The LMT Refinery

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The LMT Refinery We teach massage therapists to think clinically, move intelligently, and grow intentionally.

Our mission is to create collaborative, intelligent education where therapists feel safe, supported, and empowered.

I love this industry. And some of the things we’ve normalized in it make me want to flip a massage table.This is one of ...
09/24/2026

I love this industry. And some of the things we’ve normalized in it make me want to flip a massage table.

This is one of them.

Therapists are taught to look at the split.
Is it 50/50? 60/40?
Can I make more somewhere else?

But we also need to ask what responsibilities we’re taking on, and whether we actually have the independence or benefits that’s supposed to come with them.

You can love where you work, respect the owner, and still question the arrangement. Being grateful for an opportunity doesn’t mean you have to stop advocating for yourself.

And yes, people I love and respect use this model. I don’t assume everyone has bad intentions. Sometimes we repeat what we were taught, what our first boss did, or what someone told us was standard.

But “that’s how everyone does it” deserves a hell of a lot more scrutiny in this profession.

I’m a massage therapist AND an employer. I know running a practice is expensive and complicated. I also believe the people doing the work deserve to understand the deal they’re agreeing to.

Ask the uncomfortable questions. Get answers beyond “that’s just how massage works.”

We can care deeply about this profession and still demand better from it. I do. That’s why I’m loud about this.

And practice owners, we’re going to talk about our side of this next. Because “it’s easier” doesn’t mean it’s right…and the responsibilities of being an employer don’t disappear because we’d rather not deal with them.

09/22/2026

In my early massage days, I remember sitting on my rolling stool doing neck work and thinking, “Man, I wish I could just throw my foot up here and decompress this shoulder while I work.” 😂

Enter barefoot massage a few years later…and it opened up a whole new world and solved some major “problems” for me.

I LOVE seated barefoot work, especially the ability to have up to four points of contact at once.

One contact can anchor while another explores. My foot can create broad, steady compression or traction while my hands stay available for the detailed work. I can distribute pressure, make tiny adjustments, and stay connected to multiple areas at the same time.

Four points of contact isn’t about doing more.
It’s about feeling more.

It gives me more options for how I connect, assess, and respond to what I’m feeling.

And for me (and my clients) that’s where some pretty cool therapeutic gains live👣🙌

Sometimes the thing you wished you could do years ago just needed a different tool.

09/19/2026

There’s something really rewarding about building a business that can grow beyond your own two hands.

And it definitely didn’t happen overnight. Growing a team comes with a whole different set of lessons…hiring, training, letting go of control, figuring out culture, making mistakes, and learning how to lead people without expecting them to be you.

It’s become one of my favorite things to talk about with other massage therapists, especially when they’re starting to think about growing beyond a solo practice.

Not because everyone needs a team. They absolutely don’t.

But if that’s the direction you want to go, there’s a lot I’ve learned along the way that I’m always happy to share 🤍

09/16/2026

Active movement added a whole new dynamic to my work.

Active Ashi wasn’t really something I sat down and decided to create. It grew through exploration.

A lot of it started with an amazing client who was always willing to let me experiment, give me honest feedback, and explore movement in ways that were a little outside of how I had traditionally worked.

Add in conversations and feedback from chiropractors I work alongside, plus my increasingly nerdy obsession with kinetic chains after we created our Mat Based Techniques class…then Active Ashi started taking shape.

That’s the part I love most about bodywork.

It gives me information I don’t necessarily get from working on a completely passive body. Movement changes relationships throughout the body, and I get to feel and respond to those changes in real time.

And it doesn’t have to be complicated. Sometimes it’s a small movement layered into a very simple contact.

Active Ashi grew from curiosity, collaboration, and a lot of “huh…what happens if we try this?”

Which, if I’m being fair, is how a lot of my work has evolved.

We’ve got a ONE spot left in Active Ashi during our October Focus Weekend in Palm Harbor if you want to come nerd out with us 👣🤓

(Grounded Flow is full, and we have a couple spots left in Tools and Touch)

8CEs | NCBTMB and CEBroker approved

This one turned into an ethics conversation while I was making it, and I actually think that’s where it belongs.Because ...
09/15/2026

This one turned into an ethics conversation while I was making it, and I actually think that’s where it belongs.

Because I don’t believe education only happens inside a CE classroom.

At The Elm, we literally have Nerd Hours where our therapists get together, share what we know, try things on each other, talk through techniques and learn from one another. I LOVE a good skill share. Some of the best things I’ve picked up over 20+ years have come from trades, coworkers, conversations, watching another therapist work, experimenting, and just being curious.

I also don’t believe a weekend class automatically equals competence.

I believe somewhere between “someone showed me this” and “I professionally offer this modality,” there’s a line.

And I don’t think that line is always easy to define.

Being shown a cool technique and incorporating it into the way you already work? Totally normal. Cool even.

Being shown a few techniques and then representing yourself as trained in the entire modality? That’s where I think we enter an ethical gray area.

How much do you understand beyond the move itself? The why? Safety considerations? Contraindications? Adaptations? What happens when the textbook version doesn’t fit the body in front of you?

And maybe most importantly: are you accurately representing what you truly know?

This isn’t about collecting certificates or gatekeeping how therapists learn. I’d be a giant hypocrite if I said therapists shouldn’t teach each other.

It’s about professional judgment.

You don’t need a rule for every situation.

But you do need enough knowledge, skill and judgment to recognize when you’re outside of your competence.

So I genuinely want to know:

Where is that line for you?

09/14/2026

As massage therapists, we are a collection of our experiences.

I’ve taken classes I thought I would love, only to realize the work wasn’t for me and never use it again.

I had a client ask me for TWO YEARS to take a barefoot massage class. I resisted because, quite frankly, I thought it was weird 🫣

It ended up being one of the most career-changing choices I ever made.

Every class. Every client. Every experience. Every interest we chase down because we’re curious. They all shape the way we eventually show up at the table.

Some of my work was taught to me by fantastic teachers. Some has been self-discovered and intuitive. Some has been shaped by experiences that taught me exactly what I didn’t want to do.

Today, I use my hands, feet, knees, elbows and forearms. I use movement. I use compression, shear, specificity and broad pressure. And I try to stay curious in the moment rather than being loyal to any one technique.

Because there’s a whole conversation happening during a massage that will never fit into a short Instagram reel.

I’m listening to what you tell me during your intake. What you tell me during the session. What you don’t say. How you breathe. How you move. How your tissue responds. And I’m constantly letting that information influence what I do next.

That’s the skill.

Not having the biggest collection of techniques.

Knowing when, why and how to use what you’ve learned.

Stay curious 💛

09/13/2026

My favorite thing about this whole experience was watching the exact same reel land completely differently depending on the platform 🤔

But underneath all the chaos, it reminded me how easy it is to become rigid in an industry that should require a LOT of critical thinking and adaptability.

There are so many ways to work with the human body. I don’t need to practice all of them. I don’t even need to like all of them. But I want to understand something before I decide it has no value.

Twenty years in and I still want to be the therapist asking, “Huh. Why do they do it that way?”

Not the one yelling from the comments that everyone else is doing it wrong.

Stay curious, friends.

09/11/2026

Some of these might ruffle a few feathers 😅

But here’s what I actually mean:

Too much lotion = less control and less ability to engage the tissue.

Coming in hot = going from zero to DEEP without giving the nervous system or tissue time to adapt.

Your phone = unless there’s a legitimate reason, it doesn’t belong in your hand during someone’s session.

Lights = give them a minute. Let them come back to earth before you hit them with the fluorescents 😂

Talking = follow the client’s lead. Some want connection. Some want silence. And sometimes we need to communicate because, you know…we’re working with another human being.

Discounting = stop deciding what other people can afford for them.

Draping = your client’s comfort level matters more than yours. Appropriate, secure draping doesn’t have to mean exposing as much as you personally feel comfortable with.

And the internet one? 👀

I don’t want to see your cheeks or your crotch in b***y shorts while doing massage. If the primary reason a technique is being filmed or performed that way is because it looks provocative, extreme, or gets attention…maybe ask yourself why. Who are you trying to attract 🤔

Massage doesn’t need to look crazy to be effective.

Did I miss one?
What would you add?

09/09/2026

Massage therapists are really good at making things pretty.

Pretty websites. Pretty Instagram feeds. Beautiful branding.

But pretty doesn’t automatically equal findable.

And lately, doing SEO audits and websites for other massage therapists has made me realize how much opportunity is sitting right there for small practices that have never really thought about how Google (and potential clients) understand their business.

You don’t necessarily need a giant marketing budget or some complicated SEO strategy.

Sometimes you just need to make it really freaking obvious who you help, what you do, and where you do it.

Start there.

Then make it pretty 😂

And if you need help figuring out what Google thinks you do, let me know 😉

09/08/2026

Grounded Flow looks a little different because it is.

Instead of relying on deep, downward compression, we change the angle of pressure. Fascial grip + glides create shear through the tissue, giving us access to deep fascial work without deep compression.

It’s a totally different engagement of the tissue.

Then we layer in active movement. Now we’re not just working with tissue, we’re adding sensory input while the nervous system is actively coordinating movement. We can explore new movement options under load, rather than only working on a passive body.

And the question I get every time I show this position:

What about your hip flexors?! 😳

For me, not at all. It’s all in how we shift and distribute our weight instead of holding ourselves there with force we use the wall and stabilizing straps (it’s all about angles.) I actually get a pretty great stretch here, and it feels good to me.

This footage is sped up 7x.
Slowness is a skill.

Grounded Flow will be back in 2027, but if you don’t want to wait, there are still a couple spots left in our upcoming October Focus Weekend 👣

(This class is also offered at LMT REFINERY MI. Keep an eye out for class dates next year too)

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3820 Tampa Road Ste 101
Palm Harbor, FL
34684

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+17274173330

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