Before You Book Your Reiki Session:What They Don't Tell You About Working in Wellness
Victoria- Life Coach · Mindfulness Coach · Reiki Practitioner · healingartsvb.com
The wellness industry sells healing, balance, and care. Massage therapists, estheticians, Reiki practitioners, coaches, and bodyworkers dedicate years to developing their skills — often at significant personal expense — because they genuinely want to help people. What the industry doesn't advertise is how routinely the people doing that work are exploited by the businesses profiting from it.
This isn't about a few bad actors. After fifteen years in the coaching and wellness industry, amid countless conversations with practitioners who are burned out, underpaid, and, in many cases, at their breaking point, the same patterns keep appearing. The practices below are not isolated incidents. They are industry norms that have gone unnamed for too long.
If you work in wellness, you may recognize every item on this list. If you're a client who loves your practitioner, understanding what they manage behind the scenes matters too. So allow me to share what can go on behind the scenes — some of it I experienced firsthand, some of it my clients experienced firsthand.
Before you book your next Reiki session, massage, or wellness appointment, know that ethical spaces matter. Seek out places that treat their staff well. The way a business takes care of its people is a direct reflection of how it will take care of you.
Unpaid shift requirements
Employers demand four- or eight-hour shifts with zero compensation. During that time, workers — most often misclassified as 1099 independent contractors despite being treated and managed as employees — are handed a task list and expected to complete it. Sweeping floors, managing inventory, shampooing hair, acting as a receptionist — none of it paid, none of it optional.
To clarify: a 1099 contractor is legally self-employed and sets their own hours and conditions. When a business controls how, when, and where someone works, that person is legally an employee — regardless of what the contract says. Misclassifying workers as contractors is a well-documented way employers avoid paying benefits, overtime, and employment taxes.
Double-dipping on expenses
Owners deduct the cost of supplies and materials — massage oil, lotions, linens, essential oils — from workers' pay while simultaneously writing those same expenses off on their taxes as a business deduction. The owner gets the tax break. The worker absorbs the cost. The income collected from the worker is never reported. This isn't a gray area — it is wage theft dressed up in bookkeeping.
To clarify: a business can legitimately deduct supplies as an expense. What is not legal is also charging the employee for those same supplies and pocketing that money as unreported income. The owner profits twice while the worker and the IRS both lose.
Forced purchasing that exclusively benefits the owner
Staff are required to purchase products as "gifts" for the business — items the owner then writes off as a business expense. This goes beyond specialty products to basic office supplies, including, in some cases, toilet paper and cleaning products. Workers are quietly subsidizing a business they do not own, with no acknowledgment and no reimbursement.
To clarify: if a business requires staff to purchase supplies for work, those purchases should either be reimbursed by the employer or the employee should receive documentation to deduct the expense on their own taxes. Neither typically happens in these situations.
Unpaid appearance requirements
Workers are expected to maintain a specific appearance — fake eyelashes, flat-ironed hair, particular clothing and shoes — entirely at their own expense. No reimbursement, no stipend, no acknowledgment that these are real and recurring costs of showing up to work. It is an unwritten tax on employment that disproportionately falls on women.
To clarify: when an employer requires a specific appearance as a condition of employment, the cost of maintaining that appearance is a legitimate work expense. Employers are reasonably expected to cover or reimburse those costs — particularly when requirements go beyond basic professional dress.
Unpaid errands
Staff are sent on personal and business errands on their own time, using their own vehicles, with no mileage reimbursement or compensation of any kind. The line between employee and personal assistant quietly disappears — and workers often feel they cannot say no without jeopardizing their position.
To clarify: when an employer requires the use of a personal vehicle for work purposes, mileage reimbursement is standard practice and is legally required in many states. Asking workers to run errands off the clock without pay is a wage violation.
Mandatory unpaid meetings and events
Attendance at staff meetings, training sessions, educational seminars, and business events is required — and none of it is compensated. The business benefits from the time, the knowledge gained, and the professional presence of its staff. The workers pay for that with hours they will never get back.
To clarify: under federal labor law, if an employer requires attendance at a meeting or event, that time is compensable work time and must be paid — regardless of whether the worker is full-time, part-time, or hourly.
Deliberate overbooking with no recovery time
Sessions are scheduled back-to-back with no buffer between clients, leaving practitioners no time to reset the room, sanitize equipment, drink water, use the restroom, or take even a brief moment to care for themselves. This is not an oversight. It is a deliberate structural choice — one that extracts maximum productivity from workers while treating their most basic human needs as inconveniences. Over time, it degrades the quality of care practitioners can provide and accelerates burnout at a rate the industry rarely acknowledges publicly.
To clarify: this directly affects you as a client. A practitioner who has had no break, no water, and no time to transition between sessions cannot give their full attention or do their best work. When you are paying for a healing experience, you deserve a practitioner who has been given the conditions to actually provide one.
What to know before you book
When you walk into a wellness space, you are trusting that business with your body, your time, and your money. Part of making a well-informed choice as a client is understanding how that business operates — not just what it offers.
Practitioners who seem rushed or stressed, a front desk that can never quite answer your questions, a revolving door of new faces — these are not random. They are often symptoms of a workplace where people are being underpaid, overworked, and taken advantage of. That environment does not stay behind the scenes. It follows your practitioner into the room.
A few things worth paying attention to:
Does your practitioner seem present and unhurried? A business that books back-to-back with no breaks is valuing volume over quality. You feel that difference at the table.
Is the pricing transparent? Surprise charges, unclear packages, and deals that appear too good to be true can signal a business that cuts corners — with its staff and with you.
Does the space feel calm and professional? A well-run business feels that way from the moment you walk in. Chaos at the front desk, stressed energy, and a general sense of disorganization are worth noticing.
Is the staff made up primarily of family and friends? A business that exclusively hires within a personal network can create a closed environment where responsibility is low and boundaries are blurry. When everyone answers to the same person socially and professionally, workers are far less likely to speak up about unfair treatment — and problems rarely get addressed. It doesn't automatically make a business unethical, but it is worth paying attention to how that dynamic shows up in the quality and consistency of your experience.
The wellness industry is built on the promise of care. Hold the businesses you patronize to that standard — not just in how they treat you, but in how they treat the people serving you. Ethical spaces exist. Seek them out.
Why this matters
Wellness is one of the few industries that explicitly markets itself on the values of care, restoration, and integrity. When businesses that deliver that promise operate in direct contradiction to the values behind the scenes, it is not simply a labor issue — it is a credibility problem for the entire field.
Practitioners deserve workplaces that reflect the same principles they bring to their clients every single day. That starts with naming what is happening — clearly, honestly, and without apology.
Victoria
Life Coach · Mindfulness Coach · Reiki Practitioner
Victoria is the founder of Healing Arts Center | Mind · Body · Spirit in Virginia Beach, Virginia. She has been teaching mindfulness and somatic practice for over 15 years and works with people navigating stress, emotional overwhelm, nervous system health, and the lasting effects of difficult life experiences. Her training includes somatic coaching, Reiki, breathwork, hypnotherapy, and trauma-informed care. She has taught emotional strength across the United States and Canada and is trusted by several Special Operations Forces foundations to support their clients and families.
