Massage is Life

This service is for anyone experiencing grief, depression, anxiety, trauma or maybe just feeling a little down as I have experienced all of these in my personal life and I UNDERSTAND. 

 

This service isn’t a deep tissue massage, we aren’t doing any focus work it's just a relaxation massage with some deep guided breathing, compression and holds for added relaxation and comfort. Along with soft music, hot towels and a vessel to JUST BE. 

 

 “Holding Space Massage” while I hold space for everyone. When you book this massage it’s you letting me know “hey, I’m going through something”. It's an understanding that you may cry and that’s OK… you may be silent and that's OK… you may need to vent and that’s OK… you may not be in the best of mood and that’s OK… whatever you are feeling that's OK and you don’t have to be uncomfortable with how you are feeling. While I am not a counselor or therapist I don’t provide advice or offer a solution. What I provide is a safe space to JUST BE. A space where whatever you are going through is an escape from it for at least the time that you are here. A judgement free space. A confidential listening ear, an emotional support. A space where it's your choice to share your troubles or what you are struggling with or not. From personal experience we are not allowed to just be sometimes because we may be around our kids, we may be at work or don’t want to make people feel uncomfortable so oftentimes we hold it in and in return that manifests in our bodies and that mental and emotional pain becomes physical pain or even sickness.

 

Having an emotional release during a massage is not uncommon but I think back on how many people have held it in when they truly needed to let it out in fear that would make me feel uncomfortable and I don’t want anyone to feel like that. I want to be and I am here to be your support system. 

 

Why and how this service came about...

my truth and transparency moment

     On August 5th, 2020 I loss my baby girl at 22 weeks and 6 days pregnant. It is by far the hardest thing I have gone through in my life and during my different stages of grief I realize what I lack is the opportunity to be in a space where I can just be... grief counseling has helped but it seems its always advice or steps to take... support groups have helped but its typically a topic or feedback (these are just my feelings and take on it)

 

   One thing that has still been a constant on my journey of grieving is still wanting to help. I am a helper by nature and I realized on this journey how much helping people has helped me not just on this journey but in life in general. Being a massage therapist is incredibly rewarding. I always say it's more than a massage, it's more than making people feel relaxed or ease their physical pain and soreness. I have come to realize that more and more people come to me for emotional support and the massage is just a plus.

 

     Working with clients I always keep and maintain professional boundaries, I don’t step outside of my scope of practice but what I do do is hold space at my office for every client and if you are not sure what holding space means… it's simply providing a safe space for someone to JUST BE. BE in the moment, BE in their feelings (whatever that feeling is), BE not judged… BE vulnerable, BE quiet, BE seen, BE heard… Cry… Laugh...JUST BE.

Recently on my own journey of grief it was put on my heart to figure out a way to help those dealing with something in their lives as well. What can I do? How can I help? How can I incorporate my gift, my compassion and understanding to help others? I just wasn't able to figure it out for a while.

 

     While I’m not the most spiritual person I do believe, I do have faith and I pray daily. I will say it's funny how things work and it's crazy how you start to realize how things come full circle. I’m a firm believer that EVERYTHING happens for a reason. Some of those things may crush us, may have us down for a while and we just don’t understand why but it all works together for the greater good and in my case, my grief, my pain has motivated me in ways I couldn’t imagine. Sometimes you have to go through things to come into your calling even if it's just a shift within your calling.

 

     In recent months business has slowed down tremendously and has been slower than it's ever been.  No lie I’ve been down in the dumps about this because this is my passion, my dream, my career that I have worked so hard for and pour my heart and soul into daily.

 

     Looking back when God has slowed me down in the past it's because he wanted me to see something. He wanted me to be able to step back and see the bigger picture because when you are moving too fast that's hard to do. Recently I got a call from a friend that I hadn’t spoken to in a while, they were just checking up on me. It’s funny because I had been wondering how they were doing. Anyone that knows me knows I hate talking on the phone, if you call I'm the type to look at the phone until it stops ringing and then text “What's up?” lol...but I answered and in this conversation how business was going became a topic of discussion. During this conversation what this friend said to me I just couldn’t let go of... “Angela, your business is in a transition period. While some clients may continue to come to you, that is not your client base anymore and what you have been through your loss as much as it hurts is now what will take your business on a different path but a much needed path for those that need it. It’s to fill a void in your field” those words have played verbatim in my head.

 

     This brought me back to the questions I asked myself… What can I do? How can I help? How can I incorporate my gift, my compassion and understanding to help others?

 

     Truth is, I don’t have to do anything differently than what I have already been doing and I just need to create a service for those in need of the extra support. I laugh because in life we have a tendency to complicate things when we really don’t have too. It's already written and sometimes we continue to push forward when we really need to take a step back to put us on a new path within our journey.

 

9/13/2021

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Update...1/18/2022

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I am overwhelmed with the amount of people that have booked this service. I honestly thought I'd get a client here and there. The feedback has been amazing all I can say is, is I am glad I can be a part of your process.