My journey into massage therapy started during a relaxation, meditation and massage workshop that I attended during high school at a retreat run by the student group Teen Institute (T.I.). T.I. focused keeping teens and young adults away from drug, alcohol and tobacco abuse by offering classes and activities that were alternatives to the feeling of comradery and acceptance that teens and young adults crave from their peers. The feeling of completeness I felt during that workshop in all four years I went in high school was my first feeling that I was onto something through simple touch and turning my focus to how to 'heal' naturally.