In the Relaxation Business

Snappy Title! from Zach Buchanan on Vimeo.

Corinne Sanders just wants to help you relax. And now, working as a licensed massage therapist at Evanston’s The Rub, that’s exactly what she does for a living.
“I just like helping people with their everyday tension and injuries that can result from repetitive stress,” she says. “Everybody loves just a good, relaxing massage. Sometimes that’s all you really need.”
Sanders mastered her trade at the Chicago College of Healing Arts, where she had to buy her own table, sheets and massage oils with which to practice. But her knack for massage developed far before she enrolled there in 2003.
“I kind of developed a reputation,” Sanders says. “People would come to me in high school to get their shoulders rubbed or get hand massages.”
After graduating with a degree as a massage therapist, Sanders spent a year freelancing, working mostly with friends and family and doing house calls. She then worked at a day spa for a few years before coming to The Rub almost a year ago.
Over that time, Sanders learned that hands alone do not make a good massage. Clients, who lay on the massage table in the nude, must allow therapists to come into their personal space. It’s up to Sanders to make them comfortable so she can work out their kinks. Choice of words is imperative – Sanders “suggests” something, rather than “tells.” The less forceful the language, the better.
Music also plays a big role. Getting a massage from a total stranger in awkward silence might only stress one out more, so Sanders plays dulcet, usually instrumental tones to help relax the mind.
“I’ve been trying to perfect my playlist for years,” she says.




Note to Chris: When we made the videos on Vimeo in class, I just put in a makeshift title, but going back, I couldn't figure out how to change that, so I'm stuck with a crappy, senseless title. Sorry.