About Miguel

An unconventional path. A very personal approach.

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A Little About Me

I'm Miguel. An economist turned masseur, writer, and occasional host.

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I'm French-Canadian, bilingual, a little introverted, and generally more comfortable with one person than a roomful of people.

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I enjoy long conversations, dry humour, good stories, and comfortable silences. I'm curious about people, although I've learned that listening is usually more useful than trying to figure everyone out.

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My route to this work hasn't been particularly conventional.

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An Unconventional Path

For most of my adult life, I had the things people associate with stability. A career, a home, children, relationships, and a future that seemed reasonably well mapped out.

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Then came three years that changed almost everything.

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First, a painful chest surgery to correct a physical difference I'd spent years feeling ashamed of. I wrote about what it taught me about body image in The Bar.

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Then came ketamine dependence, and the frightening realization that something I believed was helping me had become something I couldn't function without. That became Maintenance Dose.

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And at 33, my first severe manic episode, with psychosis.

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Relationships ended. Friendships fractured. My family life and career were disrupted. I spent time in psychiatric hospitals and faced the considerably less dramatic work of rebuilding afterward. I wrote about that collapse in Fault Line at 33.

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None of these experiences made me a better person automatically. Some of my decisions hurt people. Some consequences were deserved. Others were simply painful.

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But they changed how I understand vulnerability, shame, and loneliness.

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From Economics to Massage

Massage came late, at 34, while rebuilding a life that looked little like the one I'd planned.

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Initially, I needed income, structure, and something useful to do. I began travelling across Canada, meeting clients in their homes and hotels.

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I discovered that I enjoyed the work. More than that, I enjoyed the people.

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A massage might lead to a conversation. An evening appointment might become dinner. Sometimes someone wanted little more than to lie beside another person without talking.

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What people booked and what they needed weren't always the same thing.

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That realization became part of TWC Massage & Co. and The Lodge, my private massage and sauna retreat in Ottawa.

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The Person Behind TWC

My approach is straightforward. I listen, I adapt, and I try to make people comfortable.

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You don't have to be young, muscular, confident, or comfortable with your body. I've struggled with enough of those things myself.

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And you don't need a compelling story. Sometimes a good massage is simply a good massage.

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I also write about mental illness, addiction, relationships, sexuality, and the unconventional work I do now.

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Not to present myself as an inspirational success story, but because I'd rather tell my own story, including the less flattering parts, than let the worst chapter stand in for the whole book.

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I explain that in Why I Write. You can also explore all my writings.

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The rest is probably easier to discover in person.