I am a "second career" MT since 2000 in Washington DC (www.bowershours.com). I find a good MT practice to be a full 360 degree experience. My clients range from 20-something retail workers with low back problems to pregnant 30- and 40-somethings to retirees living with chronic incurable conditions and a bit of everything in between. I'm fully engaged with the local MT community through my AMTA chapter. I'm also applying to sit on the city's Massage Therapy Board. I'm fascinated by the business of massage. I write a quarterly business column for the local AMTA chapter newsletter. I'm writing an ebook on the business of massage and I teach courses in business for MTs and other healing arts professionals. I also blog about the business of massage (http://havehandswilltravel.blogspot.com). I'm extending my involvement in the MT world beyond DC through The Healing Core, a continuing ed company I co-own with another MT. Massage therapy is always inviting me into the world in ways I could not have anticipated and I love it.

How will winning help me this Christmas? Well, Christmas has passed so I can't say much about that. But I'm jazzed by this opportunity to meet new MTs and to get engaged with a new "player" in the larger massage therapy world. We're a profession in the midst of profound eveolutionary changes and the World Massage Festival is part of that.