Tammy Seneca’s unusual workspace – Show Me Yours

Tammy Seneca definitely doesn’t have a desk job.

Her office setup is a little more exotic than desktop computer and printer: she has a hydraulic table, sturdy bars attached to the ceiling for stability, and her own bare feet to apply some serious pressure to tense clients.

Seneca is the owner of Baton Rouge Massage Therapy, where for the past six years she’s been trotting on backs and practicing a technique of massage called ashiatsu. She attended continuing education classes to prepare herself for the oriental bar-supported massage therapy. “It was a great way to save my career, to start using my feet,” Seneca, a therapist for 15 years, says.

Each 75-minute session begins with Seneca warming her feet under hot water so as not to send chills down the client’s back. She then generously applies lotion to the back, making it easy to glide across. Then she throws on a pair of gripping gardening gloves, hops up onto the table and gets to work. After adjusting the hydraulic table to the appropriate height for the client to maximize the effect of the massage, she finally starts slowly creeping on the back, all the while holding on to the parallel bars overhead.

“You can’t walk on the spine, or any other bone—it causes pain,” Seneca says. She keeps to the muscles and fleshy parts of the back. “I can feel the muscle and whether or not it’s tight.” She then applies just the right amount of pressure to relieve the tension.

“If I didn’t know that she was using her feet, I would think surely she’s using her hands or upper body,” says client Will Jones, owner of 4th Dimension Fitness. Despite her petite frame and mere 5-foot stature, Seneca is powerful. It actually works in her favor to be on the smaller side because she’s more mobile and can easily maneuver herself around her client.

And, for Seneca, that’s perfect because walking all over people is just another day at work for her. Of course, in this office, people love her for it.