Thursday, December 28, 2006

Thummel kneading needy muscles in McLouth

by Kenneth Lassister

When the time came for Sabrina Thummel to try her hand at her own massage business, the old saying proved true. There’s no place like home.

Photo by Kenneth Lassiter

Sabrina Thummel sits by the massage table in The Massage Room, which she opened Dec. 13 in McLouth.

Thummel opened The Massage
Room at 104 E. Lucy in McLouth
Dec. 13. She is trained in various forms of massage for adults and children, from deep tissue
massage to Swedish massage.

After Thummel graduated with certification in massage
therapy from Pinnacle Career Institute in Lawrence in June
2004, she worked at Circle S Ranch
offering massages and spa
treatments. In September 2005 she opened her own massage business in Lawrence but quickly figured out the environment didn’t feel right for her.

“Maybe if I had grown up in Lawrence or Leavenworth or a bigger town like that it would have been different but I’m a small town person, I guess,” Thummel said.

She is a McLouth native and lives north of town with her husband, James, and children, Katrina, 13, and Mackenzie, 9.

“I found out it wasn’t the thing for me in Lawrence so I closed there in February and quit at Circle S in July and now I’ve got this going.”

In addition to massage, Thummel will continue to offer spa treatments at The Massage Room including body wraps for moisturizing, salt scrubs, hot stone treatments and other offerings. The business is open by appointment and Thummel can be reached at 913-796-6652. A website for the business is under construction at www.themassageroomonline.com and Thummel hopes to offer gift certificates online soon along with links to articles on massage therapy and other information on the business. Gift certificates are also available by calling Thummel. Besides cash or check she can also accept MasterCard or Visa.

Thummel prepared to be a masseuse by taking PCI’s nine-month program and taking an additional 40 credit hours in anatomy, physiology and other muscle-related fields. She has also been able to split her time lately to go back to PCI to help teach massage to students there.

“I can say I spent probably six of those nine months doing nothing but massage,” Thummel said. She now supervises the student massage therapy clinic at PCI in which she was learning her trade not too long ago.

Communication and education are the priorities for Thummel with clients. She said the reluctance of people in Lawrence to want to talk about their pain and what kind of massage they prefer is part of what led her to move the office to McLouth. She said many people also don’t know the potential benefits of massage therapy as it can go hand-in-hand with chiropractic treatment in improving health.

“It’s getting to the point that 70 or 80 percent of the contributing factors to headaches and back aches and body stiffness are related to stress and tension,” Thummel said. “I’ve even read that prolonged colds can be caused by stress. Massage therapy is one of the best ways to turn around that stress and tension. I’ve got to know the difference between injuries I can work on and at what point to do that. It takes 24 hours for a massage to take full efect and the more therapy you get, the more benefit you get out of it. People don’t always understand that muscle has memory and if you don’t focus on that, it’ll want to go back the way it was when it was giving them problems. The longer people let it sit, the longer it takes to get rid of it. Pills like muscle relaxers may take away the pain but don’t get rid of the cause of it.”

Thummel said she likes to call what she offers “custom massages” as she likes to talk with the client about how much pressure is necessary, where the pain is located and why.

“Usually appointments are 30, 60 or 90 minutes,” she said. “Thirty minutes is good for working on a focused area of muscles while 60 minutes can get a good full body massage in and 90 minutes pretty much allows me to be more comprehensive. You have to have some kind of relationship with the clients to find out the best way to approach their problems. It’s a learning process for both of us.

“People don’t always understand that when something hurts your body compensates, so sometimes when I get pain in one part of the body to go away, it moves somewhere else, but that’s just the body getting the kinks worked out. Once people can understand what their body is telling them, they know what’s going on and what needs to be fixed.”

While massage therapy can deal with aches and pains, the spa treatments offered at The Massage Room can address problems like dry skin to improve the body’s feeling.

Thummel decided to rent the building on Lucy Street to benefit both her preparation for clients and the client’s comfort.

“People look at the building from outside and ask me if it’s too small,” Thummel said with a chuckle. “They don’t know I had a 7-by-10-foot room to work with in Lawrence and a 9-by-10-foot room at the ranch. The room in here is huge to me. I wanted to keep it quiet and simple. This allows me to take the clients out of the situations that may be contributing to their stress.”

Thummel said business has been somewhat slow starting out but she has gotten many inquiries from prospective clients and can envision business picking up after the holidays are over.

“So far I’m pretty pleased. I’ve gotten some positive feedback on being here and having the office here in town,” Thummel said.

She does offer referral discounts for clients who spread the word about her work.

“So many people here in these small communities can’t make it out to Lawrence or Leavenworth, so I think it’s good to have a place here in town.

“I wasn’t expecting a whole lot of business because of the holidays but I have gotten some good interest and a couple clients. Word-of-mouth is often the best way for massage therapists to get the word out. I want people to get their money’s worth here. If they pay for a 60-minute session, they’re getting 60 minutes. If they like how they feel and pass the word, that makes me feel like I’ve done a good job.”