Claflin’s massage biz offers pain relief
Medical massage therapist Dawn Claflin has opened Studio of Therapeutic Massage to help bring relief of stress and pain to her customers.
Claflin, a massage therapist and former licensed practical nurse, opened the studio Nov. 5 in Saah Salon Suites, 102 S. Campbell Station Road.
“I came off a Disney cruise, came up with this idea (to open my own business) and here I am,” she said.
Claflin specializes in therapeutic massage including trigger point therapy, Swedish, deep tissue, myofacial release, pregnancy, infant, reflexology and other massage treatments in a peaceful setting.
She offers massages in increments of 30 minutes, one hour, 90 minutes and two hours.
“Your massage will last the entire time that you request and will include any additional services that you request, without any additional cost, such as hot stone therapy, aromatherapy or deep tissue (massage),” Claflin said.
What sets her apart from a typical massage therapist is Claflin’s knowledge of the human body, she said.
“I am a trigger point specialist, who is a massage modality (a way of applying massage),” she added.
Claflin said she could apply techniques simply to relax a patient or a technique to help relief tension or pain.
Originally from upstate New York, she moved to East Tennessee five years ago and now lives in Powell.
Claflin has been a massage therapist for 18 years. Before that, she was in the medical field for 23 years.
“I started as an LPN in a cardiology unit, worked in a laboratory, doing blood draws, and a little bit as a physical therapy assistant,” she said.
But she said quality of the medical field was changing, as physicians were not getting the medical reimbursements they once had gotten, which meant doctors have to see twice as many patients to get the same amount of reimbursements.
Nurses had to work twice as hard as well, she recalled, so she changed careers and became a massage therapist. In that way, she could provide one-on-one client care.
“It was more of a medical massage move,” Claflin said. “I can spend 60 minutes to two hours in a session with a patient.”
She had worked with a multitude of spas, having last worked at a local spa for three years, before her vacation realization that she had “enough clientele to branch out on my own.
“It’s great to have clients to support you, not only as a massage therapist but also as a new business owner,” she added.
Studio of Therapeutic Massage is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., seven days a week.
For more information, call 865-896-9673.
To book an appointment, visit her website at StudioofTherapeudicMassage.com/.
