A massage practice is one step closer to opening its doors in the Cumming City Council after acquiring a conditional-use permit at the latest council meeting on Tuesday, June 21. 

Sixth Sense Massage, the applicant, is a facility that offers “tailored therapeutic massage, mind-body connection, maintenance and workshops” and is working to set up shop at 1580 Market Place Boulevard.

One of the owners, Bradlee Morgan, spoke before the council in favor of the application, saying “we’re not a parlor; we’re a practice.” 

According to Morgan, Sixth Sense was focused on working with chiropractors, physical therapists, and other medical practitioners to become a referral for patients in Forsyth County. 

He said he and his other business partners have gone through “massive amounts of education” to learn how to do soft tissue and muscle manipulation and, in accordance with state law, all massage therapists at the practice would hold valid licenses. 

Morgan said employees at Sixth Sense would be primarily focusing on soft tissue and muscle manipulation, but they could expand their services to things like dry needling down the line. 

When asked about hours of operation, Morgan said they were looking for hours between 10 a.m. and 8 p.m., but it wasn’t set in stone yet. 

He also noted the property was close to Massage Envy on Market Place Boulevard, but he had chosen the location “for the synergies that are there” and he “[welcomed] the competition.”

According to Morgan, Sixth Sense is located close to businesses like physical therapists.

 “A lot of my clients … are mechanics; I work [with] a lot with athletes … [and] people that are sitting desks all day doing a lot of brain work,” Morgan said. “These individuals have a lot of dysfunctions going on inside of their muscles.” 

Councilwoman Linda Ledbetter said she liked the proposal and shared a personal story, saying she went to a chiropractor that wanted her to go to a massage therapist. She didn’t want to go because she wanted to meet with someone who “understood what was hurting and what they might could help me with.”

Morgan said he understood, and this was why he was passionate about opening Sixth Sense Massage in Cumming. 

“I’ve heard that a lot, and it really saddens me in that aspect that you feel that way,” Morgan said. “So, we’re hoping to bring that forward in a direction that is really going to change the way massage therapy [is done] in Forsyth County.”

Councilman Christopher Light said he understood Sixth Sense was different than other massage parlors but he wondered if the number of massage parlors should be limited within certain distances of each other. 

Ledbetter asked why it mattered.

“I don’t think it’s our place to limit it,” she said. 

During the discussion, council members were made aware that, like a business that sells alcohol, if Morgan and his other co-owners sold the practice, the next owner would have to come before the council to renew a  massage license. 

Light agreed with that condition and made a motion to approve the conditional use permit. The motion passed with a unanimous 5-0 vote.