When massage and bodywork royalty gather, I always enjoy watching and learning from one of the quietest individuals in the room—Benny Vaughn. He’s one of the most unassuming, yet one of the most impressive of them all. And, October 10th he’ll hold a celebration and seminar celebrating his 40th anniversary in the massage therapy profession.
Benny is sports massage. He was the first black athlete on his high school track team and the third black athlete on the track team at University of Florida in 1969. It was then that he started reading about European track and field athletes benefitting from massage therapy. He kept learning and blending his degree in health education and expertise as a massage therapist and an athletic trainer. As a manager of athlete medical services for the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games (ACOG) for the 1996 Summer Games, Benny pushed the boundaries until he got massage therapists and their skills accepted into the US Olympic program. At the London games in 2012, Benny was the Senior Massage Therapist for the USA Track and Field team. He has worked with many of the best athletes in the world.
Benny has a reputation as a rock star in the world of continuing education. In a 2014 interview with Massage & Bodywork, Benny said, “Educators carry a great responsibility that can dictate both the direction and the future outcome of the massage therapy profession. It’s a responsibility that should not be taken lightly. Our profession will be judged by how we educate our students.” Benny has a diverse background in teaching, including owning a massage school, teaching workshops around the world, and conducting individualized private study programs. Some of the most respected and well-known massage therapy educators have been Benny’s students, including Whitney Lowe, founder of the Academy of Clinical Massage; George Kousaleos, founder of CORE Institute; Scott Lamp, co-author of Understanding Sports Massage; and Rick Garbowski, co-director of the Georgia School of Massage.
The state-of-the-art Benny Vaughn Athletic Therapy Center in Fort Worth will host this morning seminar on October 10th. For more information on Benny’s career, visit www.bennyvaughnworkshops.com.
Read the Massage & Bodywork interview with Benny Vaughn here.
—Leslie A. Young, PhD, ABMP Vice President Communication
