Sustainable Bodyworker

Ever notice how quickly clients start identifying with the stories they’ve been told about their bodies? “My hips are a mess.” “This shoulder never lets go.” “My body is just broken.” In this episode, Gretchen explores something a lot of bodyworkers underestimate: your words are part of the treatment. The way you describe tension, pain, compensation patterns, or “problem areas” can either help a c...

Hiring for your practice shouldn’t feel like wandering through a legal minefield, but let’s be honest—most of us end up there, stressing about getting it “right” and terrified of making a costly mistake. What’s refreshing about this conversation with Julie Campbell is the real talk on why there’s no one-size-fits-all answer for hiring ICs vs. W2s. Instead of chasing the option that looks best on p...

If you’ve ever wondered why finding (and keeping) the right team feels so daunting, you’re not alone. In this episode, Gretchen Popp pulls together real-deal wisdom from four fellow practice owners—each with their own take on what actually works when it comes to hiring, leading, and dealing with all the messy in-betweens of being an employer. Gretchen Popp shares how the hardest part isn’t just re...

Ever catch yourself building a business to escape burnout… only to realize you’re slowly recreating the same kind of pressure and exhaustion, just with your name on the door? This episode is a really honest look at how that happens—and why avoiding structure altogether isn’t actually the solution. Gretchen unpacks the difference between systems that control and systems that support, and how clarit...

Good therapists don’t usually leave because “people don’t want to work.” They leave when they don’t feel seen, supported, aligned, or set up to succeed. In this episode, Gretchen talks about what it actually takes to become the kind of employer talented massage therapists want to stay with—and why retention is about so much more than filling a schedule or offering a decent paycheck. She shares les...

Feeling maxed out and assuming hiring is the obvious next step? This episode is a needed reality check. Gretchen talks about the pressure so many massage therapists feel to “scale” by bringing someone on, and why being overbooked, exhausted, or craving relief doesn’t automatically mean you’re actually ready to lead. She shares what she learned from her own early hiring mistakes—waiting too long in...

Feeling like your only options are burnout in someone else’s business or burning out trying to run your own? This conversation challenges that binary in a way a lot of us probably need to hear. Gretchen talks about how so many therapists didn’t actually want to become business owners—they just didn’t feel supported anywhere else—and why that’s a bigger problem in the profession than we tend to adm...

Are you tired of feeling like you have to either become a full-time content creator or just hope clients magically show up? This conversation with Annette gets down to the honest reality that marketing yourself doesn’t have to mean playing the Instagram lottery or hustling for likes. In fact, Gretchen Popp shares her own experience wrestling with the expectation to “be visible,” especially when al...

You ever wonder if confidently owning your clinical expertise will scare off loyal clients—or if “fixing people” just means you’ll work yourself out of business? You’re not alone; so many of us secretly worry that helping folks get real, lasting results will mean running out of work or missing out on consistent income. In this episode, Gretchen’s conversation with Robyn Zappy is a breath of fresh...

If you’ve ever felt like your heart just isn’t in your sessions anymore—like you’re running on autopilot, ticking off protocols, and rationing your energy just to make it through the day—you’re not alone. The pressure to show up for your clients while ignoring what your own body is telling you is real, and it’s a fast track to burnout. This conversation put words to that gnawing sense that somethi...

If you’ve ever wondered how to show up for clients when you’re scraping the bottom of your own energy barrel, this episode’s going to hit home. Nicolle Mitchell opens up about what actually shifts the quality of care for people living with dementia—not just fancy hands-on techniques, but the real, relational groundwork: slowing down, truly attuning, and making consent a living, breathing part of e...

Ever reach that point where you’re “successful” on paper but inside you’re just—done? Like your body and brain are screaming for something new, but letting go of what you built feels impossible (and maybe a little bit like failure)? That’s the real talk Gretchen Popp and Alyse Faith get into here. Both have ridden the rollercoaster of growing a busy practice, hitting all those external markers of...

Ever caught yourself wondering if you’re even cut out for this work anymore—especially when that sense of passion starts to feel more like a trap than a fire? This conversation cuts right to the core of what so many massage therapists go through: you follow your joy, master a skill, maybe even get “successful,” and then wake up one day exhausted, disconnected, or not even sure if you want what you...

🌿 A conversation about bodywork burnout that goes deeper than food choices, willpower, or “doing better.” In this solo episode, Gretchen responds to a charged conversation in the massage therapy world around practitioner health, weight, and burnout — and reframes it through a lens of nervous system regulation, systemic pressure, and subconscious self-abandonment. Drawing from her own lived experi...

Ever find yourself completely wiped out, hustling through the admin, laundry, marketing—all the not-so-glamorous parts of running a bodywork practice—while your actual passion feels buried under a pile of “shoulds”? This episode felt like a permission slip to see your business as a living, breathing thing—not just a machine you’re supposed to keep running at all costs. I loved Daniela’s take on br...

✨ What if charging your worth isn’t about money at all, but about reciprocity, nervous system safety, and the longevity of your career? ----more---- In this solo episode, Gretchen reflects on an “aha” moment that connected relationships, boundaries, and pricing in a way she hadn’t fully articulated before. She explores why energy imbalances, especially around money, quietly erode our capacity to...

Burnout isn’t proof you’re failing. It’s a distress signal — and the panic, resentment, and “I can’t keep doing this” moments aren’t meant to be bypassed. They’re information. In this Season 2 opener, I’m naming the old stories that keep bodyworkers trapped, and sharing a new way to build a career that’s actually sustainable for you — your body, your nervous system, your values, your life. In this...

Click HERE to join us in our Sustainable Bodyworker Bingo Challenge for 2026!  So many of us set big resolutions and think, “this year, I’ll finally stick with self-care”... only to get steamrolled by old patterns, client demands, or that sneaky voice insisting five seconds of breathwork doesn’t “count.” We get it—and we’ve done more than our share of Monday-morning resets, chasing motivation unti...

Who am I to raise my prices, teach a class, or even call myself an expert? If those thoughts have ever circled your mind louder than clients on a Friday night waitlist, you’re not alone—Gretchen lays it all bare in this episode. She shares the very real, not-so-glamorous side of growing beyond what you ever thought possible (and what happens when a “You’ll never make any money doing that” moment f...

If you’re still wondering why your hands and shoulders ache after every deep tissue session—no matter how precisely you “fix” your body mechanics—it’s not because you’re doing something wrong. This conversation with Jim Funk and Kelsy Filler goes straight to the heart of what so many of us never heard in massage school: the mythical “low table, squat all day” advice isn’t actually the answer for l...

Get your FREE Mindset Shift hypnotherapy session with Gretchen HERE ! Are things in your treatment room feeling a little… off? A low-key unsettled vibe you can’t quite name, but your nervous system absolutely picks up on? Turns out, the space itself is doing way more of the heavy lifting than most of us realize. Gretchen Popp gets honest about how she barely used to think about her massage room be...

This shortened track is adapted from a longer, in-depth hypnotherapy session available inside The Sustainable Bodyworker Membership, where you’ll find an entire library of custom hypnotherapy tracks created specifically for massage therapists and bodyworkers. Inside the membership, you’ll also get:  💫 A growing collection of hypnotherapy tracks for confidence, boundaries, pricing, and purpose  💫...

Get your FREE Mindset Shift hypnotherapy session with Gretchen HERE ! Ever get tired of gratitude being framed as some forced holiday ritual or another “should” on your self-care to-do list? Yeah, Gretchen gets it — real gratitude often gets lost under the pressure to perform. In this Thanksgiving week episode, Gretchen breaks down exactly why gratitude isn’t just a sugary sentiment or an Instagra...

Stuck in the burnout trap even after trying all the "right" self-care? You’re not alone. Gretchen Popp pulls back the curtain on what healing from burnout—especially that chronic, nervous system kind—really looks like, and spoiler: it’s not a straight line or a magic overnight fix. She shares real stories from her own years-long journey with fibromyalgia, fatigue, and self-sabotage, getting honest...

Get your FREE Mindset Shift hypnotherapy session with Gretchen HERE ! If you ever catch yourself scrolling online, eyeing another massage therapist’s business, and thinking, “Well, she must have some magic gene I just don’t”? Trust me, you’re not alone—and honestly, that lie is one of the biggest blocks to real sustainability. In this episode, Gretchen Popp brings on Jessica Curtis, who’s as down-...