Ashley Solis, left, the first woman among several plaintiffs to file lawsuits accusing Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson of sexual assault or harassment, speaks as her attorney Tony Buzbee stands beside her during a news conference to give an update to the lawsuits Thursday, Aug. 4, 2022, in Houston. The NFL and NFL Players Association announced a settlement Thursday under which Watson will be suspended for 11 games and pay a $5 million fine. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)AP

AVON LAKE -- Can we pause and truly listen to what is happening with Deshaun Watson, the massage therapists, the Browns and the NFL? This isn’t about one case, it’s about a culture that enables and tolerates sexual assault.

Ashley Solis, the first of the Texas massage therapists to sue, has said she wasn’t only violated by Watson, but also that the NFL’s handling of the situation repeated the assault, and community comments deepened the hurt and despair. NFL owners like Robert Kraft have also been accused of sexual misconduct.

Author James Clear states in his book, “Atomic Habits”: “You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.” Our systems need to change or we will continue perpetuating the problem.

Roger Goodell and the Browns franchise have a choice. They can use this moment as an opportunity to pivot the league from a place that enables and tolerates sexual aggressions towards a place that provides education and experiences that demystify touch in our society through massage therapy programs. We can develop a path to a zero-tolerance policy for sexual misconduct, assault, and rape in the NFL.

Massage therapy has been plagued with misconceptions in the United States for over a century, and our culture perpetuates an inappropriate connection that is being highlighted by the NFL. This is an opportunity to utilize this awful circumstance to help educate and heal our culture and our community. Massage originated in Asia; no massage performed as a business should be considered sexual. Touch is one of our five common senses and connects our minds to our bodies, building body literacy. Massage therapy provides a language for what we are feeling and sensing inside our bodies, developing interoception. We get tune-ups for our cars and reboot our computers; how do we maintain our muscles?

Cleveland is known for being a catalyst for change. In 1969, the burning of the Cuyahoga River spurred the development of the Environmental Protection Agency (1970) and the Clean Water Act (1972). Now, Cleveland can be the change in creating healthy touch and body literacy.

We have an opportunity to create pathways for massage therapy and to define relaxation massage as different from medical massage. Ohio’s massage therapists have been licensed by the state medical board since 1916, yet we have no pathways for developing massage therapists or doctors of muscles in our health care systems.

Diane Mastnardo has been a licensed massage therapist since 1999. (Photo by Elaine Brunschwig)

Cleveland is hosting the American Massage Therapy Association (AMTA) national convention next week; will they harness this opportunity to develop education and inform the public and policymakers?

Opportunities for Deshaun, the Browns, AMTA and the NFL to consider:

· Impose and utilize fines for all violators of the personal conduct policy to directly support programs for victims and engage the owners and players in developing body literacy skills.

· Develop education and reporting measures to keep massage therapists safe.

· Fund 10,000 new massage therapy sessions that include a paid Massage Mentor for massage professionals practicing with less than five years’ experience.

o Provide youth education and policy around body literacy and massage for health and well-being.

o Provide scholarships for people of color and ethnic backgrounds to pursue massage-therapy training.

o Provide inner city youth massage therapy sessions to connect to their bodies through appropriate touch and help manage stress, anxiety and depression

o Fund massage therapy research, especially participatory action research (PAR).

I believe Ashley Solis was the right person to bring this problem to light, and her strength is providing us an opportunity to create greater health and well-being through massage therapy. We have everything we need to succeed; will our systems rise together here in Cleveland?

Diane Mastnardo has been a licensed massage therapist since 1999 and is the owner/operator of Mastnardo Massage Therapies LLC in Westlake. She has worked in partnership with The Center for Reducing Health Disparities and Case Western Reserve University to develop an avenue for clinical massage therapists to collaborate, and in 2020, she joined Healthy Minds Healthy Collaborative Consulting to work with youth in Cleveland through participatory action research (PAR).

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