I became a Massage Therapist because I felt first-hand how deeply massage had positively affected my life, and I hoped to share that with others.

As a Bodyworker, I lead through compassion and curiosity about what it means to be human. What does it mean to live as a human in this day-and-age? What is anxiety? Stress? Pain? How does it show up in our minds, hearts, ……Bodies?  How can we work with the soft tissues of the body to affect positive change within our nervous system, in our movements, in our stillness? 

..

I have been interested in becoming a Massage Therapist since my teens, but did not take the leap until a little later in life.  Throughout my early adulthood, I studied anxiety and stress through the lense of Psychology, worked with mind-body connection and anatomy through learning-and eventually teaching Yoga. I gained a deeper connection to the Earth and our direct connection to it through learning & completing programs in Herbalism.

  Throughout this, my main day jobs were working in grocery and managing kitchens, while also navigating life-shifting grief of the loss of my parents while in my 20’s. Kitchen work started out as fun and came naturally to me, we all got through it fueled by adrenaline and a sense of community.  I eventually started my own food and coffee alternative business, creating adaptogenic recipes designed to help people reduce stress and anxiety. Ironically, I eventually had to shift gears due to the stress I had from trying to scale a small product based business.

I arrived at becoming a Massage Therapist after a period of acute anxiety, major burnout, and a particularly bad auto-immune flare-up. I decided enough was enough, and knew I had to close my business. Throughout this period, bodywork sessions helped me out of this auto-immune flare and back to myself.

I had waited my whole life in some ways to go to Massage school. I began massage training at East West School of Massage here in Portland. I knew I wanted to help people, particularly help people navigate stress and anxiety, but after years of running and operating a business that was just never going to be sustainable, I wanted to shift into working with people one-on one, scale things back and explore healing that happens when we can slow down and get back to our baseline, our body’s parasympathetic state.

..

I am honored to do this work and proud and honored to help facilitate a space for you to feel better in your mind and body.

I look forward to working with you and listening to what you need in this space and time.

When I am not practicing bodywork, I can be found thrifting, cooking, or walking among the trees with my partner and Shih Tzu, Camelot.

-Nicole (she/they)