My Story

Let me introduce myself: my name is Heather Kew and I am so excited that you decided to be here. It's hard to imagine sharing my research, opinions and my life with the world without first telling you a little about myself and why I am so darn passionate about everything Health & Wellness.

While 2020 had some major ups and downs for all of us, there was one huge milestone that happened for me this year: I celebrated being a Massage Therapists for 15 years. It was a big one for sure! I remember making the decision to go into massage therapy when I was 16 years old. I wanted to help people in a way that they would WANT to come and see me and not dread the thought or be afraid of me. Sorting through what that meant though, was a big task. My grandmother told me I was too opinionated to be a nurse (true, and great advice) and the thought of mainstream medicine didn't appeal to me the way alternative medicine did. For the longest time I had thought about Chiropractics - but the thought of the years and years of school intimidated me at 17 years old. So the plan became to go to massage school first, travel the world, work on resorts and cruise ships, and then come home and go back to school to become a chiropractor.

Life has a funny way of changing the best laid out plans. I was all set to work in the Cayman Islands when hurricane Katrina hit and literally destroyed the spa I was set to work in. So I went to plan B: I started working in a Chiropractors office. I saw firsthand how they worked and soon learned, I wanted to spend more time with my patients, and I wanted to get to the root of their problems sooner, rather than later. It was there that I fell in love with Massage as a life long career and not just a stepping stone.

Fast forward just a little, and I found that my passion for massage was not just in helping the people I touch, but elevating the entire profession. I volunteered for the massage association in my province and saw that all the hardships that I had to overcome as a massage therapists were not unique to me: they were unique to our whole profession! I saw massage therapist struggle with taking crappy courses just to get their CEU's in because they were due and not taking the courses they wanted to because it was too far away and too expensive to travel to take a course like that, I saw the physical pain and burn out but most of all I saw people that cared more about helping others than making money. It broke my heart. I saw so many therapists who didn't believe they could make more money and still be serving those they touched!

Around that same time, I also became the Department Head for the Spa, Fitness Center and Gift shop for the Fairmont Hotel Macdonald and I learned a lot about business. I was so excited to be working on the huge renovation that we did, which meant that I had to learn how to grow a spa from one little room in the back of a fitness center to a full spa. I saw that Therapists could make money and still serve others, but I also saw how businesses wanted to take advantage of those therapists: have them work more and pay them less.

Then, I started teaching. My first course was a Hot Stone course to the Therapists at the Fairmont. It was so much fun, but more importantly, the therapists told me they couldn't believe I had never taught before because they not only learned the modality but they had fun doing it too. Since then I have taught hundreds of therapists, and want to help them be better!

So there you have it: me in a nut shell (which is a very dangerous place to be since I'm really allergic to nuts) Just this ridiculously passionate therapist that wants to help other therapists be amazing and live the life they were truly meant to live!