TOWNSEND — Pam Shifrin, 25, started her massage-therapy business — Power of Touch Bodywork–from her Townsend home after finishing a four-month intensive program at Costa Rica School of Massage Therapy. The school is in Costa Rican town of Samara, a small “non-touristy” town on the Pacific coast, Shifrin said.
“My goal is to work with athletes and help with training and making their bodies feel better,” she said.
She finished the program in April after graduating from Central Connecticut State University in Bristol, Conn.
“I worked a lot with locals during the clinical,” she said. “It really gives you a completely different perspective. You work with people who have different backgrounds.”
Currently, she has a spot at Ultimate Athlete in Leominster, but she’s been traveling around the area as her client list grows.
Shifrin, a former softball star at North Middlesex High School, has been athletic her whole life and originally wanted to be a softball coach. After working as an assistant softball coach at Fitchburg State College for a year, she said she didn’t see it as something that she wanted to make her living doing but hopes to continue coaching part-time.
“I always knew I wanted to own my own business,” she said. “My mother and brother both have their own businesses and it just comes naturally.”
So far, everything is going well, she said, and the biggest challenge is getting her name out.
“You get what you put into it,” she said. “I’ve been working mostly with gyms that might not have massage therapists or might not have a specialized person and seeing if I can help fill their needs.”
She also works with physical therapists, and is put in contact with athletes just getting out of physical therapy and who need help getting back into shape.
“I want to have a more personable relationship with the client as opposed to someone who works in a spa and sees five or six people a day,” she said.
Visit Power of Touch Bodywork online at www.thepoweroftouchbodywork.com or on Facebook.
