By Avia Ustanny, Outlook Writer 
Carlington Wilmot Photo
"MASSAGE IS a gift. I believe in gifts and that you should use the gifts which are given to you."
So says Mary-Ann Girvan who in 2000 walked away from the position of marketing executive with Jamaica Promotions Corporation (JAMPRO) to become a humble spa technician.
Massage is her gift, she states. It was what she always wanted to do.
"At age 15 years when my godmother was ill, a massage was the only thing I could do for her," the 34-year-old woman now recalls.
"She said that I had healing hands."
When Mary-Ann left Campion College in Kingston at age 17 with O' and A Level passes under her belt, she first prayed about what she was going to do before accepting any job.
She recalls that, like any other teenager, she thought about getting a job that would help her to buy a house and a car, but soon enough that was no longer an issue.
The answer to her prayer she said, was that she could do massage therapy, marketing, tourism or dancing.
She has managed to do them all, one after the other. Now, she and has finally settled on massage. At the Ritz Carlton hotel Mary-Ann practises personalised deep tissue and maternity massage, as well as Swedish, Thai and hot stone massages, Reiki and reflexology. She has never been far from the world of tourism, with the exception of a short foray into finance.
Tourism investment opportunities
With an MBA in marketing from Nova Southeastern University (1995), Girvan was employed at JAMPRO in 1992 as a marketing executive with responsibility for identifying and promoting strategic tourism investment opportunities and implementing marketing strategies, among other tasks.
Before this, she spent two years with Barita Unit Trust Management Company in marketing, investment and public relations. She came to Barita working in public relations and tours with Grand Lido Negril, Swept Away Resort and the Jamaica Pegasus.
When in the late 90s JAMPRO began downsizing its operations, Girvan began seriously looking at an alternative career. In 1999, she started offering friends and others massage treatments using traditional Usui Reiki and Swedish massage. In the next two years, she acquired several certificates in Reiki, levels one and two and reflexology. Most recently, she completed a teacher training course in Pilates. She considers continuous training, frequently done abroad as an investment in her career.
Girvan considers herself fortunate to have heard about the job at the Ritz Carlton where in-house training further enhanced her new skills.
She was not asked to leave JAMPRO, as several others were, but she still decided to take the plunge into massage as a new career.
"I could have stayed, but I really wanted to see if I could make it (succeed at massage).
Overall, the level of remuneration is just about the same as her last job. Currently, there are some months when she does less work and so earns much less, but in the winter months she has more than she can handle.
Girvan states that she is a good saver, a habit instilled from childhood. This combines with her exposure to finance has helped her to meet her own long and short term needs as well as functioning as sole support for her mother who is a retired teacher. Her father is long deceased.
Mary-Ann admits that she was first afraid to tell anyone that she was studying massage therapy. It was the old status issue. How could she be planning to leave her position as a marketing executive with all its perks for sweaty work as a masseuse?
Doing something I believe in
Surprisingly she said, "people really respected the fact that I was doing something that I really believed in." Furthermore, she says, her friends and family have never been the materialistic or overly practical type.
"Working as a spa technician is much more relaxing," she says. "I am really a people person. I find people interesting. And, at the end of the day I do not have to take my work home with me.
"Also, when I have finished a job -- each individual treatment - I know immediately whether I have done a good job or not. There is instant gratification.
Ultimately Girvan, who takes a spiritual vocation as a Christian very seriously, says that she would like to have a day spa specialising in the needs of females who have been in abusive situations. Massage, she says is healing therapy in many more ways than one.
