Working toward wellness

After spending the first part of his career as an educator, Brice Jackson decides to switch careers to become a massage therapist.

“I used to be a sixth grade teacher and massage was my side hustle,” said Jackson, a resident of the Caldwell Mill area in Shelby County. “The teaching profession has great insurance, but not great pay, so I was probably in my second year of teaching (2006) when I realized the need, and in 2008 I went to [massage] school at night and graduated in 2009.”

When asked why he chose massage therapy as his new career, Jackson said he had a knack for always finding “the spot.” Whenever friends or family were experiencing pain, he could work out the problem and create relief for them.

At one point, he was told by someone that he missed his calling as a massage therapist, so he enrolled in night classes and graduated from Red Mountain Massage Institute.

Jackson created Birmingham Wellness Massage and initially began working with a chiropractor friend before launching his own business in 2016. He worked on his own for two years, and said he didn’t plan on growing the business but was enjoying the clients he had along with networking.

Someone once told him that they liked massages, but wouldn’t want to receive one from a man, so that made Jackson start to think of what his business could be. He got some advice from a client who was also a CFO to help build some structure and find additional therapists.

In 2020, Jackson was excited to open an office in Homewood, a beautiful space that he had renovated and was set to open April 1. The pandemic derailed those plans and he had to figure out how to recoup when he was finally able to open after half of the therapists left.

“I had gone more managerial, helping the team, and then I was hands-on again,” Jackson said. “I love to [massage] and was still doing it partially, but I had to step in and do that instead of focusing on the business.”

For the next six months, Jackson was doing all things related to his business. However, while many businesses failed during Covid, Birmingham Wellness Massage thrived. More therapists were brought on board, and by August 2021, the doors to their Hoover office in Trace Crossings opened.

Jackson’s next goal was to open a location in the Greystone area. He said it took a while to find the right spot, but he continued to add more therapists and fine-tune how they could help more clients. The third location of Birmingham Wellness Massage opened in Greystone in December 2022.

Jackson said what makes his offices unique is that they are clinical but warm, and their therapists wear scrubs, so it feels like a medical office environment.

Every office has a bit of a different vibe, but what makes us amazing is our therapists.

Brice Jackson

“Every office has a bit of a different vibe, but what makes us amazing is our therapists,” he said. “What I’ve tried to do more than anything is to try to get out of the way and serve them so they feel empowered to do their best work.”

Jackson shared that values at Birmingham Wellness Massage include simple booking, the clinical environment and dependable therapists. Birmingham Wellness Massage currently employs 22 therapists who work across the three offices.

Several types of massage therapy are provided at Birmingham Wellness Massage, the most popular include pain relief and Swedish relaxation. Client memberships are available with no contracts, so clients can start, stop and adjust their membership as needed and also save money compared to purchasing a single massage.

Jackson said the company participates in events throughout the city and takes their massage chairs to local businesses for in-office massages.