|
About TouchProActive
TouchProActive is a meeting place for the professional
massage and bodywork community. A safe space where students, practitioners,
teachers, full-timers, part-timers, and political wonks, can share ideas, inspiration,
and support.
Each week members receive an email announcing new articles
in an online newsletter filled with timely, useful and thought-provoking information
about what it takes to make a living doing the work we love.
TouchProActive combines one of the world's oldest professions
with the newest communication technology. Our primary goal is to provide massage
students and professionals with a vehicle that embraces the power of the internet,
making it possible for everyone in our community to stay connected all day,
every day.
Who are we?
TouchProActive is a collaboration between David
Palmer and Michael Zimmerman. Together they bring a combined
35 years massage experience in various roles including student, practitioner,
school owner, writer, publisher, public speaker and evangelist.
David has also been an "early adopter" of communication
technology. He acquired his first personal computer to print mailing labels
for his massage school in 1982 and is commited to seeing the massage profession
benefit fully from the high tech tools that literally create and sustain the
global village.
Besides his massage and business expertise, Michael brings
to this effort the eye and skepticism of a technophobe. Before this adventure,
he knew little about computers beyond retrieving email and assures TouchProActive
members high website usability and functionality.
You can read more about the trials and tribulations of setting
up this new venture in the Founder's
Blog portion of the site. Some of it ain't pretty, but it is all real.
David Palmer
In the early eighties, while owner of a traditional Japanese
massage school in San Francisco, David first became concerned about the problem
of the public's perception of massage as being unaffordable and inaccessible.
He created a curriculum for massaging seated clients, set up the first nationally
recognized chair massage business with clients such as Apple Computer, and developed
the first massage chair in 1986.
Massage Magazine has called David the "father" of
contemporary chair massage and in 1997 the American Massage Therapy Association
honored him with the President's Award in recognition of his significant contributions
to the field of massage. Since 1986, he has been the President of TouchPro
Institute, the most influential professional association for chair massage
practitioners in the world.
David has often been an agent provocateur within the massage
industry and is rarely shy about stating an opinion or advocating a point of
view. In the late 1980's he published a business newsletter called The Bodywork
Entrepreneur and later turned it into a textbook for students and practitioners.
David is a popular speaker at state, regional, national, and international massage
gatherings.
Michael Zimmerman
Although a native of London, England, Michael began his professional
massage career in San Francisco. He was on the staff that set up and managed
the first convention-based chair massage business to develop a national presence.
For the past decade, Michael has successfully run his own
massage business in London, UK, providing ongoing massage services to blue chip
clients including Merrill Lynch, BNP Paribas, Rank Xerox, Pfizer and Man Group.
Since 2001, he has advised one of the UK’s foremost massage retail outlets,
Relax, on customer relations, in-service practitioner training, and event management.
In the past six years he has been the senior TouchPro trainer
in the UK, educating more than 500 practitioners and students. His seminars
have included essential components covering the development of small and large
corporate and events-based massage businesses. Since 1993, Michael has been
a consultant for Complementary Health Trust advising on massage practitioner
support, recruitment, and strategic planning. He has presented regular seminars
on massage in the healthcare sector and led workplace stress management programs
in corporations.
Prior to his career in massage, Michael received an Honors
degree in economics and accounting from Manchester University and became the
sales and marketing director of his family business.
| 
