Inspiring Conversations with Joshua Sweet of Sweet Therapeutic Massage

Today we’d like to introduce you to Joshua Sweet.

Hi Joshua, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I have been a licensed massage therapist for 7 years now. My dad was a massage therapist for most of my life, so I grew up with it and had experienced massage for a long time, but I didn’t originally want to follow in my father’s footsteps.

After I graduated from Drury University, in Springfield, Missouri, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. I had helped my dad build my parents’ house as a father-son project, so I started out doing construction and landscaping for a few years, and then I transitioned into bartending for a few years.

Upon moving to Austin, Texas, in 2016, I was feeling the need to do something different in life. I wanted to be of service in the world and feel like I was helping people in larger way. Around that time, my dad was retiring, after 30+ years of massage, and he wanted to pass on his accumulated wealth of knowledge and experience. My interest was piqued.

During the spring of 2017, I was backpacking abroad and I attended a massage and yoga retreat in Bali to feel out if massage could be a possible career path. I also really liked the idea of traveling and teaching workshops abroad. The retreat was great and, when I got back to Austin, I signed up to go to massage school and get licensed.
In 2018, I was licensed and started working at a couple of local spas, just to build experience, while I was taking additional education classes from my dad.
In the fall of 2019, I started working at Slaughter Lane Chiropractic, a father-son duo, and really found my calling with therapeutic massage. I really enjoyed the problem solving aspect of massage, understanding why someone might be in pain or discomfort and how to help them get back to feeling at ease and having more functional movement in their body.
Whether it was working with a younger client recovering from a sports injury, or an office worker with chronic neck and shoulder pain, or an elderly person with years of accumulated hard living and injuries, I just liked learning and figuring out how to unravel each person’s distinct issues. I finally felt like I was helping people.
Because I was working under doctors, I was able to keep practicing through the Covid pandemic, since it was classified as ‘medical massage’. I was getting a lot of great results and positive feedback from both the clients and the chiropractors, who really noticed and appreciated that their patients were both adjusting easier and recovering faster.

In 2021, I branched out to start a massage business with a friend of mine, and while that business didn’t work out, I gained the experience to start my own business and see more private clients outside of the chiropractic office. I officially launched, ‘Sweet Therapeutic Massage’, and had a fairly consistent collection of private clients that I would travel to and see at their homes on a weekly basis. It was a good balance of making money, helping people, and having a lot of flexibility in my work schedule.

April of 2025, my wife and I moved to Lafayette, Colorado. We wanted a change of scenery, cooler weather, better proximity to hiking and camping in the outdoors, and better family planning and healthcare options. I quickly started working at ‘Discover Chiropractic’ in Broomfield, on the weekends, just trying to get established and find my bearings in a new place. And more recently, I just started working at ‘Bodywork for Liberation’, in Lafayette.

I am still looking to build up my private clientele, here.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
While mostly smooth, there certainly have been some struggles along the way:

There was a point during the fall of 2019, that I suffered a broken arm, and had to take off 2 months from massage, which was hard. I definitely went through the physical and mental struggles of trying to recover as quickly as possible and not lose hope that recovery would happen eventually.

In 2020, the Covid pandemic meant uncertainty for at least 2 months, before the chiropractors got cleared to offer “medical massage”. They eventually gave me a generous pay raise and some backpay for the time I wasn’t able to work, as well as peace of mind that I could keep working when so many others were out of work.

In 2021-2022, I tried building a business with a friend of mine. It ended up falling through due to a number of miscommunications and generally different philosophies on life and business practice. While I was disappointed for the business, I was more sad and hurt at the end of a friendship. It did give me perspective on what I wanted out of my own business and the experience necessary for me to take the steps of establishing an LLC, filing taxes, building a website, etc.

Finally, moving to Colorado has had its own challenges. It’s been hard to let go of my old life of consistent private clients, the comfort and familiarity of working 6 years at the same chiropractic clinic and all the regular clients there, and trying to find new clients and new places of work in brand a new and unknown state.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
I specialize in mainly therapeutic massage, blending a number of different modalities and techniques, including: deep tissue massage, sports massage, deep stretching, post-surgical rehabilitation massage, scar tissue reduction, prenatal/postnatal massage, active/passive release, trigger point, myofascial release, and integrated breath work called ‘somatic feedback’.

My philosophy is that massage doesn’t have to be painful to still be effective, and that incorporating some mindful breathing and relaxation work can actually help the client progress through the work more quickly and efficiently than just trying to push too hard or or too fast and cause unnecessary discomfort.

My goal is always to work with the client’s individual needs and goals. Each session, I check in to find out how the client felt about the previous session, if they feel like they are progressing in their recovery or meeting their needs, or if they want to focus on a new or different issue or part of their body. Sometimes people want heavy and deep work, sometimes they want gentle relaxation, and I try to meet them on their level.

Often times, part of the massage journey is finding out that a pain in a client’s shoulder actually stems from a postural or walking gait pattern, maybe even originating from a broken toe or sprained ankle 20 years prior. The body is very interconnected and helping clients to understand how their body works and functions, or doesn’t function as well as it should, is sometimes more important than the actual massage itself. In that capacity, I’m almost more like a life coach, facilitating clients wellness by teaching them how to be in their own body in a more wholistic and mindful way.

In general, I’m most proud that I get to continue to practice and share the techniques that my dad learned and developed over his 30 years of massage. It’s a pretty unique amalgamation of modalities, and I often hear from clients with a lot of massage experience that they’ve never felt the type of work that I do. Some are even surprised to get positive results with me that they’ve never gotten before, which I’m always happy to hear.

Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
My biggest lesson has been that there is always more to learn and improve on, that the journey of growth and discovery is never over, and that sometimes taking it slow and steady is better than trying to rush ahead.

I’m often surprised when I feel like I’m getting bored, or that I’m not learning or growing, and suddenly a new facet piques my interest or a new client has a problem I’ve never dealt with, and I have an opportunity to be humbled and learn and grow even more.

Pricing:

• $120/60 minutes
• $180/90 minutes
• $240/120 minutes

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.sweettherapeuticmassage.com/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SweetTherapeuticMassage/