With its calming presence and compassionate touch, therapeutic massage is taking on a larger role in how today’s healthcare supports healing and well‑being.
In a recent Focus on Careers interview on WHBY, department chair and lead instructor Amy Gafner joined host Hayley Tenpas for a conversation about how FVTC prepares students for meaningful and in-demand work through the Therapeutic Massage program.
Amy explains what students learn in the program, from hands-on training in the classroom to real-world learning at Trilogy Salon and Spa on campus. The interview also explores expanding career opportunities for graduates in spas, hospitals, hospice care, chiropractic offices and assisted living facilities.
Tap the video to listen to the interview or scroll down to read the transcript.
Tenpas: Welcome back to Focus Fox Valley here on WHBY.
All right a deep breath everyone in and out. Let’s get in a moment of Zen here and go to a happy place. And I can tell you some of the best and most relaxing moments that I’ve been fortunate to have have been on a massage table with a very qualified and caring massage therapist who helps me work out the kinks, of course, but helps relax. I’m sure you can maybe reflect on those experiences too. They are wonderful, wonderful opportunities and we are training incredible massage therapists right here at Fox Valley Technical College.
It’s our Focus on Careers here today with Fox Valley Technical College. And we have the department chair for the Therapeutic Massage Program joining us today, Amy Gafner is in the. Hi, Amy. Hello. Good morning to you. Good morning. And what a special thing to teach. I can’t wait to learn more about it and learn more about the program. But first we’d like to learn about you, if that’s okay. Tell us how you got into this role. What brought you to Fox Valley Tech?
Gafner: I graduated from massage school in 2010. After my graduation, I opened my own practice. My first degree was from Fox Valley Tech in marketing and business. So I felt successful… trained to be able to open that business. And I did that up until probably 2023 when I took on the department chair role, but also main and lead massage therapy instructor. So I had both jobs going on and I just absolutely couldn’t do all of them. This fell into my lap in 2021. It’s been about five years. One of my friends had worked at Fox Valley Tech and the massage therapy department, and she said there was an urgent need for an adjunct instructor, and would I like to jump into that role? And that was now history. And here I am today.
Tenpas: What led you, though, to this practice? What intrigued you about being someone who can honestly bring such a peaceful moment or a therapeutic moment to people all over the Fox Cities?
Gafner: I truly believe in the power of touch and how important it is for the person. As we were talking leading into the segment, it’s important to do that and you forget how the quality of touch and the care and compassionate aspect of it is really important.
Tenpas: All right. And that’s exactly what you teach at Fox Valley Tech. So it’s a technical diploma. Therapeutic massage is a technical diploma. Tell us about the program and what that kind of looks like, how long it is.
Gafner: Okay. The joy of the program is it’s only about ten months. We have two starting points. One will be in August this fall. And then also we have a start point in January. They will graduate in May mid-May. If you start in January, you will graduate at the end of August. So it’s a little bit shorter. It’s about nine weeks shorter than the start from August to May, but it’s 17 credits.
Within those credits, we learn how to apply safely massage therapy. We learn the anatomy and physiology of the body, which includes musculoskeletal anatomy, which is learning all the bones and the muscles, and then also kinesiology. How does that body move along with, um, we do a treatment planning in that class also. And then the capstone for the students is the Trilogy Salon and Spa on the FVTC campus. And they put all their great hard effort into work. It’s a community offering. You can come in and have a massage there.
Tenpas: Yeah, we’ll talk about that in a little bit. But I do want to ask more about the focus on anatomy and understanding the human body so that we are, you know, working our bodies correctly. Why is that so important in massage training?
Gafner: Anatomy is the foundation of massage therapy. It helps you understand what is happening under your hands. So your work is safe, effective and purposeful. It allows us to create better treatment plans, confidently communicate with medical professionals and the clients, and then also understand the pain and dysfunction of the body.
Tenpas: All right. Let’s talk through what training looks like for students. Are we jumping in right away and working on human bodies, or do we have maybe some, I guess, for lack of a better term, dummies that are utilized when we’re training. What does it look like?
Gafner: I always say we build our village before we start working on people. So we take about two weeks to get to know each other because it is vulnerable to unclothe and have to work on each other in that environment, right? In a classroom environment. So we have we teach proper draping and ensure that everyone has that down before we jump into the body work, but they do work on each other. So we learn the basics in our first therapeutic massage class and then we build on them afterwards. So safe and effective and ensuring that everybody feels comfortable with everyone before we start that work.
Tenpas: I think that’s important. And I think that probably, um, pays itself forward as they eventually work with clients and they can understand that vulnerability of being on the table as well.
Gafner: Absolutely. And we do eventually offer outside guests to come in on our therapeutic massage two course. So once you have that good established Swedish massage down, we add some techniques to that. And that’s when we offer our outside guests the chance to come in and receive those free classroom massages.
Tenpas: All right, we’ll pause here. But after the break, we’re going to talk a little bit more about where students are getting hired. And you might think of a traditional spa setting. And that’s certainly accurate. But there are also some other places where you might not realize students are being hired. And we’ll talk through those. And we will mention how you, a listener, can receive and be part of the students’ training as well at Trilogy Spa. So don’t go away. It’s our Focus on Careers and you’re listening to it on WHBY.
Tenpas: Welcome back. It’s our Focus on Careers with Fox Valley Technical College today. Joining me is Amy Gafner, the department chair of the Therapeutic Massage program at Fox Valley Tech. Amy, I’m thinking I should have played some more Zen Plinky Plunky music to get us ready. Do you talk through what type of music to perhaps play for, for clients or what works best to kind of relax the body, relax the mind?
Gafner: Absolutely. I think the most relaxing music is going to be obviously customer client choice, but if you’re picking one for relaxation, we usually say no vocals because you can sing along with it, or you focus on the vocals versus the sounds of relaxation.
Tenpas: Here’s another kind of silly question, but one that maybe people have. Is it okay to fall asleep during your massage? And sometimes you do get so relaxed that you doze off. Is that pretty typical?
Gafner: I think it’s the biggest compliment to the massage therapist that you do fall asleep, but then you sit there afterwards and say, I didn’t feel it. Right. So try to stay awake. But completely understandable if you know, we all need sleep, so catch it where we can catch it.
Tenpas: Where you can. Well, let’s talk about the job students are getting upon graduation. Where are you sending them?
Gafner: Most of our students are employed prior to graduation. They are going to spas, hospitals, hospice, chiropractic offices, and they’re also opening their own practices.
Tenpas: That’s great. And you mentioned a couple of areas that I don’t think immediately come to mind. You said hospital settings, healthcare, chiropractic areas. So not really a traditional spa setting, which is wonderful. And students are going to be also in the healthcare industry. Tell us a little more about how that area is growing and why it matters to have those therapeutic massage therapists working in these healthcare industries.
Gafner: One thing we are doing in response to the growing need in the medical community, we are launching an advanced certificate for licensed massage therapists this fall. The courses that they will enroll in are medical terminology, advanced pathology, advanced specialized techniques, and then also advanced clinic.
We want to ensure if hospitals and clinics and, you know, chiropractic offices are hiring our students that they do, we offer that advanced training that allows them more training in medical terminology, the universal language of healthcare, right? So that they can communicate with their clients or patients at that time in a more professional medical, medical manner versus going into a spa setting, it would be completely different.
So offering that advanced training hopefully will entice the medical field to even become more interested in our students having that advanced training. But what I think people don’t realize is how much massage therapists are able to help that medical community with circulation, relaxation, reduced anxiety that may be a surgery is coming up and you do need that calmness or being on the journey a cancer journey. Being an oncologist, massage therapist, huge need for that. But it offers just that, that more compassionate touch than medical prodding, right? So just a different approach to care.
Tenpas: I see on a similar line, massage therapists entering assisted living facilities and such that that feels like a very, um, very sensitive and a very special space to be. Can you talk a little bit about how they’re helping our aging community?
Gafner: Absolutely. I think one of the hardest things, even looking at my mother right now, going into an assisted living, they’re giving up a portion of what they know, right? Um, and going into a different, a different time in their life, a different chapter. So offering that touch that maybe no longer happens except for going to the doctor. You know, it’s the, it’s kind of like the, the hug approach, right? Having eight great contacts through the day. That maybe they’re lacking. So being able to go in and provide the compassionate touch. Just to uplift their days, you know, it does help with anxiety, stress, depression, and those times do tend to be all those combined. So I think offering just that alternative care. We have a student that’s in hospice. So it is a very delicate time for the family. She’s rocking it though. She’s doing amazing and she can come in and talk to our students now about that position and how important it is for those final hours to have compassion. Right? And that touch of healing still in the darkest days, right?
Tenpas: What a compassionate quality. Which makes me curious about other qualities you see that make for a good massage therapy student. What do you see in your students?
Gafner: I would say my students are empathetic. They’re patient, they’re intuitive. They’re a strong person with interpersonal skills and the desire to help others.
Tenpas: Yeah. And, um, do they need to be strong too? I think about, you know, the length of time sometimes that patients are on the table, clients are on the table. How do you build that endurance? And what would you recommend for someone who is interested in this area?
Gafner: We slowly build endurance. So we start with one. And you know, we do 30 minutes, we do 60 minutes, we do 90. Now we’re doing two 60 minutes. So we build that endurance. But we also really try to focus on body mechanics. So we’re doing it properly. So stack our joints so we don’t ruin them before we even start. Um, ensuring that we’re using proper body mechanics to apply that deep tissue. So really, the longevity of this career is in body mechanics.
Tenpas: That’s great to know. What do you think the most rewarding part of your job is? Is it seeing students in the community? Is it seeing clients with great feedback? Is it a combination of both?
Gafner: I think it’s a combination of all of that. What I hope as an instructor is a little bit of me sprinkled throughout the community through my students, but my most rewarding is just seeing the magic that happens within our little classroom and how the students come together and create that village and continue lasting friendships, and then also what they do with their careers afterwards. It’s very exciting.
Tenpas: I do want to make sure our listeners know that they can be part of the student’s journey and can receive massage therapy through Trilogy Spa and Salon. Details on how that works?
Gafner: Yes, you can call into the salon and the spa trilogy. The number is (920) 735-2560. We will be starting March 26th through May 14th. We are only in the spa on Thursdays and Fridays, starting at nine and ending at one. The sessions are 50 minutes. They’re tailored to what you’re looking for, and they are only $30. We have kept that price low to ensure that our community, maybe those who cannot afford, or maybe those who want more can afford it and be able to come in.
Tenpas: Well, that’s a wonderful service. Again, you can find details on the Fox Valley Tech website. Just search trilogy and that number again, (920) 735-2560. And if students are interested in being part of this program, where can they go for that?
Gafner: They can go to ww.fvk.edu backslash therapy.
Tenpas: Wonderful. Thank you, Amy, for being here today. Thank you for the work you do and for the peace you help provide to the Fox Cities. Thank you so much.
