After years of balancing restaurant work with jobs in health care, Chris Layden eventually found a career that brought together two things that had long interested him: medicine and helping others.
Layden is a licensed massage therapist at Sensory Concepts Orthopedic & Medical Massage in Wyomissing, where he works alongside owner Sandy Wagner. He graduated from the European Medical School of Massage in August 2024 and has been working at Sensory Concepts since around May 2025.
For Layden, massage therapy has become more than a job.
“I really, really enjoy helping others,” Layden said. “Even if I didn’t get paid, I would probably end up still doing massage. I love it that much.”
Layden was born in New York and moved to Pennsylvania shortly after his sixth birthday. His family spent time between Pennsylvania and Naples, Florida, but he estimates he has lived in the Reading area for about 19 years. He now lives in Sinking Spring.
Before becoming a massage therapist, Layden spent much of his working life in restaurants. He held several front-of-house positions, including serving, hosting and bartending.
While restaurant work provided an income, Layden said the long and unpredictable hours eventually took a toll.
“It was exhausting,” he said. “It was uncertain as far as income, as far as time.”
His interest in health care, however, went back much further.
Layden said he specialized in science in school and served as a medic during two and a half years in the Army. His military career ended after an accident and subsequent therapy, when he was honorably discharged due to memory loss.
After leaving the Army, Layden earned a degree as a medical assistant and later worked as a home care assistant, initially caring for his mother before taking on additional clients. For a time, he balanced jobs in health care and restaurants as he tried to determine what direction he wanted his career to take.
“I can’t do this forever. I need to pick a lane,” Layden recalled thinking. That lane, he decided, would involve medicine, but not necessarily the roles he had previously held.
A high school friend in Florida eventually suggested massage therapy, telling Layden that his ability to build relationships with people could translate well into the field. Layden had also seen firsthand how massage could provide relief for someone experiencing pain.
Before enrolling in school, he began learning about massage on his own to make sure it was something he wanted to pursue. He soon discovered that it was.
Layden said he now regularly studies massage techniques and watches therapists from around the world to learn different approaches and ways of helping clients experiencing conditions such as sciatica and fibromyalgia.
That curiosity carries over into his approach with clients at Sensory Concepts.
For Layden, a massage begins well before the hands-on portion of an appointment. He said the intake process gives him an opportunity to learn why a client is seeking massage and what factors in their everyday life could be contributing to discomfort.
He asks clients about their work, activity level, previous experience with massage and what makes their pain better or worse. Someone who spends most of the workday at a desk, for example, may be sitting for six or seven hours before adding a commute. Even people who exercise regularly may overlook stretching, he said.
Understanding the person is just as important as understanding where they hurt.
“You have to build, like, your treatment plan with the client,” Layden said, explaining that factors can influence positioning, heat, pressure and other parts of a session.
Layden said listening is particularly important because the same condition can affect different people in different ways. A treatment that works for one person with fibromyalgia, for example, should not automatically be assumed to work for another.
“I need to listen to your story and how this affects your daily life so we can try to ease that pain, ease that suffering, and make your day-to-day life easier,” he said.
His work can range from relaxation and stretching to medical massage. Layden said clients come to him with conditions including frozen shoulder, fibromyalgia, sciatica and stenosis. He also offers hot stone and sports massage, cupping and flexibility exercises.
The transition from restaurants to massage therapy has also changed Layden personally. He described going from the constant noise and activity of restaurant work to an environment where he has learned to slow down, breathe and relax.
“It’s not always go, go, go, go, go,” he said.
Outside of work, Layden enjoys walking, reading and playing video games. He also continues studying massage techniques in his spare time, describing the profession as something that combines knowledge, care and technique.
“When I’m putting this much effort and this much care and this much heart into it, it is an art,” he said.
Looking ahead, Layden hopes to help more people view self-care as something that can play a meaningful role in their everyday lives and become more aware of options for addressing discomfort.
“I want people to be more educated and more self-aware that there is help,” he said. “Sometimes just taking one day out of the month to come just let someone help you can go a long way.”
Sensory Concepts Orthopedic & Medical Massage is located at 1050 Spring Street, Suite 3, in Wyomissing. The practice offers orthopedic massage, medical massage and yoga. Appointments and additional information are available by calling 484-509-5505.
