Today we’d like to introduce you to Emma Goodman
Hi Emma, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I grew up in rural Indiana with a large, blended family— 10 siblings total! My mom is quite an amazing caregiver in many ways, including being an amateur massage therapist. She’s a natural, but she also took workshops in her twenties with her brilliant and beloved older brother who dedicated his life to studying and teaching therapeutic massage, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Acupuncture, and Shiatsu (with whom I eventually had the privilege of studying.) My mother used to give mini massages to any of us who wanted one while we crowded around a TV show together at night, or when she tucked us in for bed. I grew quite accustomed to having nourishing touch as an important part of my life, so it was a real shock to my system leaving home after high school— I missed being in people’s bubbles and having people in mine.
Despite being an Honors Student, I was not ready to go straight to college because I did not have a clear direction of where I wanted to go in life professionally. I just knew that I wanted to help people in some tangible way. I decided to join Americorps NCCC, a year-long federal volunteer program that had me traveling the states working at different non-profits. I met my husband then and we moved back to his hometown of Ann Arbor to be near our families and figure out next steps.
Before long I was pointed in the direction of the Ann Arbor Institute of Massage Therapy by a friend. I looked over the program and my interest was thoroughly piqued; every class looked intriguing to me. I wasn’t certain that I would want to become a massage therapist, but it seemed like a plausible fit and ultimately I couldn’t talk myself out of it because I saw it as a very practical choice: everyone has a body that needs some help from time to time. The program had a strong emphasis on anatomy and how to use manual therapies to help people recover from dysfunctional pain patterns. Massage Therapy is a field of endless possibilities and I’ve gone on to further my education primarily in Shiatsu and Thai Massage modalities which have brought a lovely depth and complexity to my more Western-based beginnings.
About eight years into my practice I began developing some extreme pain and dysfunction in one of my shoulders that was clearly work-related. Around this time I was also running into some mental-emotional burnout, which was contributing to and exacerbated by my physical pain. As can often be the case, this suffering ended up being an incredible gift as I was forced to completely pause and reflect, tap into some more sustainable ways of being, and eventually embark upon an additional, complementary, career.
After many months trying to work and recover, I realized I’d have to take an extended leave and focus on expanding my care team to different bodywork modalities to get to the core of what was causing my dysfunction. I also started learning more about chronic pain from a modern neuroscience-based lens which advocated for using visualizations, meditations, and my conscious inner voice as an important part of my healing. Fortuitously, I had also signed up for an online life coaching course with one of my sisters which began on the first week of my sudden time off. That program only expounded upon very similar premises, giving me more tools and insights to softly strengthen my relationship with myself and my pain, expand my creative problem-solving abilities, better organize my mind and priorities, and improve my personal and professional relationships.
Reading grounding and expansive philosophical memoirs and ‘self-help’ books by respected neuroscientists and Buddhist monks alike had been a passion of mine since my teen years. Coaching was providing me with a platform where all these ancient and modern theories could come together and be practically applied in a deeply creative, yet fairly systematic, way.
After a couple years of grappling with and implementing coaching principles in my own life and business, I started to notice a familiar old line of thought: everyone has a brain and spirit that need some help sometimes… So began my journey to become a certified life coach myself. Cringey as I find the title to be, the work can be applied in a way that is incredibly affirming, engaging, and healing. My initial exposure to coaching was more ‘mindset’ based, which was very enlightening and beneficial, but the program I ended up choosing for my training —the brilliant and compassionate Martha Beck’s Wayfinder coaching program— was more holistic. The skills I learned there taught more nervous system-informed, body-based techniques for receiving new information and ideas which really rounded out my education.
Ultimately, I see my aims in both these careers to be quite similar: to help alleviate some of the unnecessary suffering we all experience, to bring some freedom and possibility to parts of my clients lives that once felt stagnant and restrictive, and to infuse the process of goal-naming and attainment with some togetherness where it otherwise can feel quite isolating and directionless.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Probably like most ventures, it has been both. My path has not been the most straight-forward, partly due to material realities and restrictions, and partly because I don’t think it was ever meant to be. I can’t do the same thing every day, I have too many interests (and non-interests!), and I have to mix it up for my body, my mind, and my spirit to stick with me. I knew from the beginning of my massage career that I wanted to methodically build up my tolerance for the work and listen to my own body as I attended to others, in an attempt to avoid the all too prevalent burnout associated with the profession. Taking the slow, self-employed approach was absolutely the right way to go for me, even if it’s had its own unique challenges. It takes a lot of time and energy to learn how to wear all the different necessary hats, gain confidence, and get in a groove. And of course, things are always changing, so one of the most important skills to have is the ability to adapt.
My coaching business is still in its early days, so that’s my new rocky road I’ve created for myself. It’s very interesting to have the insight from one successful practice while I sit once again in this place of beginning, with all the uncertainty and questioning that can bring up. I have a lot more faith in myself now though —and one steady-running business already— so I get to have a bit more ease around it.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am a licensed massage therapist and a holistic life coach. Both types of sessions are goal-oriented in nature, and I aim to engage with my clients in a way that feels congruent and honors their wholeness as much as possible. I listen not only for the pain patterns and blockages, but for the emotions associated with them, the way their minds are engaging with them, and where they want to be instead, so that I can best understand how the person in front of me, on that particular day, needs me to engage in order to help things move and shift in the desired direction.
With massage, my intention is to use both my anatomical and technical expertise, and my relational knowledge to help people actually feel safe and heard enough to shift in a way that doesn’t feel forced. ‘Therapeutic’ massage is often associated with more pain and discomfort, but I find the most therapeutically sound technique actually involves some moderation and compassion for the current holding pattern. It can feel good (including some of that ‘good pain’ we’re often seeking), and have lasting benefits. As appropriate, I also provide my clients with optional self-care exercises, as well as mental-emotional tools, to work with their discomfort on their own.
While the goals with coaching cover a wider range of topics, the nature of the change creation is remarkably similar in that it comes from a place of exploration and openness to shifting, not forcing. I think one reason I don’t particularly care for the term ‘coach’ for this profession is that to me it can call to mind someone else telling (or perhaps even yelling at, or publicly shaming) you about how to do something ‘right.’ A life coach’s job is not to tell you what to do, but rather to act as a non-judgmental, genuinely curious companion in a process of discovery, on a topic completely of the client’s choosing. My aim is to help my clients come up with their own solutions by creating a container where they can expand their awareness around whatever their current hurdle is, dive into a deeper understanding of the parts of the problem which they do have some say over, and then decide any meaningful action (or inaction) they want to take from that place of broadened wisdom and empowerment. Most of us are not really taught how to hold this sort of intentional, exploratory space for ourselves, or how to take this kind of creative ownership wherever we can in our lives, but this is what coaching is there to assist with. When helpful, I do provide theories, observations, or ideas appropriate to the subject matter, but they are meant to be jumping off points for my clients, not commands.
My ultimate wish with my coaching is that I can help people cultivate inner worlds that are naturally friendlier and more resilient. This has a way of making everything we do feel more alive, more doable. Life is full of struggles and pain that are out of our control, but luckily, we can have a bit more influence in how we experience these inevitable challenges than we tend to realize. We can have a hand on the intensity dial, so to speak. I believe the world desperately needs us to be pretty radically compassionate, wise, and creative problem-solvers, so it’s is also not a selfish endeavor to pursue!
I am most proud of the integrity I have brought to my businesses. I have always had a deep commitment to authenticity, presence, learning, and growth. For the sake of my clients and myself, I have prioritized quality over quantity in my care-giving. While I’ve done this imperfectly, I have always attempted to provide my best every day because I really believe that doing so can be life-changing for people. We all need to be listened to and experience someone really caring about what we say is hurting us, and have someone else believe things can be different. Surrendering to someone else in that way, trusting them to meet you there to try to do something to help ease some of that, it’s sacred stuff to me. I don’t take it lightly, and at the same time, I also try to bring doses of humor and playfulness into my work, because it is also therapeutic at the right times! Further tapping into how to listen to my own needs at the same time as I attend to my clients has made the process that much richer and more sustainable for me. In a world that doesn’t make a lot of sense to me a lot of the time, this kind of work continues to make sense, and I get to live out my deepest values and beliefs around healing, connection, and our amazing potential every day. I’m so grateful to get to engage with the world and my people in this way, and I believe anyone who takes the time to participate in this kind of work has a profound impact on their own little worlds which ripples further out.
Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
Discover more or reach out:
www.snakebirdcoaching.com
www.egmassage.com
Contact Info:
- Website: https://snakebirdcoaching.com
