**Announcement: I will be officially re-opening my massage practice in September of 2021! I will resume a M-F daytime schedule and offer several evening and weekend appointments as well. I am so looking forward to seeing y'all!**

Meet Anna Marie:

I've been a massage therapist since 2008 and hail from Seattle, WA. My family and I moved across the country to Richmond, VA back in 2013 when our youngest son was a mere 6 months old and I reopened my practice in RVA in 2014. My clients are a lively combination of desk jockeys, athletes, busy parents, and folks of all ages, shapes, and abilities. I believe in the body's innate ability to heal itself--so it's my job to help ease stress, un-kink tight muscles, and unwind frayed nerves to help make that healing possible.      

I graduated college (Go Huskies!--I'm a University of Washington alumna) with a degree in Women Studies and a focus in social services. I noticed that the people I worked with in the homeless youth services community were over-worked and chronically stressed out. I wanted to work in a profession where I could thrive both physically and mentally while also promoting that for the people I was serving. I took a break from more schooling and managed a Birkenstock store and it was there that I developed an interest in movement and alignment. After seeing how people's health conditions and activity levels affected them clear down to their feet I learned that:

1. Wellness care is a heck of a lot better than illness care.
2. I wanted to help people on a deeper level while also doing something I loved.

So off I went to Brian Utting School of Massage for the best massage training you could get in the Pacific Northwest. I am also a student studying under Damion Bond in the Shivagokomarpaj Old Medicine Hospital lineage of Thai Folk Medicine.

But what I really want you to know is this:

I used to be an overstressed person that rarely listened to the cues my body was trying to tell me. I slept less, had digestive issues, and grappled with anxiety--and that was before I became a mom of two small boys! After 10 years of experience providing massage and even longer receiving massage (I was a teen when I got my first massage), I'm way more chill and light years happier. 

I am more calm. And calm doesn't have to mean still, or boring, or unproductive.  In fact, I am more productive, patient, and present for my family, clients, and colleagues.

Calm doesn't have to be all about dimly lit massage rooms and the stereotypical sounds of a fireside piano. Calm is a feeling you can create to help you be composed, collected, and capable.