10/04/2026
This photo represents much more to me than another continuing education certificate.
This past week I completed the 40-hour Deep Lomi Thai Fusion Practitioner Program at Touch Factor Massage and Bodywork and Massage School Reimagined, taught by Joe Lavin, with Wendy Lavin bringing her extensive physical therapy background into the mobility, movement, assessment, and clinical portions of our training.
I thought I had a pretty good idea of the experience I was hopefully coming for.
It was all that and more.
Over the course of the week, we explored Deep Lomi, Thai-inspired movement and stretching, compression, mobility, body mechanics, assessment, clinical reasoning, and ways of creating bodywork that can be simultaneously relaxing, exploratory, creative, and therapeutically intentional.
What I appreciated most was that this wasn't simply about memorizing another sequence of massage techniques.
It challenged us to explore why we were doing what we were doing, to pay attention to how the body responded, to become more efficient with our own bodies, and to find ways to let movement, touch, assessment, and intuition work together.
And then there were the people.
Our group brought an incredible amount of curiosity, openness, vulnerability, and generosity into the room. We practiced on one another, experimented, asked questions, occasionally struggled, gave honest and constructive feedback, and helped each other become better throughout the week.
That made the experience immeasurably better.
Joe and Wendy, thank you for your patience, grace, humility, generosity, and for opening your space to all of us. There is something special about learning from people who possess tremendous knowledge and experience but remain genuinely curious themselves.
As both a massage therapist and an educator, experiences like this are incredibly important to me.
I don't want my practice - or my teaching - to ever become stagnant.
I'll be incorporating pieces of this work into my own bodywork as I continue developing the way I combine orthopedic, sports, movement-based, relaxation, and Lomi Lomi approaches. But I'm equally excited about what this experience will bring back into the classroom at Synergy Wellness Academy.
My students don't need to become copies of me or any other therapist. I want them to learn principles, develop excellent hands and body mechanics, understand anatomy and movement, think critically, remain curious, and eventually discover the kind of therapist they want to become.
Being a student again reminds me how important that is.
So I'm heading home with a certificate I'm very proud of - but much more importantly, with new ideas, new questions, new ways of moving and working, and a renewed excitement about this profession I've chosen.
Joe and Wendy - and everyone who shared this week with me - thank you.
I'm forever grateful.
