BRENDA COOPER, LMT.
Licensed Massage Therapist
License #46938
813-751-5555
101 N. Garden Ave
Clearwater, FL 33755

i first was asked to do an apprenticeship in 1995 when a friend got pregnant. she was a massage therapist and needed someone to take over her practice as she progressed in her pregnancy. i had never really asked her what she did or how she did it and i don't think i realized people get paid to rub kinks out of someone! so she gave me a quick rundown and i agreed to learn. i tracked everything she did and we would check with the client for even pressure on both sides of the body. they got free work while i practiced. as time went on, i started doing her overflow clients and then more and more of her regular clients. then one day an athlete came in. she was from the U.S. Women's Rowing Team! i did her massage. she liked it. she proved she liked it because the whole team started coming to me! they had questions, though, and i didn't know anything but hands-on. so i searched for a school that would give me the most information. which school was the hardest, was what i looked for. i lived in chattanooga, tn. at the time. it was atlanta school of massage, atlanta, ga. three hours away (because of rush hour traffic). that was one way! i decided to do it. i had to drive back home every night because i had animals. i taped all my classes and listened to them on the way to school and on the way home. (BTW, my friend has had her baby and all is well there). the team asked me to go to australia for training camp with them, but i wasn't far enough in school, but i was too far to quit, so i didn't go. when they got back from there, they asked me to go to finland with them for the world championships to qualify for the olympics for the following year. i talked to the school, they had a meeting, they said i was far enough along they could help me with this one. so the school set up tutoring and i graduated early. the olympic committee helped me get my passport and there we went to tampere, finland! i worked seven days a week, sometimes twelve hours working/available and loved every minute of it! in '96, they asked me to go with them to lucerne, switzerland and dusseldorf, germany. of course i went! my sister came to live in my house and take care of it.
when i got back from europe, i traveled with a couple of bike teams. BRAG (bicycle ride across georgia) and BRAT (bicycle ride across tennessee). these are mostly century rides (100 miles a day) from state park to state park. i camped out with them for the week and took care of muscle pains and of course helped prevent them.

i've had a great career in massage and learned a lot about injury work and preventative measures. i took sports massage in school. i do deep tissue work, relaxing, pregnancy massage (a special pillow for her and her tummy), hot stone massage.

prices:
30 minute 35.00
60 minute 60.00
90 minute 90.00
pregnancy (1 hr) 60.00
hot stone (1:15) 100.00