The COVID pandemic and the social distancing mandate shut down massage therapy practices, spas and massage schools across New Mexico in the blink of an eye. Most private schools across the state didn’t reopen and many massage therapists turned to new ventures and didn’t return to the profession. I am one of them.
When COVID hit, I had been practicing and teaching massage therapy for over 30 years in New Mexico as a licensed massage therapist and a registered massage therapy instructor. I founded and directed the New Mexico College of Natural Healing, a state approved massage therapy and herbal medicine school. I had been a consultant and instructor for the spa industry for 11 years. I closed my school in 2006, started a private practice and taught continuing education classes in massage, bodywork, wellness and spa startup. The pandemic forced everyone to adapt, both personally and professionally. When COVID hit, I left the profession and dropped back into one of my other skills–writing.
I’ve been curious about the consequences COVID had on the future of massage therapy, its effect on massage professionals, and would massage schools and spas recover. To get a deeper perspective of the pandemic’s effect, I decided to chat with the owner and the director of my massage school alma mater–The Santa Fe School of Massage, and some of my massage colleagues.
While other industries and services were able to move to virtual classes, the in-person, hands-on giving or receiving of massage and bodywork was left out in the cold. Everyone tells me when the profession reopened there were many safety protocols in place, including reducing the number of clients and rigorous cleaning between appointments.
“I still wear a mask when I’m working, even though the majority of us don’t. Sometimes our faces are inches apart from clients,” Margarita Quevedo, a Santa Fe therapist tells me. I don’t require my clients to wear a mask.”
With rents up across the state, Quevedo was lucky enough–as were many in this close-knit profession–to share the costs of a three–room therapy office with five other therapists. Their landlord lowered the rent for two years after the shutdown, which made all the difference. The therapist Quevedo shares her room with, left the spa he worked at, bought a food truck and only has a part-time practice now. Two other therapists I spoke with thought they’d only take a break, but never went back.
The Santa Fe School of Massage, an icon of the profession, opened its doors as Scherer’s Academy of Natural Healing over 40 years ago. COVID shut them down for good. Their director, Lonnie Howard, was the director when I attended in 1988. She retired and began collecting data on birds for the National Audubon Society after the school shut down .
“What I miss most is the community. COVID had a big ripple effect on a huge circle of people and it’s still going on. I take solace in the way we closed the school, as it was done with a lot of integrity. Every six months the profession used to have a whole wave of student graduates that you could hire. It’s very hard to find therapists now as many have created some really successful private practices. The pandemic really isn’t over. I think people retreated, and stepped back with a little fear about touching. I don’t know what it’ll take to fully recover,” Howard tells me.
Cathy Black, the owner and also a graduate of the Santa Fe School of Massage, explains they had just graduated a class two days before lock down. They had another class ready to go, but “didn’t want to sell somebody something that was going to be dead in the water.”
Not only was the school affected, but so was the infrastructure support for the school’s students such as housing, restaurants, and student’s side jobs.
“There was no way we could give the quality of connection and education to people that we had been doing for 40 years. We couldn’t do it online. We had to do it in person.” Black explains. “It was so unclear about the loans the government was offering. Were we going to have to pay it back? How much would it be? It was very unclear. We waited, explored our options and finally closed in August of 2020 amidst a lot of tears.”
After closing down the school, Black opened Luma Center in Taos, a meditation and spiritual retreat center. She also started free online classes in meditation, energy and awareness on YouTube.
Black says it’s difficult for a private school to compete with the state schools in terms of financing tuition.
“It’s gone to the community colleges and to the universities. I think that’s kind of the trend because it’s very affordable,” she says.
She still owns the intellectual property rights to the school’s curriculum and has hopes that someday a graduate of the school will say “Yep! I’ll do it!” and the school will reopen.
While the pandemic did disrupt the massage industry, the outlook for growth of schools, spas and therapists still appears very positive. COVID left many of us craving human touch. Research has shown that being deprived of human contact, or being “touch starved,” can affect blood pressure, heart rates, depression, and anxiety.
For those looking for a more holistic way to cope with physical and emotional feelings, massage, bodywork and spa therapies can provide a way to manage stress, alleviate physical pain and discomfort. Studies have found that massage therapy can be useful for treating anxiety, digestive disorders, fibromyalgia, headaches and insomnia on top of soft tissue strains and joint pain. It also increases flexibility and range of motion.
The physical world today seems so stressed and our bodies are equally stressed. COVID led most of us to listening more deeply to ourselves. The massage and bodywork professionals can support people through transformation to know themselves, to hear that inner voice, to feel their intuition and trust their body’s subtle energies more.
Gwynne Ann Unruh is an award-winning reporter formerly of the Alamosa Valley Courier, an independent paper in southern Colorado, and other publications. She has taught and practiced alternative healing...
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The COVID pandemic and the social distancing mandate shut down massage therapy practices, spas and massage schools across New Mexico in the blink of an eye. Most private schools across the state didn’t reopen and many massage therapists turned to new ventures and didn’t return to the profession. I am one of them.
When COVID hit, I had been practicing and teaching massage therapy for over 30 years in New Mexico as a licensed massage therapist and a registered massage therapy instructor. I founded and directed the New Mexico College of Natural Healing, a state approved massage therapy and herbal medicine school. I had been a consultant and instructor for the spa industry for 11 years. I closed my school in 2006, started a private practice and taught continuing education classes in massage, bodywork, wellness and spa startup. The pandemic forced everyone to adapt, both personally and professionally. When COVID hit, I left the profession and dropped back into one of my other skills–writing.
I’ve been curious about the consequences COVID had on the future of massage therapy, its effect on massage professionals, and would massage schools and spas recover. To get a deeper perspective of the pandemic’s effect, I decided to chat with the owner and the director of my massage school alma mater–The Santa Fe School of Massage, and some of my massage colleagues.
While other industries and services were able to move to virtual classes, the in-person, hands-on giving or receiving of massage and bodywork was left out in the cold. Everyone tells me when the profession reopened there were many safety protocols in place, including reducing the number of clients and rigorous cleaning between appointments.
“I still wear a mask when I’m working, even though the majority of us don’t. Sometimes our faces are inches apart from clients,” Margarita Quevedo, a Santa Fe therapist tells me. I don’t require my clients to wear a mask.”
With rents up across the state, Quevedo was lucky enough–as were many in this close-knit profession–to share the costs of a three–room therapy office with five other therapists. Their landlord lowered the rent for two years after the shutdown, which made all the difference. The therapist Quevedo shares her room with, left the spa he worked at, bought a food truck and only has a part-time practice now. Two other therapists I spoke with thought they’d only take a break, but never went back.
The Santa Fe School of Massage, an icon of the profession, opened its doors as Scherer’s Academy of Natural Healing over 40 years ago. COVID shut them down for good. Their director, Lonnie Howard, was the director when I attended in 1988. She retired and began collecting data on birds for the National Audubon Society after the school shut down .
“What I miss most is the community. COVID had a big ripple effect on a huge circle of people and it’s still going on. I take solace in the way we closed the school, as it was done with a lot of integrity. Every six months the profession used to have a whole wave of student graduates that you could hire. It’s very hard to find therapists now as many have created some really successful private practices. The pandemic really isn’t over. I think people retreated, and stepped back with a little fear about touching. I don’t know what it’ll take to fully recover,” Howard tells me.
Cathy Black, the owner and also a graduate of the Santa Fe School of Massage, explains they had just graduated a class two days before lock down. They had another class ready to go, but “didn’t want to sell somebody something that was going to be dead in the water.”
Not only was the school affected, but so was the infrastructure support for the school’s students such as housing, restaurants, and student’s side jobs.
“There was no way we could give the quality of connection and education to people that we had been doing for 40 years. We couldn’t do it online. We had to do it in person.” Black explains. “It was so unclear about the loans the government was offering. Were we going to have to pay it back? How much would it be? It was very unclear. We waited, explored our options and finally closed in August of 2020 amidst a lot of tears.”
After closing down the school, Black opened Luma Center in Taos, a meditation and spiritual retreat center. She also started free online classes in meditation, energy and awareness on YouTube.
Black says it’s difficult for a private school to compete with the state schools in terms of financing tuition.
“It’s gone to the community colleges and to the universities. I think that’s kind of the trend because it’s very affordable,” she says.
She still owns the intellectual property rights to the school’s curriculum and has hopes that someday a graduate of the school will say “Yep! I’ll do it!” and the school will reopen.
While the pandemic did disrupt the massage industry, the outlook for growth of schools, spas and therapists still appears very positive. COVID left many of us craving human touch. Research has shown that being deprived of human contact, or being “touch starved,” can affect blood pressure, heart rates, depression, and anxiety.
For those looking for a more holistic way to cope with physical and emotional feelings, massage, bodywork and spa therapies can provide a way to manage stress, alleviate physical pain and discomfort. Studies have found that massage therapy can be useful for treating anxiety, digestive disorders, fibromyalgia, headaches and insomnia on top of soft tissue strains and joint pain. It also increases flexibility and range of motion.
The physical world today seems so stressed and our bodies are equally stressed. COVID led most of us to listening more deeply to ourselves. The massage and bodywork professionals can support people through transformation to know themselves, to hear that inner voice, to feel their intuition and trust their body’s subtle energies more.
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Gwynne Ann Unruh
Gwynne Ann Unruh is an award-winning reporter formerly of the Alamosa Valley Courier, an independent paper in southern Colorado, and other publications. She has taught and practiced alternative healing... More by Gwynne Ann Unruh