While on a pre-physical therapy track at Marquette University, I answered the call of my adventurous spirit by enlisting and serving in the U.S. Air Force where I worked as a linguist. The opportunity to travel and meet people from around the world taught me more about people and life in 4 years than I could have learned from any book. Returning from military service, I enrolled in the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and graduated with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree with an emphasis in Management Information Systems. My B.B.A. degree led me to a career in corporate America working for several large corporations. Listening to both my spirit(again!) and my wife who told me every time that I gave her a back rub that I was in the wrong profession, I decided to investigate massage therapy. My research complete, I enrolled in the program at the Therapeutic Massage Training Institute in Charlotte, NC. I chose TMTI for several reasons. First, it offered a 600 hour curriculum - 100 hours more than required for national certification and NC state licensure. Secondly, the program offered more than the required clinical classes. It offered additional classes, instruction, and discussion that led students to look at and treat everyone as a whole person - an holistic perspective.   This holistc philosophy is what drives my massage therapy and bodywork practice. I strive to see and work with you as a whole person - body, mind, and spirit. I believe that health is maintained when there is balance not only among the systems of the body, but also balance between body, mind, and spirit. My goal is to continue to learn(I want to know it all!) and gain additional skills so that I can better serve you in helping you maintain your health. After all, health is a natural state to be maintained, not a state that we try to achieve. It is for this reason that I consider massage therapy and bodywork to be a part of basic body maintenance because it is a means to help the body do what it was designed to do - maintain itself and heal itself from the effects of stress and our every day physical activities. Studies have proven the many health-maintaining benefits of massage therapy. What's that old saying? An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure? I would welcome the opportunity to talk with you and work with you in maintaining your health. If you're trying to regain health and balance, I would welcome the chance to play a complementary role in helping you. Yours in health and balance, Ron Walz ,  LMBT , OK #183459