Connect
To Top

Meet Erin Fisk of Wanderlust Wellbeing

Avatar photo

Today we’d like to introduce you to Erin Fisk.

Erin, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I have always loved helping people and wanted to pursue a career where I could do so. I went to school for social work where I decided it might not be best suited to me, not to mention a little frightened I might say the wrong thing for people to really get the help they needed. Also, I really felt I was only just beginning my journey of understanding the depth of humanity and emotions! I then decided to become an EMT, thinking I would be better suited on a fire engine or something a little more fierce for my personality at the time! I then went on to become a paramedic and worked within that industry on an ambulance for about 8 years.

Within the last year of working as a Paramedic, I decided I wanted to pursue Massage Therapy, which about 14 years prior I had thought about doing so but was not ready for that connection with people yet. As soon as I graduated from The Massage Therapy program at Center for Massage and Natural Health in Asheville, NC I decided to open up my own business in Johnson City, TN. (Wanderlust Massage and Wellness). On a whim, I decided to branch from the idea of working out of someone else’s space into opening up a small space of my own, afterward wondering how on earth it was going to work just starting out! Then the real journey began!

Only a couple months in, while still working part-time as a Paramedic (really full time with how many hours I picked up!) I herniated my low back and was left unable to work at all for about six weeks. Talk about soul discovery and having faith! Needless to say, I was still not very good at the whole introspection thing, but this was quite the shove on my journey of self-growth and understanding as it forced me to start facing my inner demons! The real kicker is that I had had thoughts to stop Paramedic altogether very often in the couple weeks prior as if I was getting hints to do so but was too stubborn to listen and have faith my business would work out.

Fast forward six weeks later, after standing with ice packs for entire 12 hour or more days and otherwise kneeling briefly to give my back the break and arch it needed along with chiropractor twice a day, I was able to start getting back to massaging. I kept thinking I would get back to Paramedic work and that my back would heal, but apparently, the universe had other ideas! I ended up doing a Groupon and things took off. I worked long days to get established and find my clientele within that group of people, got my ratings up on Google over time, and word of mouth spread like wildfire! I also became more and more aware of the energetic component of Massage Therapy and realizing that I was able to pick up on things in the body as time went on.

I would love to pursue this aspect more with people and focus on the energy balancing/emotional release side of the equation. It was an amazing ride learning how much energy to put towards what to make it work, let alone working on self-limiting beliefs and allowing money to come my way. It is amazing how many of us have these beliefs or patterns passed through our families of always just making enough or barely getting by and believing that’s all there is. As soon as I decided to go for specialized training in Florida every other month, things blossomed and I was booked weeks out. My first class, I didn’t even have enough gas to drive back but sold two package deals whilst being there for the class, allowing me to return home and pay the bills.

Faith is so important along with hard work when owning your own business along with always working on releasing self-limiting beliefs. It is especially interesting in the healing arts realm as often people within think that we aren’t supposed to make money from our gifts or we are fraudulent if we actually want to make a livelihood from using what comes naturally and helping to heal others. Granted I would love to win several million to donate all my time to those who find it hard to pay for self-care and I imagine so would any other healer as that would be the ultimate satisfaction of being able to provide for others and not having to think about where your next meal comes from.

All of that attention and energy could be put towards helping others process things and do workshops to help others heal. I would love to reach out to those who want help that are homeless or that are working through tough times to be able to help them heal emotionally and physically to see that there are other ways that they can live life.

As I digress… fast forward to within the three years of owning a business in TN, I met someone at World Massage Festival, which is an awesomely fun way to get continuing education credits and meet fun people! Please mention my name as a referral if you so desire to try them out ;). This gentleman I met and I would meet up every other month as we were living far away, aka he lived here in Phoenix, AZ. We decided it would be worth me moving out here to be together and see where our next adventure in life took us! I also thought what a perfect place to branch out of my comfort zone and really work more on connecting with people and helping them release holding patterns doing energy work.

The journey of going to SWIHA for continuing education, as the Massage Board would not take any prior ConEd, allowed me to meet some pretty amazing people there and broaden my network here. I have found an amazing space where I am an independent contractor, as my significant other and I are also embarking on another couple businesses of ours we decided to start so maybe we can be featured for these coming up! The Wellness Center I am working out of right now is Walk-in Wellness under either the name Erin Fisk or my business name Wanderlust Wellbeing, as when I moved here I shortened my name from Wanderlust Massage and Wellness, which you can search on google for and find all my reviews via google as well as Groupon.

I am working on still switching over everything as it has been interesting to do so moving across the US apparently! I can be reached still at the same number 423-823-4200 via call or text to schedule an appt and I offer specials to first-time clients as well as package deals. I also offer 25% right now to students with valid ID and military/EMS personnel. I treat everyone as individuals and want to get healing to anyone I can so feel free to reach out to discuss options. I would especially love to work with people who come from my mindset of everything was physical to now where they are opening up more to the possibility of the energetic and emotional component of pain. This has been a huge realization for myself and I would love to be a mentor of sorts along that path for others as well!

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Wow. There are have been many challenges and obstacles as I mentioned in the former answer. It has been one of the hardest things I have ever done but one of the most rewarding and life-changing experiences of my life. It has helped me grow in ways I could never imagine and allowed some serious on site to things I needed to work on like having faith and listening to the universe more, which I’m still working on figuring out!

Owning my own business has shown me the absolute freedom of being my own boss but also the craziness that comes along with that like the rollercoaster of bringing funds in and figuring out the best avenues of growth personally and financially. It has been one hell of a ride and now with this new pursuit of these other two businesses, there is even more learning to be had! Not to mention yes there are some basics that help no matter where you live but also demographics moving from different states or even towns are so different, that aspect of this whole entrepreneurial game is quite interesting as well! I would never change any moment though as I have grown so much through all the curve balls and have quite a bit to still learn! Isn’t that what life is about though?! What else is possible?!

Wanderlust Wellbeing – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
I believe what sets me apart is the amount of care and attention to detail I spend with a client. The story behind why they are there and when things started happening in their body. There is more often than not a significant correlation between when a pain began and something going on in their life at that time. I believe otherwise there is a lesson to be learned or perhaps we aren’t paying attention to warning signs.

Our bodies are literally maps of everything that has ever happened in our lives and often it is screaming out to us and we ignore it. I love the aspect of getting people back to listening to their body and asking questions and releasing the trapped emotions of the event that occurred or allowing different viewpoints to come alive that help with those aha moments.

I am most proud of how far I got in such a little amount of time. I was and apparently still am number one Massage Therapist in Johnson City TN on Google and that happened within only being in business for a year. As I mentioned prior I am working on getting that switched over to here and reviews to here as well to start that climb in Phoenix as well! I was especially known for deep tissue work and that is what you will find my reviews about more often than not.

As I had thrown out there before, I came from a very physical mindset and transitioned slowly to more of an energetic and emotional basis for why we have pain in our bodies. That alone has been quite the interesting transition and I hope to help others in that transition as well!

As far as offerings go, I can provide Deep Tissue, Swedish massage, and Structural Energetic Therapy. Cupping, Energetic Release Techniques, and Breath-work Sessions are also available. Access Bars, AromaTouch Technique, and five elemental aromatherapy balancing are also available as choices/ paths to take that I can provide. I decide given what is going on with the client and also what they feel comfortable in pursuing.

The Massage field is so diverse with offerings that it is hands down (pun intended) one of the best fields to ever be involved in! There is no limit to how many different avenues you can take within this field of helping others! It is amazing! Which I guess brings me to another thing that sets me apart is my passion for the ways people can get help and I have no issue with referring clients to others whom I think they would possibly benefit from more so than I as we are all different!

What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
Bringing people around to different possibilities and seeing things in a different way. I enjoy making a comfortable atmosphere where people really step into a space of whatever you think will work and allowing me to go with that. The breathwork and energetic sessions have been really the most awe-inspiring for me as they have shifted the most in people in a shorter amount of time.

As long as the person is willing to release control and just allow the process to happen, there can be amazing shifts in the persons’ life for the better. Being in the space I’m in now allows clients to also consult with other healing practitioners to really get a complete fully encompassing healing experience. People can work through this as slowly or as quickly as they like and there is help available to integrate these changes in their daily lives. How does it get any better than that?!

Contact Info:

Image Credit:
Sara Joy Tiberio

Getting in touch: VoyagePhoenix is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.

Related Items

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

More in