About

I recently received a copy of a letter of recommendation from someone that I have considered a mentor and a role model, as well as a colleague and friend, since I first began work as a massage therapist and his final words sum up why I have decided to go to graduate school:

“During my Master’s training, I did an internship at the local counseling department of the Community College. There was a vocational test that perhaps summarizes Arlene’s scope of gifts and talents. The instrument was designed to reflect whether one had greater interests in data, people, or things.

You have a candidate who has interests and skills in all of these arenas.
She has my highest recommendation.
Respectfully,
Dale G. Alexander PhD, MA, BSEd, LMT”

I love my work as a massage therapist and have found the expansion into structural integration and bodywork to be exciting but I have also always thought I would go back to graduate school, when I found the right program, when the time was right…Then I woke one day and realized that it had been over twenty years since I walked away from a fully funded program and ended up as a massage therapist living the easy life back in the Florida Keys, where I have (mostly) lived since 1985.

Hurricane Irma came through and blew me north through a job offer in my new librarian career in St Augustine. Sadly, while I loved working with the students and faculty at the University of St Augustine for Health Sciences, I was homesick and missed my massage clients in the Florida Keys. I know work for the Monroe County Public Library System, practice massage and try to help other bodyworkers develop technical and research skills through Florida Board of Massage Therapy approved CE courses.

My hobbies are Salsa and ballroom dancing and ‘fair-weather’ stand-up paddleboarding, it is too hard when the wind blows! That’s me dancing with the tall fellow in a hat.

While I am working on remaining at the same physical address for more than two years at a time, I can always be found by email and on various social media sights.

Twitter: @rweenie

Linked In: Arlene Haessler

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ahaesslerLMT/

And my current MLIS website/E-Portfolio:

https://sites.google.com/mail.usf.edu/ahaessler-mlis-eportfolio/