Catherine Schwab

Catherine (Stines) Schwab graduated from the Daytime Professional Massage Therapy Program of the Salt Lake Campus of the Utah College of Massage Therapy in June of 1999. Upon graduation, she moved to Monterey, California and began her career as a massage therapist, working at the Monterey Plaza Hotel & Spa. Recently, Catherine sent the following update letter to the Career Services Coordinator of the Salt Lake Campus:

"I feel like the luckiest person in the world! I have a career I love that doesn’t feel like work and that has so much to offer others as well as myself.

"As soon as I graduated I started practicing massage at a beautiful, brand new spa in Monterey, California. It had three wet rooms, a nail technician room, a facial room and four massage rooms. Two of the wet rooms had outdoor decks… It was fast paced and I got to experience giving both wet treatments and a variety of massages to new people every day. I stayed there a year until my husband, Matt was transferred to Boston to attend graduate school at Harvard.

"I love the fact that finding a new job is not difficult. I soon had a job at Wellspace, a facility that has chiropractic care, acupuncture, homeopathic medicine, yoga classes, nutrition counseling and of course, massage therapists. It also has an esthetician, Feldenkrais and a host of other classes. It is a fabulous place to work with many other therapists with different backgrounds and training so there is always something new to learn. I love having regular clients where I can see progress being made and professional relationships grow. I love the nurturing environment that I work in.

"We just started offering LaStone, a massage using both hot basalt rocks and cool marble, and I know it will quickly become very popular. I just finished the training myself and think it is such a spiritual, beneficial massage that I want to share it with the world. I will be starting a neuromuscular workshop series next month and hope to gain a lot of insight on helping people with specific injuries or areas of discomfort.

"It is hard to stay focused on a particular modality since there are so many directions massage can take me. I was given advice early on to pick an area and become the best I could be at it. I will try to stay with LaStone and neuromuscular work for a while. I was also given the advice of getting massage myself and it is a blessing to work with so many different styles of therapists. I enjoy the experience of receiving and learning from these sessions. It reminds me often of why I went into this field in the first place.

"After my husband finishes his master’s [degree,] we will be moving to China for a year. I get asked all the time if I plan to work there, but since massage [costs] only two to three dollars [in China,] I think I will just continue my training and get a lot of massages myself.

"Massage is such a flexible, in-demand type of career that I know I will be doing it for a long time and learning more about myself and others along the way. UCMT gave me a great base to build my knowledge and love for massage on and I’m proud to tell people where I went to school."