get their mind off of whatever it is that's bothering them. There can be, again, guided meditations that are more focused on noticing the sensations that you're feeling in your body, so that's maybe the focus of them. So at Yomassage, we come out with a new guided meditation every month for our practitioners to use. And they can be used in a Yomassage session or in a regular -- however you want to use them in your practice. So there's that.

But then, I mean, it literally can just be every time you're about to start a new stroke, you're guiding your client to take a big deep breath in through the nose and exhale through the mouth and focus on the breath or reminding the client to focus on the sensations they're feeling in their body. It really can be that simple. It doesn't have to be like a whole guided meditation if that's not something that you feel comfortable doing or that the client desires.

And the other thing is, what we've found is really kind of fun and again, I think, powerful for the client is if you are providing these services and this is something that you want to be your niche, we have different themes. We have stuff around letting go or gratitude or self-care, self-compassion or whatever. There's all kinds of different themes, and then the client can pick. What do they feel would be most helpful for them that day to focus on? And they get to choose, and then that's what you do for them.

So yeah. I mean, it really -- it's varied, and I think it's probably dependent on your comfort level in doing this. Maybe you do start just -- if you've never done this before, start with just telling your client at the beginning of the session to make sure that they're focusing on their breath, make sure that they are noticing how their body is feeling.

I actually had a -- I went to receive a massage a few months ago. And my massage therapist, I loved -- I had never had this before. She said, I want you to set an intention for your time here with me before we get started. And she just gave me a minute when she had some essential oils or whatever. And she just said, focus on that intention throughout. And then she reminded me a couple times. And that was really powerful for me. It really made that hour that much more impactful and meaningful for me. So it doesn't have to be anything super fancy.

AH And something that's not a lot of work for our client and that's really helpful.

TR Uh-hum.

AH And I -- that -- what struck me is -- especially with the breathing stuff is that -- I don't know why I was so averse to the concept of deep breaths and breathwork early in my career. I don't know what I have -- had against that. But as I've learned more about meditation, and as I've moved into a house with two kids with anxiety issues and my own stuff and ADHD and you name it, I have learned more about these tools. And what stuck with me is that your breath is always accessible.

TR Exactly.

AH You don't need any extra tools. You don't need a lot of instruction. You just need to breathe. And it's a thing you can do without anyone around you noticing that you are incorporating this tool.

TR Um-hum. Right.

AH It's your secret super power.

TR Yup. Exactly. Breath is -- oh, my gosh. Don't get me started on breath, Allissa.

AH Sorry.

TR [Laughing] We could do a whole thing on breath because -- you're right. It's so powerful. And it's the one thing that we can control with our mind that immediately impacts our body.

AH And it's crazy because wearing a mask so much now has made me super aware of my breathing because when this started, and I was -- started to massage again and I'm wearing a mask in the massage room, as is my client, and I just -- I found myself borderline hyperventilating in my mask because it was like, I put a mask on and my face doesn't know what to do with itself all of a sudden.

TR Yeah. Um-hum.

AH My chin juts out, and my breathing gets weird. And so I watched a couple of tutorials, and I did some practice, and I learned how to make sure I'm breathing through my nose, slow it down a little bit. And I really have started doing my own breathwork when I'm massaging, and I -- it has dramatically improved the quality of my work.

TR Wow.

AH And also, I feel great. When I'm massaging, I feel better. I'm not hyperventilating in my massage room.

TR Yeah.

AH So that's very helpful. And yeah. So I think this could be -- and I've actually taught a few clients who have felt like -- who've mentioned that they're super uncomfortable wearing a mask. And everybody is wearing a mask in Massachusetts when you leave your home. You pretty much just have to no matter where you are.

TR Um-huh.

AH And full-time in my massage room, nobody's taking it off. So I have taught a few of these tricks to clients. And it has helped them dramatically. And we'll do a whole episode on breathwork sometime. But it's --

TR That I'm --

AH It's quite a thing.

TR Yeah. It is. And I think just what you said, if you know maybe two or three breathing techniques that are really helpful for you, talk to your clients about those before the session and then remind them, oh, remember that in through the nose, or a slightly longer exhale than inhale, remember? Try to do that right now, or whatever because, I mean, that one specifically, the longer exhale than inhale, there's research around that that shows that it lowers your heart rate because when you inhale, you're increasing your heartrate, and when you exhale, it lowers it. And so if you have a slightly longer exhale than inhale each time, you're going to consistently kind of get your heartrate down to a really relaxed state. And it's super effective. So if you have a few of those techniques, educate your clients on it. And then just guide them to do that throughout the session. It's really not hard. It's very simple to do and super effective.

AH And there's so many resources for this that it's a little ridiculous. But okay, moving on from breathwork. What else do you want to tell us?

TR Oh, gosh. I mean, I don't know. I think we covered most of the stuff. I just -- I want to emphasize that massage therapists have the platform to do this work so easily. This is where it should be done, in my view. We do -- obviously in yoga, mind-body connection is a big thing. That's just done all of the time, and it's like, why is that not happening in the massage room? It -- in my view, every massage can incorporate at least the little things that we mentioned.

And it's the perfect place, and it's huge value-add like you said, Allissa, especially when the clients know what you're doing, the purpose behind what you're doing and the impact and effect of that. When clients -- when you're able to articulate the impact of what you're doing and your intentionality and that you've been trained in these things, they see the value. And I think that's -- A, not only do we want to impact the clients positively whether they know it or not but, B, really, I think one of the most important things right now is educating people on the power they have over their own well-being and knowing what tools can help them. And so that's a huge thing that you can do for your community as a massage therapist. So I'm just -- I'm really passionate about these things. That's really what Yomassage is all about is the mind-body connection, creating that experience and educating clients on it. So I don't have much else to say other than that.

AH Well, let's let you tell us a little bit more what kind of Yomassage training can help us with that. So let's say I am super interested in this, and let's say I'm super in love with Yomassage from what I've learned so far, what can you do for me? What courses should I be looking into?

TR We have several Community courses that are available to anybody even if you haven't taken our Yomassage certification. So if you go on our website, you can find Community courses. We're actually going to be -- I should have the new Community course up by the first of the year for mindful bodywork. So it'll be like an introduction to the benefits of mindfulness in bodywork and how to incorporate it. So more detail than what we talked about here, but this is sort of the topic. We also have an intro to trauma-informed bodywork in the Community course, as well as an introduction to Yomassage just in general. So you can check those out. Anybody has access to those.

And then if you are interested in becoming certified as a Yomassage therapist, then we have trainings that start every Monday. They're virtual trainings, three weeks long. And the first week focuses on the mind-body connection. The second week is all of the different restorative stretch positions, massage, body mechanics for those positions, how to run a Yomassage session, which is fairly unique. We have sort of a recipe, I guess you could say, for how those sessions should go to maximize the relaxation for the client. And then the last week is really putting it all together and demo-ing your Yomassage session. So that's the Yomassage certification.

Once you're certified, then you can serve up to five clients at once in a session. The reason we have it in this kind of community setting -- well, there's a couple reasons: one, people love community, but two is that that's what really makes it financially accessible for people. So they can incorporate it into their every week wellness routine. That's the idea because we know the power of touch, we know the power of the mind-body experience, and people need it more than once a month or on their birthday. So we want to make it something where people understand the value and understand that they need to be doing this frequently as part of their wellness routine. Yeah. So just visit our website, and we also have a Facebook group for people if you want to ask questions. You can ask us questions there, and it's a big community.

And then we also -- I forgot to mention on our last podcast, Allissa, that we also have a podcast, The Yomassage Podcast.

AH Yes, you do. And it's really good.

TR Oh, well, thanks. Yeah. We talk about kind of all the things that make you feel good, that increase the good hormones and decrease the bad ones. And it's just kind of a nice resource that you can share with your clients on self-care. That's the purpose behind it at least.

AH All right. And once again, everybody, this is will be in the podcast notes. But you can $50 off, January through March, Yomassage Signature and Barefoot Yomassage certification trainings with the code MBB. And you can go to yomassage.com to find all the relevant information.

And Michael, let's bring you in to ask any questions that popped up for you or wrap us up.

MR Sure. No questions, but you kind of joked that you've been hanging around me too much because I -- you ask about, how do you incorporate this? And I agree. I think that -- I love things that differentiate your practice. So getting trained, getting exposure to bringing mindfulness into your massage practice, I think, is awesome because, again, it differentiates you. It helps you do something different or additional that brings value to your clients. So I love that you brought that up, and I am on board. I love it. So thank you for that.

AH And I'm going to pop in with one thing that Tiffany didn't mention, is that when you take a Yomassage training, there is just an absurd amount of support that you get during and after. And that support includes learning how to market Yomassage in your community. And so many classes -- you take this five-day class or whatever, and then you get back to your office and you're like, that's great, but I don't know how to incorporate this and I don't know how to tell people about it. And Yomassage hands that to you. And I've -- that is probably the best comment and review that I have heard from people who've taken Yomassage is that they just love the work in general, and also they really get their hands held through the beginning stages and then growing and just like you mentioned with the new meditation every month. It's super supportive community, and I think our people will really appreciate that. I'm done. I wanted to mention that.

TR Yeah. That's -- I mean, that's our goal. We really care if -- about your success during the training and after the training. So I'm glad that you've heard that, and that's been something that people appreciate. It is -- it's helpful, I think, especially when you're offering something kind of new that people haven't heard of, to have all of those resources and help you get that started in your business. So we love it.

MR Well, thank you, Dr. Ryan. I appreciate you being here. And thanks to both of you for the great conversation. I really enjoyed being a fly on the wall for that as well. So I know you've been a partner with Massage Business Blueprint for a long time. We really appreciate that. We love what you're doing. So how about just one last time, let's make sure our listeners know that your website is yomassage.com. And I believe the code you said is MBB to get $50 off the training in the first quarter. So thank you for offering that to our listeners as well. We appreciate that.

TR Awesome. Thank you guys so much for having me. I always have fun with you.

MR Yeah.

AH Yay.

MR Well, I know that you'll be back, and so we look forward to that in future episodes. But we will wrap it up there. So thanks, everyone, so much for joining us today. If you'd like, you can find us on the web at massagebusinessblueprint.com. And have a great day. We'll see you next time.

AH Bye.