D.C. student, Massage Therapist at Serene Touch Wellness and Massage, President of the Life U Financial Wellness Club, Peer-Assisted Learning (PAL) Leader

“Taking My Massage Business to the Next Level with Chiropractic”

Bryonna Williams was born and raised in Jacksonville, Arkansas. She married in 2020 and stays busy raising her three kids, an 8-year-old and a set of 4-year-old twins. Yet this working mom continues to strive for better each day and to model positive health practices.

Williams has made a career out of bringing serenity in the midst of the busyness. She is the co-operator and massage therapist forSerene Touch Wellness and Massage located in Atlanta, Georgia. Williams has served the community for six years and counting through massage therapy, yet she felt that she could do even more to promote healing.

“I always knew that I wanted to be a doctor, I just didn’t know what direction I wanted to go with it,” Williams explained.

While working at The Stretch Zone, a franchise based around practitioner-assisted stretching, Williams’ manager at the time noticed her natural instincts and encouraged her to explore Chiropractic as a holistic career opportunity. And as many students have done before, Williams visited Life University (Life U) and fell in love with the D.C. program.

Williams was already well positioned to enter the chiropractic program, with a Bachelor’s in Exercise Science and a Master’s in Kinesiology previously obtained from other institutions. The sailing wasn’t all smooth, however, as the transition of mindsets from massage therapy to Chiropractic was not without its pitfalls. Williams already had a great basis from massage therapy school to work off of, learning how to palpate and identifying imbalances in musculature. Massage therapy focuses on soft-tissue manipulation, while Chiropractic at Life U is based on a model of Vertebral Subluxation alleviation.

“I definitely walked in with all the confidence in the world, and they definitely humbled me very quickly. But I can say [massage therapy] did give me a great foundation when it came down to the material and the basic sciences,” Williams said.

It took time for Williams to mentally put herself into “the chiropractic world, as the analysis is totally different. It’s the same anatomy, but how we analyze the anatomy is totally different.”

Yet they say that one way to learn something backwards and forwards is to learn how to teach it to someone else. Perhaps that is partly why Williams became a Peer-Assisted Learning (PAL) leader for the Anatomy & Physiology and Muscle Skeletal courses.

“I feel that because I am also a student, I can relate to the struggle and the message a bit better, in terms of the material,” said Williams. “As a PAL, I can help reel the information back in a little bit more and hone in on specific stuff that they need to know.”

Williams is rewarded and fulfilled seeing her peers succeed, and working as a PAL is a great way for her to socialize with other chiropractic students outside of class. Similarly, Williams is involved with leadership of the new Life U Financial Wellness Club, designed to help chiropractic students think about and plan for the financial side of running a chiropractic business or simply facilitating the transition financially between student to working professional.

Through all this, it is clear that Williams is a woman with vision and excitement for the future. The big post-graduation plan is first to treat herself to a lovely international vacation and then to come back and begin incorporating Chiropractic into her existing massage therapy business. Her business partner is currently pursuing physical therapy licensure as well, so the dream is to create a “one-stop shop” of wellness for patients.

Faces of LIFE is a story campaign that showcases members of the dynamic Life U community, including faculty/staff, students, alumni and health science professionals. Interested in being featured or nominating a candidate? We want to hear from you! Email Marketing@life.edu. Read more Faces of LIFE stories.