Sean Slovik - All About Me

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Hello. My name is Sean Slovik. I know that when choosing a massage therapist, it is important to know who is putting his hands on you. Therefore, I am happy to tell you a little about me and my background.

After graduating from Satellite High School in 1984, I went on to receive a Bachelor's of Science Degree in Marine Transportation from Texas A&M University at Galveston. Additionally, I became licensed as a Third Officer in the US Merchant Marine. My life at sea spanned from 1988 to 2001 where I progressed from Third Officer to Second Officer, and served aboard a variety of large commercial vessels.

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Early in 2001, I developed what I thought was a simple earache and was sent to a doctor in port. The physician reported I had a much greater problem than a simple earache and needed to go home for further evaluation. The condition began to worsen, producing extreme bouts of vertigo and constant imbalance. I was soon diagnosed with a disabling inner ear disease called Meniere's Disease.

I spent nearly a year and a half inside my home. Outside movement produced a constant feeling of "seasickness" even though I was on hard ground. Finally, after all other avenues of treatment had been tried, surgery in both ears provided enough relief to attempt rejoining the work force.

The question was "what to do"? I still was not functioning well enough to return to the constant motion of a ship at sea. Yet, I remembered my Medical Officer duties on the ship. One of the frequent reasons seamen came to me for treatment was backache. I had tried issuing the "usual" pills with no success. One day while I was working on one particularly bad back case, a fellow crewmember passed by and joked, "Try acupuncture on him." I thought it would be worth a try, but knew I did not know a thing about acupuncture.

The next time I was in port, I purchased a book on acupressure, and though the book did not go into much on theory and was more a cookbook of acupressure, I tried some of the techniques on the seamen. To my surprise some of them got up and went back to work the next day. Still, I really did not know what I was doing or why it worked. But the goal was to get these seamen back to work, and the acupressure did the trick.

Of course at the time, I did not realize it, but what I had been practicing was a form of trigger point therapy. The experiences had left an impression on me. In fact, they redirected my path to massage therapy school after my illness.

In the summer of 2002, I went to Jacksonville to attend the Southeastern School of Neuromuscular and Massage Therapy . After graduating from the clinically oriented bodywork school, I returned to Florida's Space Coast, and opened Brevard Medical Massage. I focused that practice on pain management and automobile accident injuries. It was rewarding to help people get out of pain and get on with their lives.

I liked the philosophy of Occupational Therapy so much that I decided to enroll in Barry University in the Fall of 2005 to obtain my M.S. in Occupational Therapy . I graduated from the program in May of 2008.

While I still miss the sea at times, I know I have found an honorable and productive profession helping others get back to work and live their lives pain free.

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