For many massage therapy students, massage scholarships are of vast importance. They help students and recent graduates pay for schooling they otherwise couldn’t afford, set up private practices after graduation, or even just reaffirm that their decision to pursue massage therapy was in fact the correct one. Two recent massage scholarship winners discuss their backgrounds, what winning a scholarship meant to them, and how they envision their future.

Julianna Warner (2023 Schools Summit Recipient)

1. How did you get interested in a career in massage therapy?

Massage therapy wasn’t on my radar until about a month before I started massage school. I had just quit a job that was very important work but that was also emotionally difficult, and I needed to transition to something different. A friend who is a massage therapist told me how much she loved her work, and I became intrigued. (Shout out to Susan Good at Latitude Massage!) I thought there was a pretty good chance I wouldn’t like it or that I would change my mind, but I decided to take the leap and sign up for massage school. It turns out, I love massage and am thrilled to be able to do such impactful and meaningful work!

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2. What did winning the $1,000 scholarship mean to you?

This scholarship came at the perfect time, and I am so grateful to have been selected. It allowed me to start building my private practice immediately upon getting my license.

3. When you envision your future in the massage therapy profession, what do you see yourself doing?

I hope that my practice grows and that I am able to bring the benefits of massage to more and more people in my community. I envision always keeping my ears open for interesting new techniques and modalities to try. I want to always continue learning.

4. What encouragement would you offer people considering massage school who aren’t sure they can do it?

I would say to figure out what it is that’s making you hesitant, and then talk to someone—your family, your peers, massage school graduates, instructors at the school of your choice, for example—about those things. I personally spoke with multiple people about my hesitations and they helped me figure out a way to make it work.

5. For massage therapy students considering applying for an AMTA Student Scholarship, what advice would you give them?

I’d say just go for it. You have nothing to lose, and it could be a huge game-changer for your career!

Mikela Thrasher (Rick Boden Healer at Heart Recipient)

1. How did you get interested in a career in massage therapy? In 2018, I participated in a Reiki 1 workshop. During the workshop, I wrote “your hands have the power to heal” on a handout. I had no conscious intention at that point to enter into massage therapy. But healing work has been a consistent interest of mine, especially now as I move forward on my spiritual path. At my core, I want to serve others

through vocational pathways. In 2015, I received a Masters of Art in Teaching in art education. In my current role as an art educator, I have incorporated mindfulness and trauma-informed practices in the hopes of providing a healing space for many of my students.

Alongside my role as an educator, I have sought ways to strengthen the relationship with my spiritual self and inner world. Several years ago, massage therapy called to me, in subtle passing thoughts, and this past year I answered the call. Rumi states it perfectly: “What you seek is seeking you.”

2. What did winning the $10,000 scholarship mean to you?

The scholarship was an affirmation that I am, in fact, aligned with my higher purpose and path. Since my background is creative, I have struggled with learning the scientific and anatomical terminology that massage therapists need to understand. I often wondered: “Is this the right path for me?,” as diving into this new framework of knowledge was unfamiliar and challenging. I applied for the Rick Boden Healer at Heart Scholarship a month after enrolling in my part-time program, and when I received the call from AMTA in January, I was equally shocked, excited, and full of gratitude. This scholarship has provided me more financial flexibility, and has become a catalyst for thinking about my post-graduation plans.

3. When you envision your future in the massage therapy profession, what do you see yourself doing?

My long-term goal is to become a somatic healer and incorporate energy work modalities into my practice. I would love to build an energetic space where touch goes beyond physical pain relief into a deeply healing and emotional catharsis for my clients.

Bodywork can become the outlet others need to release trauma stored within them on a cellular level. I anticipate incorporating my work as an educator to lead workshops and develop research that demonstrates the power massage, energy work, and somatic healing has to create radical, uplifting changes within ourselves.

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4. What encouragement would you offer people considering massage school who aren’t sure they can do it?

Live your life through your purpose. My classmates and I are in school because we want to empower ourselves as therapists and alleviate pain for those around us through our touch. We want to create safe spaces that recognize the capacity to see ourselves as containers for healing.

Massage therapy is equal parts intuitive and technical—you need the formal training to understand the limitations of our bodies, as well as the emotional capacity to empathize and attune ourselves to our clients’ needs.

5. For massage therapy students considering applying for an AMTA student scholarship, what advice would you give them?

My advice is to speak from the voice within yourself that offers innate wisdom. Do not speak from your ego, but from your authentic self. That version of you understands your “why.” Why have you chosen to answer the call to help others through touch? What choices have guided you here?