Taking Massage to an EXTREME!

Alumna Kristen Sykora ('01) has had a thriving massage therapy business in Long Island for the past two and a half years, a peaceful practice that she cherishes as "the time in my day when I'm the calmest and most relaxed." But she willingly sacrificed the haven of her office for going on location with the cast and crew of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. 

The popular ABC-TV show, in which a new home is built for a deserving family within seven days, couldn't be a more extreme contrast to Kristen's normal week. However, she joined Alure Home Improvement, a local contractor she knew through having work done on her own home, when they signed on with Extreme Makeover to build a home in Queens in March 2006. 

Kristen co-coordinated a group of therapists who provided massage for the Extreme crews, many of them volunteers, as they worked around the clock. After barely recovering from the first stint, Alure called Kristen again in April as they got ready to build another Extreme home in Westchester.

So what was it like to be on the set of such an intense show, with its zany cast headed by the likeable Ty Pennington? "There was an incredible energy the whole time," said Kristen. "There were hundreds of people doing demolition, building, clean-up and furniture moving; a lot of them were volunteers who worked practically around the clock for days. When they sat down to rest their feet, we'd go over to them and encourage them to come over for a massage. If they did, they would fall asleep on the table within seconds. They wouldn't take more than a half hour break, but even if they slept for only five minutes during the massage, they would get up feeling like they had had a long rest." A group of 22 massage therapists worked in shifts from 6 a.m. until midnight during four of the seven days of taping the show. 

Kristen wasn't entirely new to the world of performance. She had previously been a dancer, with training in ballet and modern dance. An injury introduced her to massage therapy, which, along with physical therapy, led to her recovery. When she later was faced with a career change, becoming a massage therapist was an easy answer for her. As do many of our students, Kristen already had a bachelor's degree, but needed this unique course of study to fulfill her career ambitions. Today, she has a full-time massage therapy practice that is mostly peaceful, expect for when she occasionally goes to an Extreme, Home Makeover Edition, that is!

Read the AMTA e-newsletter article with photos of Kristen and Fabio!

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