Massage to Civil Engineering

How Massage Therapy Prepared Me to Design Society

My career path might look like a sharp turn on a blueprint: from a top massage therapist from the mountains of Colorado to a civil engineering student at UMKC. Yet, to me, this transition feels less like a detour and more like an exciting scale-up. I haven’t abandoned my core passion; I’ve simply applied my drive for designing and optimizing systems to a larger canvas—moving from the micro-system of the human body to the macro-system of our communities.

The Art of Intuitive, Person-Centered Design

My years as a massage therapist were, at their core, an intense masterclass in intuitive, person-centered design. Think of it this way:

• The Problem: A client presents with unique physical and emotional stressors.

• The Analysis: I had to quickly and deeply understand the system (the body) before me. This involved a unique blend of emotional depth, mathematical concepts (like leverage, force vectors, and angles), and principles from Eastern and Western philosophies to truly diagnose the root issue.

• The Solution: I would create a bespoke treatment, a fluid, real-time design intended to restore balance, optimize function, and improve the client's lived experience.

This was not rote application; it was an exercise in creating optimum results from existing resources—the very definition of great engineering.

Scaling Up: From the Body to the Blueprint

The transition to civil engineering is a natural progression because the fundamental principles of design remain the same. I've been actively applying this interdisciplinary mindset to larger projects already:

1. Optimizing Existing Systems

In my home design role, I wasn't just decorating; I was improving living spaces by strategically using existing resources and structures. Just as I sought to relieve stress on a client's kinetic chain, I sought to relieve friction in a family’s day-to-day life through better spatial design. Civil engineering will allow me to apply this optimization to public spaces, transit networks, and infrastructure.

2. Cultivating and Managing Complex Networks

As an art curator for a local studio, I cultivate and manage shared living environments, orchestrate art acquisitions, and collaborate with my personal network of artists. This work demands merging aesthetics with effective strategy to foster a truly connected environment. The body of work is a thriving community. This experience has developed a proven track record of coordinating complex logistics and fostering thriving communities—skills vital for any community strategist or designer of public systems.

Designing the Human Experience

Ultimately, both bodywork and civil engineering are about improving the human experience.

The goal of a restorative massage is a functional, comfortable, and sustainable bodily environment. The goal of civil engineering is a functional, comfortable, and sustainable built environment.

I am now eager to transition my career to focus on the next level of design: becoming a strategist for communities and a designer of society. My diverse background has provided me with a unique lens: one that sees the interconnectedness of systems and understands that the most impactful and innovative solutions are those rooted in a deep, empathetic understanding of the end-user.

I am ready to leverage my multidisciplinary approach to design the spaces and systems that improve the human experience for the communities of tomorrow.