Meet Shelby Tulley

We were lucky to catch up with Shelby Tulley recently and have shared our conversation below.

Shelby, first a big thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts and insights with us today. I’m sure many of our readers will benefit from your wisdom, and one of the areas where we think your insight might be most helpful is related to imposter syndrome. Imposter syndrome is holding so many people back from reaching their true and highest potential and so we’d love to hear about your journey and how you overcame imposter syndrome.

Every day I wake up and I feel like I’m the worst person at my job, and I often wonder why I pursued my current path. Every day I walk into the massage room and the panic builds as I set the table and prepare my room for massage. Every day I need to almost audibly tell myself, “You’ve done this a thousand times. You’ve studied. You’ve practiced. You’ve continued to improve your craft. You are more than capable.” The fear of something that has never happened builds until my client finally walks through the door. Then a different part of my brain takes over. They tell me about whats bugging them. They share the events leading up to their discomfort. They point, mime, and show me how it affects their daily movement. During this time, I’m visualizing all the muscles attaching to their aches. I’m following the nerves as they describe the path their pain follows. I look for discrepancies in their movement patterns, checking if their knees extend all the way when they walk, or if their shoulders click when they move their arms around. I still feel uneasy when I leave the room for them to undress and hop on the table. I am still anxious when I walk back in the room and grab the oil. It’s not until I make that first contact that I remember why I’m a massage therapist. My hands move and find the knots. I can feel what’s tight and what’s taut. I can feel when the client’s muscles tell me to push harder or to ease up on the pressure. With each area that I touch, I recall all similar experiences that I’ve had working out this area. There is an ongoing conversation between my hands and their body. Once I realize this, I sit back and trust that my hands know what to do. The truth is, I don’t think I’ve ever really overcome my imposter syndrome. I know that I’m educated. I know that I’m experienced. Sadly, what I know has nothing to do with how I feel. I feel like I’ve been living a lie and I’m too deep in it to escape. I compensate for that lack of confidence by taking classes. I keep track of every injury that bothers my clients, and I keep track of every modality and technique that could fix their problems. Though I don’t think I’ll ever get rid of it, I’ve found use for my imposter syndrome as a motivator. I don’t want my clients to leave unaided due to my inability or lack of knowledge, so I am on a constant search to find a solution to every possible puzzle that could ever walk through my doors. I do my best to make up for my lack of confidence with a surplus of knowledge and skills.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

I am a massage therapist. I specialize in sports massage, meaning that during my treatments I have a heavy focus on finding ailments and the best method to correct the problem. I majored in athletic training and have been surrounded by injuries in that time. My studies revolved around finding the problem, fixing the problem, and preventing that problem from ever happening again. That applied to injuries, tightness, and sometimes just a funny feeling. In any case, I treat every person like a different puzzle and I cycle through all of my modalities to see what each person responds to the best. The best part of my job is when my client hops off the table and moves around for the first time. They test the limits to their new range of motion, and many of them touch their toes for the first time in ages. My entire job is me treating each individual body as a unique puzzle, and I get to figure out how to solve it. I might work on the same problem in ten different people, but each person can have a different way of working through that problem. My favorite part of the job is learning all of the strengths and limitations of different modalities and how I can use them to help my clients achieve their goals, whether it be pain-free range of motion, improving lymphatic flow, or even increasing muscle definition.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

I will always say that my curiosity is my greatest quality. It is the drive that pushes me to ask questions and learn more. It gives me a quenchless thirst for knowledge, and keeps me from ever getting bored. Another quality that I pride myself in, is that I will always be exactly who I am. I recognize that this doesn’t sound like a quality, but I’ve seen plenty of people lose their spark and their confidence trying to be something that they’re not. In trying to copy another’s style or technique, it feels as though they’re losing all that makes them unique in an attempt to become uniform to somebody who has more confidence. I don’t believe that any of us will be able to please everybody, but in maintaining our talents in our own unique ways, we can provide a broader spectrum for people to find the massage therapist that works for them. My last quality is that I will find a way to make each newfound skill my own. I’ve learned many skills during my years as a massage therapist, and each skill I’ve developed a different way of doing things to accomplish the same goals. I’ve taken classes to learn why and how things work the way that they do. Sometimes I’m not able to fully incorporate those skills into my practice, so I simply focus on what’s important and discard the rest. I’ve used this thought process on all of the different techniques that I’ve learned and it’s helped me incorporate as much as I can in the limited amount of time that I am given in each massage session.

Who is your ideal client or what sort of characteristics would make someone an ideal client for you?

With my unique background and training, I work best with people who are active. I understand muscles and how movements affect them. Different activities stimulate different muscle groups which offer different problems related to stress. Everything that I have studied can help them achieve their goals, whether it be fitness, pain free movement, or even increasing strength and range of motion. Recently, I’ve learned a technique that decreases bloating, and cellulite, and increases muscle definition, so I’ve been searching for body builders to work on. I feel like they would be the best clients to showcase those results.They would be the client I would be most excited to work on. As far as ideal clients go, I feel that my ideal clients are just the people who are looking to improve themselves. I would love to help them on their journey.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.massagebook.com/biz/natanii-massage-bodywork
• Instagram: @natanii.massage

Image Credits

Lore Photography