Traveling Light

"I'm out of the country right now," said the e-mail from alumna Lizabeth Gottsegen ('95). "I'm on a client's yacht, sailing from Vietnam to Con Dao island. I'll be back in New York in a couple of weeks."

Being flown to Hong Kong, put up at a luxury hotel, then sailing to Vietnam and Con Dao was a 21-day adventure Lizabeth took part in as the on-board massage therapist for a high profile client. Though she pitched in a bit as part of the crew, her main responsibility was providing a daily hour and a half massage for her client. "He was impressed by my work, because every massage I gave was new and interesting. I never do a routine massage; I hone in on a client's daily needs. It's something I learned during my 11 years as a massage therapist, a combination of a solid understanding of anatomy and physiology along with a spiritual touch point within myself." Lizabeth had ample time to swim and snorkel in the warm waters around Con Dao, now a national park protecting a rich ecosystem.

On tour with Cirque Du Soleil

Lizabeth Gottsegen is no stranger to a working tour of the world. For five years she provided massage therapy for the superstar acrobats of Cirque Du Soleil. She knew a singing member of the troupe and approached the artistic director about giving massage. "It was kind of tough getting a start," said Lizabeth, "because they'd never had massage therapy for the artists before. The director offered me 25 gilders an hour ($12.50 U.S.) and I said I can't work for that, I need 50 gilders. She said, 'OK, but we're just trying it out.' After I finished in that city, I had a contract for the rest of the tour and a higher rate of pay."

She toured with Cirque to Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Duseldorf, Frankfort, Copenhagen, Rotterdam, Zurich and London as well as cities in the U.S. As she travels, she studies massage techniques wherever she can, and has built up a repertoire of modalities which she feels is essential to having a dynamic practice. "However," she adds, "you have to know the basics like the back of your hand." 

Lizabeth credits the "tools" she learned at the Swedish Institute for giving her the foundation upon which she has built a very interesting career. She had previously been in the recording industry, with a stressful job in which she had to be available day and night. When she quit and took time off to examine her life, she realized the only person she wanted to live like was the massage therapist she had been going to once a week for stress relief.

In addition to her diploma from the Swedish Institute, Lizabeth has a B.S. in psychology and philosophy. She's done post graduate courses in pre-med in order to prepare for a doctorate in physical therapy. But she's put the advanced degree on hold for a new job as Director of Medical Massage for a group called Medesthetik, which has offices in Miami, Chicago and now New York. She'll still have time to see her private clients, including the yacht owner, who has planned to have hip replacement rehabilitation in New York partly because he knows he will have Lizabeth's skilled and sensitive help.

Lizabeth Gottsegen can be contacted at nycmedicalmassage@gmail.com  and has a massage blog.

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