I'll be honest. When I first looked into becoming a massage therapist, I'd never even received a 'professional' massage. That quickly changed as I began to learn about the immense amount of benefits massage provides. Soon, I was looking forward to getting weekly massage from my classmates and several local, licensed massage therapists. 

  These positive experiences encouraged me to continue my education so that one day I would be able to work independently to not only help people feel better physically, but to also help them engage in their own personal care by better understanding their bodies. 

  My goal as a therapist is to integrate my knowledge as a Physical Therapist Assistant with my training as a Massage Therapist, creating a hands-on approach that focuses on two aspects that are vitally important but often missed; prevention and education. 

  For the skeptic of massage therapy, ask yourself this- how often do you use your muscles? Unless you do nothing except lie in bed all day, you are constantly using muscle, whether it's to walk up stairs, sit down, text, lift a child, throw a ball, make facial expressions, even breathe. We tend to take motion for granted and forget that our bodies are designs of intense engineering which, if taken care of, will serve us well. 

 Unfortunately, life happens. Stress happens. Injuries happen. Muscle overuse is common. Rarely do we take the time to incorporate stretching and exercise on a daily basis like we should. Now more than ever, a large portion of our society sits for extended periods of time every day, staring at screens and putting their muscles in shortened positions which lead to tension, poor posture, and pain...and that's only one example of a population that is in chronic need of massage. 

Mothers carrying around babies, athletes, older people sitting for hours at a time in wheelchairs, infants developing their sense of touch, kids with attention deficit disorders, patient's with cancer, people struggling with depression... the list goes on and on.  

          The beautiful thing is, massage can help all of these groups, plus those with a plethora of other issues- coupled with the added benefit of not coming with a long list of side affects like with most conventional medications. According to Tiffany Field, PhD and director of The Touch Institute, "Massage has had a positive affect on every medical condition we've looked at. "

Looking back to my limited knowledge of anatomy and the correlation between pain, stress, and lifestyle factors prior to going to college, I'm amazed at how much I didn't know I didn't know (if that makes sense.) That being said, my eyes have now been opened to how much there is to learn and it's incredibly exciting! 

I look forward to working with a wide range of ages and conditions, practicing with a research-based approach. I encourage you to continue looking into the benefits of massage therapy and to contact me with any questions you may have. 

Remember, sometimes life is a pain...but it doesn't have to be.