It was through my daily habit of steadfast prayer and meditation during the early hours of one winter morning in February of 2014 that I had the instantaneous intuitive realization as to the next career path that I would be going down in my life.  It is the second best decision that I have ever made in my life; the first being when I asked my wife of 18 years to marry me.  

I have found in my life that an opportunity will sometimes present itself in the most bizarre and indirect way possible.   I have grappled with back pain and discomfort intermittently since 2008 due to a lower back injury that occurred in the spring of that year.  I sustained a ruptured disc in my lumbar spine at L5-S1 which is located at the base of the spine.  It, by far, was the most excruciating type of pain that I have ever had to endure; it consumed every fiber of my being and was the most debilitating thing that I have ever experienced in my life.  Fortunately, I found a very gifted orthopedic surgeon who encouraged me to rectify the problem by means of surgery that entailed the extraction of the disc fragment that was severely compressing the sciatic nerve in my left leg.  Most of the pain was referring to my lower leg with the severity of it affecting the posterior aspect at the lateral head of my gastrocnemius.  In other words, the outer portion of my left calf muscle was where I experienced most of the pain. I had back surgery in June of 2008 that resulted in a remarkable outcome.  The excruciating nerve pain caused by the ruptured disc was completely gone and has not returned; however, since that time, I have had various episodes of back related pain and discomfort in my lower back(lumbar spine) and middle back(thoracic spine) that, at times, has limited my physical activity.  

The human body is such a complex, fine-tuned machine with its equilibrium constantly be challenged by a multitude of forces, and when you take into consideration the removal of a small part in the form of a vertebral disc fragment (i.e., the size of it being equivalent to the tip of your pinky finger), the balance of said machine will be thrown off kilter a little bit and find ways to compensate.  In the spring of 2012 I was still working as a case manager in the mental health field when I was experiencing unremitting pain in the middle of my back on the left side near my spine.  To make a long story short, I went to a massage therapist for the first time in my life.  Afterwards, the pain in the middle of my back was completely gone; I was truly amazed!   Up until that point, no other form of treatment had rendered any substantial relief.  From that point forward, I have been a firm believer in the profound power of human touch; moreover, touch that is intelligently guided by the educated mind and skilled hands of a massage therapist.  

In retrospect, my pain and discomfort was a blessing in disguise, because without it, I don’t know that I would have ever sought massage therapy in a therapeutic sense.  Being a recipient of massage therapy has transformed my life. More importantly, it was one of the main factors that led me in the decision to become a massage therapist.  I’ve always known that my calling in this life has been to help others, and now I feel that I have the opportunity to reciprocate to others the amazing benefits to ones overall wellbeing that I’ve experienced for myself through massage therapy.

I graduated summa cum laude from the Daniels Institute of Massage & the Healing Arts in Roanoke, Virginia in December of 2014.  I went on to pass the MBLEx (Massage & Bodywork Licensing Exam) in the early spring of 2015 and was granted my license to practice massage therapy in the Commonwealth of Virginia as a Certified Massage Therapist. Soon thereafter, I embarked on the incipient stages of methodically creating Massage Equilibrium, LLC after procuring office space in the mid-summer of 2015.  This process has been a welcome challenge for me – one of which I have derived much pleasure from and one that has afforded me the opportunity to master the virtue of patience.  It has also forced me to develop a certain aspect of my fortitude that I did not know existed until now.  

Notwithstanding my neophyte status at this early stage in my massage therapy career as well as being a business owner for the first time, I believe that my passion, desire, motivation, preparation, and the genuine concern that I have for my fellow man overshadows any experience or knowledge of an advanced degree that I may lack at this point in time.  The perpetual curiosity that I have about the human condition – particularly regarding the intimate relationship within the body, the mind, and the soul – lends itself to my unquenchable thirst for knowledge pertaining to the various treatment modalities of massage therapy.  At this point in time, my expertise lies in the modalities of Swedish and deep tissue massage; however, during the coming months I will be sedulous in my pursuit in the acquisition of additional training/certification in the following treatment modalities: medical massage, myofascial release, myoskeletal therapy, neuromuscular therapy, orthopedic massage, and sports massage.  With this integrated therapeutic mindset, I feel that I will be able to offer a comprehensive approach that will optimize the level of service that I can provide in order to accommodate the various needs of my clients.  

Prior to my massage therapy endeavor, I graduated cum laude from Shepherd College (now Shepherd University) in 1991 with a Bachelor of Arts in psychology.  Afterwards, I spent many years in the mental health field primarily as a case manager before delving into the wonderful world of sales.  While in sales, I served in many capacities from account executive to corporate sales manager.  Eventually, I made my way back to mental health and spent another four years in the field before making the like-changing decision to go back to school to pursue massage therapy.