Getting Ahead: It's Nice to Be Kneaded

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SEVEN YEARS AGO, Tam Gelman really needed to relax. As a specialist in refinancing apartment buildings and commercial real estate, she ran two firms of her own that had offices in four cities. This meant frequent travel to close deals on Wall Street. "In 14 years, we did several hundred million dollars in business," she says.

Not surprisingly, Gelman's 60-hour workweeks took a toll. When a physical showed extreme levels of cortisol, a stress hormone, her doctor recommended exercise and massage. Already exercising, she began weekly massage treatments.

"It made me whole again, body, mind and spirit," she says simply.

But the travel continued, and "I was tired of living out of garment bags," says the Laytonsville, Md., resident. In 2000, a fellow mortgage banker asked Gelman to go with her to an open house at Potomac Massage Training Institute, south of Friendship Heights in the District.

"I said I'd go to give her moral support," Gelman says. "She stood me up — and I joined the program on the spot."

Upon starting PMTI's course later that year, she bought out her partner, downsized her real estate business, and kept it going with just two other people. During her second semester of school — "the most intense" — she worked on refinancing Rockefeller Center in New York while learning deep-tissue massage in D.C. ("Stressful? Yeah," she laughs.)

After finishing her training in 2002, Gelman stayed on to intern at PMTI, "to help me transition and to grasp the parts of the program I hadn't been able to pay enough attention to at the time." Her last real estate deal was acting as leasing agent when PMTI moved to its current location in 2003.

Around the same time, Gelman, now 49, started her own massage practice — Core, a Center for Wellness — in Kensington. Core's staff includes four other massage therapists, an herbalist and a yoga teacher.

So, how does she feel now?

"My stress level went from a 10 to a two," Gelman says. Though she juggles the business with family time and volunteering, she says, "I really love everything I do. It gives me genuine pleasure to see a client who has a problem and [to] help them feel better. They're happy to see you when they come in, and they're even happier when they leave. That's a huge switch."

Her new income was also a change: Massage therapists with their own practices can make $70 to $80 a session and see 20 to 25 clients a week, says PMTI executive director Demara Stamler. Expenses include insurance and office space.

"I make a comfortable living, but it's certainly not the six-figure income I was used to," Gelman says. "The payoff is in physical, emotional and spiritual well-being." That includes one-on-one connections with clients and more time at home to enjoy her husband and their animals, plus other pursuits like antiquing and refurbishing a beach house.

She's not alone in making a change to a literally hands-on, people-oriented career. PMTI, which has been called the Harvard of East Coast massage schools, attracts about 200 students a year, ranging in age from their 20s through their 70s.

"We do a lot of checking to make sure our students are suitable, mature professionals," says executive director Demara Stamler. About 30 of the school's 1,800 graduates teach there, including Gelman.

The accredited, nonprofit PMTI offers an 18-month, part-time program — good for those transitioning out of work or family responsibilities. "You can learn anatomy and technique in six months," Stamler says, "but the hands don't learn that fast." Beginning students practice on one another and observe clients; intermediate and advanced students work on clients. Tuition and supplies are about $9,300.

"There's a huge emphasis on personal growth here. That's the piece I continue to value most," Gelman says. And then there are those happy clients, one of whom told her, "Knowing you has completely turned my life around."

There's no greater honor than helping such a client, Gelman says, "If helping others touches your heart and fulfills you, this can be a very rewarding career."

» Potomac Massage Training Institute, 5028 Wisconsin Ave., NW; 202-686-7046. The next open house is June 27.

By Ellen Ryan for Express
Photo by Marge Ely/Express