Learning for a Lifetime

Joe Lubow (’87) had considered going to chiropractic school after he graduated from the Swedish Institute, and went so far as to take all of his pre-requisites. However, he found his work as an L.M.T. so fulfilling and interesting, and still does, that he decided to go deeper into the study and practice of massage. Nineteen years later, he is the owner of the Sarasota School of Massage Therapy in Florida, where he teaches and runs the school in partnership with his wife Stephanie Chum Lubow, also an L.M.T.

Joe had practiced massage therapy in New York for three years when he moved to Florida. He had a private practice, and started to teach anatomy and physiology at Sarasota. When the school was put up for sale, Joe made an offer. “When I asked the owner if I would still be able to continue my private practice if I ran the school, he said yes,” Joe laughed. “But then I started working 80 hour weeks, so something had to give.”

He managed to see one client a week during those early years of growing the school. Now that growth has been more consistent, Joe is able to see three to five clients a week. “During my massage therapy sessions I get to be quiet and communicate with another human being in a meaningful, present way,” he explained. “It’s very different than lesson plans, purchase orders and enrollment figures. I love running the school, because the outcome is so rewarding, but in terms of the big picture, I doubt that it is as healthy for me as doing massage.”

Committed to Learning and Teaching

Even though Joe teaches and runs a school, he continues his own studies in massage modalities. He is certified in Neuromuscular Therapy, has taken numerous seminars, and for twelve years has assisted the instruction of a human dissection course for massage therapists at the University of South Florida. He is halfway through a 500-hour Structural Integration course. “After 19 years, I feel like a beginner again in a form of bodywork; it’s really refreshing,” he said. “I love the work, especially as taught by Tom Myers (author of Anatomy Trains.) It’s brilliant. It proposes that the core of the body is the root of posture, and if you want to change the core, you have to first release the superficial musculature, what they call the ‘sleeve’. It is a comprehensive system of bodywork that can facilitate powerful, lasting change, not only in posture, but also in patterns of movement and ways of being in the world.

“The goal of the work is not to make a body fit a particular ‘grid’ pattern of alignment, though it seems that way superficially. It’s about creating a sense of balance and the ability of the whole structure to move more freely, so clients have a greater awareness and control of the body, and a wider range of postural possibilities they can enjoy as they go through life. As someone who has studied and practiced and taught for almost 20 years, I am blown away by what I am learning.”

Joe hopes that next year he can embark on another education project, one that brings an integrated program of anatomy, movement and touch to elementary school children. “I believe that an educated body helps enhance maturity. Bodywork is not only about helping people be more comfortable physically. It can also make people aware of how they deal with an emotional charge and help them become more sensitive to one another. If we can teach kids how to both sense and use their bodies more fully, maybe fewer people will arrive at our massage tables with so much discomfort and kinesthetic amnesia.

“I feel it’s worth bringing to children, in terms of the larger project of bodywork - which I see as awareness, relationship and community.”

For more information visit the school’s website  

or e-mail Joe Lubow at joe@sarasotaschoolofmassagetherapy.edu. 

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