“My instructors at East West helped me realize that I could still feel smart and capable while learning things that didn’t come easily to me. I might need to approach things differently, but I could do it — and that’s something I’ve carried with me throughout my massage career.”

For Anne Nutwell, massage therapy offered the kind of career she had been looking for. After nearly a decade in data entry and office administration, she wanted work that felt more active, connected, and meaningful—work that would allow her to build genuine relationships and make a positive difference in people’s lives.

As she explored massage therapy programs, East West stood out for its strong graduate outcomes and its thorough, accessible approach to the science of massage. Anne graduated at the end of 2015 and has been a massage therapist since 2016.

With a BA in Psychology and a background in office administration and data processing, Anne has always enjoyed blending the technical with the intuitive. At East West, she discovered that learning challenging subjects did not have to look only one way. She remembers being especially influenced by kinesiology instructor Amy Bennett, whose openness about her own nontraditional academic journey encouraged Anne to give herself more grace, study creatively, and recognize that she could remain capable even when something did not come easily.

The hands-on work brought a different kind of learning curve. Coming from years of desk work, coordinated movement did not always feel natural at first. But Anne began to see massage as a puzzle: her hands helped her gather information, while the techniques she learned gave her different ways to respond. She valued the program’s broad range of approaches, which gave her a strong foundation and showed her how many directions a massage career could take.

After graduation, Anne took time to navigate licensing and begin building her career. Her first massage role was at a Portland spa specializing in holistic foot treatments, where she worked alongside other therapists in a lively, communal setting. Watching their techniques and client interactions gave her a supportive introduction to professional practice before she moved into a more traditional massage spa environment.

As her experience grew, Anne became especially interested in working with older adults, which led her toward manual lymphatic drainage and further continuing education. Learning remained an important part of her career, allowing her to deepen her knowledge and continue expanding the tools she could bring to her clients.

In late 2021, Anne’s path brought her back to East West in an unexpected way. An opening in Alumni Services combined the administrative and data-processing skills from her earlier career with her experience as a massage therapist. The role felt uniquely suited to her background and offered a new way to support others in the profession.

Today, Anne helps students and graduates move from massage school into professional practice. Her work includes support with MBLEx preparation, licensing, resumes and cover letters, job searches, employment questions, and the early stages of starting a business. She continues to see a small number of massage clients, but most of her time is spent helping members of the East West community move forward with greater confidence and clarity.

Because Anne remembers how intimidating the next step can feel, she brings both practical guidance and reassurance to her role. She helps students and alumni break the process into manageable pieces, focus on what comes next, and trust that they do not have to figure everything out alone.

In many ways, Anne’s current role brings her journey full circle. The detail-oriented skills she developed before massage school now work alongside her experience as an LMT and her genuine care for the people she supports. What once seemed like two very different career paths now fit together naturally.