Holland woman juggles massage therapy, karate - HollandSentinel.com

[massage]

On top of the self-defense classes, she also teaches kids classes and teen and adult classes in Holland at Fellowship Reformed Church. For more information about those classes, visit her on Facebook at Okinawan Karate Club Inc. of Michigan.

Austin. Metz @hollandsentinel.com, (616) 546-4290
There are many sayings that could be attributed to Teresa Piatek.

Whether it is 'Never judge a book by its cover' or 'There is more than meets the eye,' few customers who visit her at Black Tulip Salon and Spa know what truly makes Teresa who she is.

She is a mother of two children, a wife, a massage therapist, a business owner and a seventh-degree black belt in karate.

Originally from Kalamazoo, Piatek moved to Bangor after she was married, and had two children, a son named Paul and a daughter named Michelle.

Around that time, her brother began studying karate under a teacher named James Thompson. Every time Piatek talked with her brother about it, he shared how much fun he was having doing the classes and pretty soon, he had convinced Piatek's husband to give it a try.

"My husband would come home every night all excited and would say 'Try to punch me, try to do this and try to do that,'" Piatek said. "He would block it and then would knock me on the floor every time. I was really intrigued."

At the time, the couple had a three-year-old and a one-year-old. Much like her husband at the time, Piatek wanted a chance get out of the house and eventually signed up for an aerobics class. In order for her to take the class, her husband wanted her to first learn how to defend herself by taking some martial arts classes.

From there, she was hooked.

"First night, that was just it for me," she said. "Thirty-five years later, I'm still doing it and I still love it. I love the way it makes me feel. It is hard to explain, it just feels like the most comfortable I have ever been. I just find it to be so fulfilling."

Right from the outset, there was more to the karate classes than just pursuing the next belt. It was more about the next class and how she could get the most out of each one and learn as much as possible. Even today, after all her achievements, she still maintains that mindset.

After getting her feet wet in karate, she decided to begin studying under James Thompson out of Kalamazoo, all while juggling a home life with two young children. Along with learning from Thompson, she has also helped him teach classes at Kalamazoo Valley Community College and continues to teach classes to this day.

"She has been a really dedicated student since day one of teaching her and it shows in her students and how she relates to her students in the school," Thompson said. "She had that passion from the beginning and she has maintained it through the years... She just does not ever want to quit."

Having started taking karate in 1982, Piatek became a first-degree black belt in 1988 through the Uechi Ryu Karate Do Association. From 1988 to 1995 she moved from a first-degree to a fourth-degree and then worked and progressed until she became a seventh-degree black belt in 2013.

Learning karate has opened so many doors for Piatek through the years.

Along with teaching at the community college, she has done women's self-defense seminars for 30 years, she owned Bangor Karate School and Academy and even went to Okinawa, Japan, in 2004 for two weeks and was part of the first group of women to do that.

Piatek best describes the life she leads as a true example of ying and yang.

On one said is the karate aspect of her life and the intensity that goes into each class. On the other side is her full-time career as a massage therapist at the Black Tulip Salon and Spa, the Holland business she owns with her daughter Michelle Geoghegan and Rachel DeBoer.

"It's been pretty cool having a mom who does karate," Geohegan said. "I'm pretty sure I was one of the only people I know who had a bad-ass karate mom. All my friends thought it was really cool too."

Piatek has now worked in massage for 14 years and today covers a broad spectrum of massage practices.

“I do therapeutic or relaxation, I do several different modalities, reflexology, acupressure, a lot of different things,” Piatek said. “I also do pregnancy massage. I have a lot of clients that I work with that do the pregnancy massage."

At Black Tulip, she provides customers with a tranquil environment, one of relaxation. Despite the differences, the number one thing she has learned from karate that she applied to her career is the mentality of treating everyone with courtesy and respect.

"I have to really shift my energy," she said. "I have to just take a breather when I come here. I'm relaxed, I'm very calm. It is a ying and yang life... I have got the best of both worlds. Here I am calm and relaxing, I take care of the one person on my table and that is where my focus is. When I get out of here and I head to class, I am a whole different animal."

Today, Piatek maintains a busy schedule juggling her training and teaching schedules while also working at Black Tulip Salon and Spa, located at 12330 James St. and will teach a women's self-defense seminar at the spa on January 7 from 11:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

"Teaching women's self-defense seminars is probably one of my major passions because I am able to give these women ideas about how to protect themselves," Piatek said.

On top of the self-defense classes, she also teaches kids classes and teen and adult classes in Holland at Fellowship Reformed Church. For more information about those classes, visit her on Facebook at Okinawan Karate Club Inc. of Michigan.

Oh, remember that aerobics class Piatek had said she wanted to do? She never did end up taking it.

— Follow this reporter on Twitter @SentinelAustin or @BizHolland.

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