Dragonfly Massage has been around for a few years, but owner Lorri Higgins relocated recently.

Higgins, a licensed massage therapist, has been performing her therapeutic massage in the Seaglass Spa location on Route 27 in Boothbay since June of 2014.

She began her career when she started at About Face in Boothbay Harbor in 2008.

Higgins said she loves her occupation. “I can't even call it a job. It's not work when you love what you do.”

Before getting into therapeutic massage, Higgins worked at Hannaford Supermarket in Waldoboro for seven years as a customer service manager.

Then she had an injury causing piriformis syndrome (Higgins translated it as “a sore butt”) and her husband gave her a gift certificate for a massage. She said it was a year before she used it.

“Finally I went, and then it took me another year to go again.” After the second time, Higgins said it made her feel “really good” and she felt better afterward, physically, spiritually and emotionally. “I decided to do it once a month.”

She liked it so much she signed up with Downeast School of Massage in Waldoboro. Over the next two years Higgins logged 500 hours of training, the required amount of time to become certified.

Graduating from the massage school in July of 2008, she got her license to be a massage therapist. She said that the state of Maine requires a license to perform massage. First Aid training is also a requirement, and a background check. “I got my license, and Linda (Forgues of About Face) had space for rent, so I started renting there.”

Higgins started working as a full-time massage therapist in September of 2008, after resigning from Hannaford. “I was very fortunate. My clientele built up quickly. By my third summer I couldn't take any walk-ins.”

Now she said she is full during the summer. “My summer clients come back starting in April. Last year when I filled out my schedule in May I was full until October.” Higgins said she couldn't take on any more clients so another massage therapist, Julia Fallon, came on board.

Higgins said she is busy for most of the winter as well. “I might have a hole here and there, but they tend to fill. If there are holes it's okay, because I'm ready for a break.”

Her work is mainly therapeutic massage, but she said some come for relaxation. “If someone comes for just a nice massage and I find an area that needs work I'll suggest that I work on it,” she said.

According to Higgins stress is the number one cause of many of the major health issues that people have, and massage can help prevent all of them.

“Research is showing just how much massage is doing for you health wise. It's not pampering. It lowers your blood pressure and cortisal (a stress hormone), and it fixes injuries. If you're having a relaxation massage, by lowering all those things you're lowering your chances of heart disease, high blood pressure and cancer.”

Higgins' massages typically take an hour, but some run up to 90 minutes. “Ninety minutes sounds like a lot, but it goes by fast,” Higgins said. “I have a client who always has a 90 minute massage. One time she said 'how can I feel like the time went so quickly yet I was here so long?'”

Though she has a lot more female clients, Higgins said men are starting to catch on. “Men are starting to take care of themselves. They will typically come in once a month.” She said men are more apt to fall asleep during a massage than women.

Higgins makes it clear that she is a licensed massage therapist. “I am not a masseuse,” she said. “Masseuse has that old connotation of a massage parlor. We don't work in a parlor. We work in an office or a spa.

She belongs to the American Massage Therapy Association and continues to go to workshops and classes in massage. “There's always something new to learn,” she said. “There are so many different types of massage.”