Why Massage Therapy Is More Than Just A Luxury With Dr. Dominique Carson

Massage therapy is often seen as a luxurious way of relaxation. However, it offers more medical benefits than you could imagine. George Wright III pulls back the curtain on the science behind it with licensed massage therapist Dr. Dominique Carson. Together, they discuss how massage therapy regulates the nervous system as well as the other body systems, making it essentially an extension of nursing. Dr. Dominique also breaks down how grief vastly transformed her outlook in life, her unique TRIBE philosophy, and her reason for pursuing a doctorate degree. This inspiring conversation will redefine your idea of wellness and learn how to align actions with intention.

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01:26 Dr. Dominique’s Work As A Licensed Massage Therapist

06:11 Why Massage Therapy Is More Than Just A Luxury

09:21 Understanding The Core Philosophy Of TRIBE

13:48 How Grief Can Reshape Focus And Clarity

18:25 Challenges Of Pursuing Further Education

22:06 Dispelling Misconceptions About Massage Therapy

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About Dr. Dominique Carson

Every rose has its thorn, but the beauty of the flower makes the pain worth it in the end. Dr. Dominique M. Carson has been remarkable in her current state, Virginia, and her hometown, New York City. She has beaten all odds by becoming an award-winning massage practitioner, freelance journalist, author, and orator. From the time she was eight years old, she used her artistic and writing abilities to inform and inspire others, leading her to greater heights. As a result, she received her bachelor's and master's degrees before she was 25.

Carson became the first African American to receive the Brooklyn College Wall of Fame award in 2011. Carson has interviewed over 100 figures in popular culture as a freelance journalist. She received various awards, including 2x Author All-Star, the Global Iconic Changemaker Award, and the Global Recognition Award for her editorial and health/wellness work. In Spring 2024, she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Humanitarianism from the Global International Alliance Advocate University.

Her story has been featured in media outlets such as Speakers Magazine, Courageous Woman Magazine, Sheen Magazine, Impact Magazine, Femi Magazine, Industry Times, and Forbes. One. VoyageLA, Shoutout LA, and Bold Journey, to name a few.

Guest Resources

Professional Portfolio: https://dominiquecarson.contently.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/domcarson

Facebook: https://facebook.com/dmc922

Instagram: https://instagram.com/domcarson90

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drdominiquemcarson

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Why Massage Therapy Is More Than Just A Luxury With Dr. Dominique Carson

I’m excited to have Dr. Dominique Carson on the show. How are you doing, Dominique?

I’m good, thank you for asking.

I am glad you’re here because for those of you readers, what I try to do with the show is I always want to be able to help you to create your best life and level up. That has to include not just business, but it has to be mindset, body, health, fitness, all kinds of things, including the version of your life that you want to have and there’s no one better to help us to do that than Dominique.

Let me give her a quick introduction so you guys that do not know her will know a little bit more about her. She’s an award-winning Licensed Massage Therapist Practitioner, but also a globally recognized Freelance Journalist. She’s got a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree including as well an Honorary Doctorate and she’s got multiple honors, including Global Iconic Changemaker Award. I think one of the reasons that I wanted to have you on, besides being the Founder of Mani Benedette. That’s for blessed hands, is that what that means?

Yes.

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Dr. Dominique’s Work As A Licensed Massage Therapist

I love that. That’s a mobile massage therapy business, but what’s crazy and awesome about you is that you take a holistic approach. You believe it’s not just about stress relief and reduction. You really believe that overall health, mind and body is important. Tell me what that means to you. By the way, thank you so much for being here but tell me what you’re all about. Tell me a little bit about why you chose that name for your business, even.

I’m an Italian speaker, so first and foremost. I’ve been studying Italian since I was fourteen in high school and it was on my wrist. My partner, my significant other, we were going over names and he was like, ‘How about you name it what’s on your arm?” I was looking at it and I said, “Mani Benedette. I help people impact with my hands,” and then I think about my work in my career as a journalist and that’s how the name came about. I wanted a very unisex name that can attract male and female. I was like, “Maybe I should write it out, blessed hands in English.” I was talking to my aunt who is an entrepreneur and cosmetology and she was like, “No, I think it needs to stay the Italian name. The name is interesting.”

You’re doing what you love. Most people would hear that and think, “Those are two completely different industries,” massage therapy, your business as well as being a freelance journalist but you really do heal people with both your hands and your words. Wouldn’t you agree?

Yes, absolutely.

Tell me a little bit about what you believe. Why did you get into massage and why is it more than just massage that you’re really passionate about?

I tell people all the time, massage found me. I thought my life was going to be a Carrie Bradshaw, Sex and the City, I’m living the nightlife in New York City, which is my hometown and that was my lifestyle for a little while. I would do my little 9:00 to 5:00, then I would cover shows, interview artists and get home crack of dawn and getting up again and take the train to do my 9:00 to 5:00. I just felt very unfulfilled.

I’m interviewing all these top-notch artists and I feel very unfulfilled. I’m like, “There’s something else that I need to be doing in my life in addition to what I’m doing now.” I played with massage since I was like seventeen, always knew the craftsmanship of my hands overcoming pediatric trigger thumbs. What that is my thumbs were born bent. If you look at my thumbs, I don’t have an arch. There’s no joint.

Hearing like little nuggets like that from your family and your mother and your cousins and it wasn’t until my beloved grandmother, Eloise Stell Grant, second queen in my life, God bless her soul, I massaged her. That’s when she said that I was going to have another career utilizing my hands and they’re going to help people. My cousin Hassan, God bless his soul he was like, “Ma, I’m telling you, I know Dom is a writer, I get all that, but her hands are too gifted to not be doing something with them.” This is crazy.

Massage therapists combine their scientific knowledge and evidence-based practice with their intuitive nature.

My cousin was an athlete, so sometimes, I would just compress him on his back and I felt the like his tension was fading. That was like a turning point and the same thing for my mother. We just played around with it, we tried to utilize a lot of networking, we had over years. I was going to massage schools, going into open houses and I just did not feel comfortable with some of the massage schools that were offered in New York.

I picked around with it again. My grandfather gave me $100 for my 25th birthday and I used that money to apply to massage school. I went back to my alma mater. When you graduate from a CUNY school, the credits transfer. My education looked funny like here she is with this whole Master’s degree and now she’s going to this community college but I didn’t care. It was like if I don’t do it now, I wasn’t going to do it at all.

My mother knew that this was something I always wanted to do. She felt like the timing wasn’t better at the time because she was like, “You just graduated with your Masters. What are you doing?” I said, “Ma, I got to do it.” I didn’t care. It took me three and a half years to finish because I worked part-time. I was taking a bus to a train to a bus 3 days a week, doing a 9:00 to 5:00. The science courses in massage therapy, you would think. It was a 9:00 to 4:00. That commute kept me motivated. I have to do this two-hour commute, I have to finish this program.

I love my other degrees, I tell people that all the time, but this one was so impactful because I was out of my comfort zone. From the time I was in grammar school, I always did well in school. Massage therapy challenged that. I would not be the massage therapist I am if it was not for my massage program in Queens. I would not be.

Why Massage Therapy Is More Than Just A Luxury

You’ve done a phenomenal job, though, of actually incorporating both and why you’re such an authority in that area but I think a lot of times, people think of massage therapy as just a luxury or an extra item. From a real practical standpoint, how does from your perspective massage therapy really help to regulate your nervous system and why is it so critical for, let’s say, high stress employees, professionals, entrepreneurs or business owners like a lot of our audience is?

It affects all your eleven body systems, especially your nerve and your endocrine. I tell people all the time, “You need your nerves and you need your endocrine, the balance of your hormones. You need your nervous system to send you the signals to do the things that you’re doing with your muscles and your bones.” I tell people, “Think of a massage therapist as your mechanic. Instead of you going to a mechanic to rewire your nervous system and your muscles, you come to us.”

When I said that to a client one day, he was like, “That makes a lot of sense.” I said, “When you get massages, we are rewiring your nervous system for not to be in a very flight or fight mode. You have the importance of circulation, you have the importance of your endorphins, your dopamine. All these neurotransmitters are taking place while you’re massaging. Your nerves have to be sedated or they have to be stimulated.”

Massage therapy is muscle awareness supporting stress alleviation that generates endurance in the muscles.

That’s why I tell people massage therapy is not a luxury. It was a lot of ologies, and think about it, we are the extension of nursing. There are so many ologies in massage therapy. There’s psych, there’s sociology, there’s kinesiology, this is a study of movement, there’s myology, study of muscles, there’s anatomy and physiology. I can go on. Pathology, we have to know the study of diseases to figure out which type of movement is best for you based on your medical condition.

We have to think about lymphatic drainage, we have to think about your circulatory system, your lymphatic system. All of that matters. Even though it’s not a popular body system, but the lymphatic system is important because how that transport of that fluid determines how much blood flow is going back into your heart, it’s going back into those other capillaries or those smaller vessels. We have to play into all of those things and put that scientific knowledge and that evidence-based practice along with our intuitive nature as massage therapists.

When you break it down to people, they’re like, “I didn’t know how deep it was.” It was STEM. I think I’m very fortunate since COVID. It made people realize, “I can really get medical massages through insurance, through my HSA account, through the Veteran Affairs.” I think people really started understanding that we are health care professionals and it’s unfortunate that it took COVID to happen but because of COVID, we’re becoming more respected in the health care industry. I give my flowers to nurses, male or female, because we are the extension of nursing.

Understanding The Core Philosophy Of TRIBE

You said something earlier that I think is so true and that is, this is not just for health or preventative. If you are, for example, reading this and you are a high-achieving or high-functioning entrepreneur, business professional, C-suite person, and you want to perform at your highest level, this is why professional athletes put as much into recovery and all types of therapies that they can do. You can't just perform at a high level without that. Your body and your mind and your energy and all those things are going to feed the results you get in your life.

Yes, your health is going to be better. Yes, you'll stress less. Yes, you'll get certain things but there's a reason I do that as well as far as frequent massage but I think you're making a point that you're pretty modest about and that is I don't think that necessarily all massage puts as much into it as you do. Your background, certainly, makes it more effective. Decades of doing different things from journalism and storytelling to massage therapy and wellness, you're starting to combine this all together and to do what you love. You have this core philosophy called TRIBE. Explain to me what that is.

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I love acronyms. From what time I was a child, I loved playing with acronyms in different words and it helped me while I was in massage school. I'm in the field and I wanted to do something creative. I thought of about the coloring book. I was like, “People can color, they can get affirmations and then we going to get educated about massage therapy.”

I thought about what touch requires and being a sexual abuse survivor myself, why touch is so important? The TRIBE acronym is Touch Requires Integrity and Boldness Effortlessly. I think that bonus because I have to step into that room and let you know that I am a professional, that I am a licensed professional and that you're going to respect me as a licensed professional. That's that boldness coming in.

The Integrity of the craftsmanship of my field, this is something that I take seriously, in addition to my passion. Now that I am an entrepreneur, it’s like business first, craft second. That's why I really have to be bold in that now that I'm self-employed full-time. That's how the acronym came about. I was inspired based on the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit. That was my influence.

I thought about the nine fruits. I said, “I think this is going to be my acronym.” It became a coloring book. We just released an educational version of TRIBE, which is available on Amazon. When the coloring book received its accolades and his recognition, that's what I wanted to be. I wanted to be something creative and yet educate people and why massage therapy because basically, massage therapy is muscle awareness, supporting stress alleviation and then generating endurance in your muscles.

I want to explain it to a point where a ten-year-old can understand what massage therapy is and that was the gateway for me to release that coloring book. It became a coloring exercise. For a lot of other people that are not necessarily massage therapists, or had those apprehensions about massage therapy and then it became a help from massage their theirs themselves to incorporate their own self-care.

There are a couple of points I want to make. One is that this is a great example on the surface of why certain individuals in their craft become authorities. Meaning a lot of people have interests or jobs or professions but they dabble. When you go deep, that’s when you come across things like Dominique you’re talking about with your acronyms as well as your study and your expertise in this area.

I wanted to point out that no matter what you’re doing in your careers, it’s important to go deep. If y you really truly want to be successful at something you’ve got to do that. Also, in addition to the fact that there are health benefits of massage that you need to prioritize both your mind and body when you’re being a high performing individual or high achieving individual, there are so many other reasons that that’s important in your life.

How Grief Can Reshape Focus And Clarity

I want to shift gears for a minute. You have experienced some significant personal loss in the in the last little while. You’ve been pursuing and building your dreams and now your Doctorate. I think a lot of people are dealing with things in their life. Now it might be on a surface level stress or anxiety or it might be a deeper thing. A lot of times, loss can really create a rift in your life, make you pivot in your life or even go deeper in what you’re doing in your life. How has loss or grief or things that you’ve struggled with recently reshaped your purpose and focus and clarity on what you’re doing?

First and foremost, I’m human myself. I think that’s why I love my field. It keeps me in touch with my humanness and that I have to exercise my self-care to be the best professional that I am to other people, especially I’m in a very stress-relieving profession. I lost two uncles I love to my core. One of them, I like to call him my creative arts mentor. That was my Uncle Ricky. I would not be the storyteller, I would not be the massage therapist I am without that man.

His gift for alternative medicine was phenomenal. We have a family friend. He was just telling my mom this. I think because they call him P-like Peoples. “He passed the torch to your daughter.” I felt like very honored he said that. Here’s my Uncle Rodney. I like to call him my ironwood of carpentry. My uncle could nearly build anything. He was my favorite for a lot of reasons.

He brought a lot of humor in my life, taught me the importance of integrity, not letting anybody take advantage of you because you are a bookworm and that you have to still be alert. That was his biggest thing. When I was younger, he was so fixated on my innocence, not being tainted as much as it could outside of life circumstances. That one hit me the most because I just mended my relationship with him eleven months earlier.

We were very close and we went through this very bitter feud for five years. When my uncle reached out, it was like we didn’t miss a beat. We didn’t miss a beat and like I said, at times, there was a very niece-daughter relationship. It’s been very hard. I think about the lessons he’s taught me. He would have been very proud. That was the last thing he was saying a lot to me lately. “I’m very proud of you. You took it to a whole another level.”

I lost both my uncles to health issues. Now that’s shaping me about thinking about health across the board. I tell people I’ve accomplished a lot but I would not be sitting here right now without God’s grace and the people that are near and dear in my life. As I said, this is a very difficult phase for my uncle’s sons, my mother, his siblings, relatives, you name it.

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You’ve really done a good job, though. People are dealing with some really difficult situations out there, and maybe it wasn’t all the case. It seems like you’ve really tried to find some meaning in it and it’s driven you even deeper into something you’re passionate about. You mentioned they both had health problems.

Are you just someone who naturally saw that or did it take a little bit of work? How do you use that to become, which I think from what we’ve talked about, now a driver for you? The reason I ask this question is I think for a lot of people, how you react or respond or deal with things in your life are either going to make you stronger or they’re going to set you back. Maybe it’s a little bit of both. How did you do it?

I thought about what my uncles would want, first and foremost, especially my Uncle Rodney. Especially what he told his sons like, “The work don’t stop. Don’t use me as an excuse to not fulfill your goals and your dreams.” When my cousin, his baby son, told me that, I said, “Yes, that is Uncle Rodney. That is Rodney Hugh Peoples. That is something he would definitely say. I thought about what my Uncle Ricky told me. “Continue to follow the yellow brick road.”

Challenges Of Pursuing Further Education

You were looking for the lesson and I think that’s so true. You hear that a lot, turn your mess into your message, turn your obstacles into your drive and your fire. I think that’s something that has driven you further. What made you decide to go and get a further Doctorate? Is it just your love of education?

No.  I was fine. I was fine with massage, I was fine with my honorary. My cousin Sean, who I call Primo, we were talking about honorary we was talking about PhDs from COVID. He was telling me about a school he was in and I was just like, “I don’t know if I want to do that, Primo. I been going to school since forever. I need a break.” I had another colleague from college and my college mentor was like, “I know how you feel about PhDs.” I thought to me, I wouldn’t do it unless I was planning to teach at a university. One of them was like, “Look into the online, especially your lifestyle right now. It’s self-paced. A lot of things have changed, I promise you, especially COVID.”

I looked at LIGS University for a while. They kept coming up on my news feed. I’m like, “What’s this school at in Hawaii? I don’t have time.” It was online and I liked their values, their ethics, it’s self-paced and they give you 2 to 3 years. You’re a part of this academic network that takes care of your tuition and they support your dissertation topic.

When I was talking about it with my mom, the first thing she asked me was, “Did God tell you to do that?” I talked to her because I called my husband and partner on purpose and he’s like, “Did God tell you to do that?” I have two people asking me so I thought about this in prayer. I found out that I was accepted in April. I didn’t make a final decision in October because I needed to make sure that this is something that’s important for me or necessary to do in my life and it was like I got the green light.

Now I figured out why I got the green light because now, this is an advanced level of writing that I can educate people, especially the two people I just lost and how their health affected it. I’m like, “I can go in this lane, have free range,” and then I found out that the founder of the school is going to be helping me with my dissertation topic. That’s huge.

Opportunities come along the way. It’s interesting because I am a big believer in lifelong learning and I’m not telling people they got to go out and get a degree, but I think lifelong learning is just a process by which other things can happen. When we were talking before, your ongoing learning is actually helping you to frame how you’re running your business as well as how you’re intersecting both education and holistic healing and all that type of stuff, correct?

Yeah, absolutely. I can just hear one of my uncles now like, “My Nikki is a whole doctor.” We talked about this when he was still alive and he was like, “I want you to do it, but I want you to do it on your terms.” My uncles were very simple with words but it had impact. He’s always been that way. I said okay.

For people that are reading, a lot of times, there’s a lot to be said, and we don’t have time to necessarily go down this rabbit hole, but completing things for yourself, accomplishing things that help you to build both your focus, your clarity, your narrative, your confidence, all these types of things. Sometimes they come in small ways, sometimes they come in big ways.

Dispelling Misconceptions About Massage Therapy

For you, this is a milestone as well, so I think that’s pretty important for you, even though, as I mentioned before, you’ve got such a high degree of a credibility in this field. I do want to ask you one other question before we get going. For people that are not familiar with massage therapy or have not been using it and they look at it as just a luxury, what are some of the misconceptions people have that they should be aware of? Where should they start if they’re interested in trying to get into a little bit more holistic massage whatever it is in order to optimize their overall performance?

Take action with intention and change your priorities to match opportunities.

I would say really talk to an experienced licensed professional. You can get like a synopsis. I’m willing to do that as well, tell you what massage therapy is because it’s more than a luxury. It’s like what I said to you, massage therapy is muscle awareness, supporting stress alleviation, generating endurance in muscle. I think a lot of people are apprehensive because of what they heard, lack of education, ignorance, or violation of touch.

We don’t think about that aspect of it. When you’ve been violated, your touch has been violated, it’s been compromised. That’s a very difficult situation. I hate to say it. Unfortunately, a lot of other massage providers forget that aspect of it and be a part of that touch violation. That’s why we have such a stigma in this field, unfortunately.

That’s why we refrain from people calling us masseuses. We are not masseuses. Please do not call us that. If you call me that, I’m not going to answer you. I take pride in what I do I take pride in my education, I take pride in my license. That’s what I’m saying, it goes back to that boldness. I’m coming in the room and letting you know what time it is. I am a licensed professional. I’m not tolerating any debauchery, if it is, I’m terminating your session. I’ve always been that way.

Discussion Wrap-up And Closing Words

People shouldn’t let their fears or even lack of knowledge or understanding stand in their way because this is truly something that can help benefit you from just a pure optimization standpoint. I totally love that. I’ve enjoyed this conversation. I think there’s a lot of lessons to be learned both from your history, your past, your knowledge, pursuing your career, pursuing things that you love to do.

If people are reading this and either they have an interest in massage, which is one of the reasons why I wanted to bring on the topic, but also if they have an interest in finding ways to be successful at what they love. All of those are great lessons. Before we take off, though, is there anything that you feel like you would like to say to our audience or any other strategies ideas or points you’d like to make?

I’d like to leave this message with guests. Align your actions with intentions and change your priorities to match opportunities.

I love that. You have even doubled down even further on that given your losses and focus. I love the message, I appreciate you being here with me. Folks, if you’re reading this if for the first time, make sure you like and subscribe. We don’t want you to miss any episodes. Do us a favor and share this episode. It would mean the world to me. I think it would maybe bring some inspiration, awareness or relatability to people that might be out there. Share this episode. Hit us up. Let me know what you’re struggling with, what you’re dealing with or even your wins. I want to celebrate some wins.

Hit us up on any of our social channels. Just remember this, I do want to make sure that I remind you every time that it’s never too late to start creating the life that you were meant to live. You’ve got to take action. You’ve got to move forward and you’ve got to remind yourself that you have greatness inside of you. You’ve got to move forward and take action. I appreciate you being here with us with Dr. Dominique Carson.

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Important Links

• Dr. Dominique Carson
• Mani Benedette
• TRIBE
• Dr. Dominique Carson on X
• Dr. Dominique Carson on Instagram
• Dr. Dominique Carson on LinkedIn

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