I am no longer accepting new clients and have reduced my practice to one day a week.

Over twenty years ago I received my massage license and it has been a fantastic and rewarding livelihood. The best part has been my clients.  I have worked with amazing people and gotten to be a part of so many healing journeys.

Over the last few years I have fallen in love with agriculture.  The cattle, pigs, compost, soil, plants and community at Midnight’s Farm have increasingly drawn my attention and creativity.  I recently applied for and have been offered the Agriculture Resource Council co-ordinator position for San Juan County.  My decision to accept this position has further swung my center of gravity into the world of farming and away from bodywork.  I am not ready to let go of massage  but will be reducing my practice to one day a week and will no longer be accepting new clients.

If you have seen me before and want to schedule you can call me at home x3269.  I am no longer going to have online scheduling and will do my best to fit folks in.

We have great practitioners on Lopez and if you are looking for a session sooner than I can accommodate please try one of the following:

• Nikola Chopra 360-468-3269 My partner in the Treehouse. After years of practicing Jin Shin Jyitsu and teaching yoga Nikola has gotten her massage license.  I am super excited for her to bring her considerable knowledge of the body and her healing energy to her new massage practice.
• Healing Energy Arts of Lopez (HEAL) 360-468-4842 There are fantastic therapists at HEAL.  I have received work from all of them.  Check out their website.

So much of what we do is habit, unconscious action.  And thank goodness, because otherwise so much effort would be needed, so much remembered, to go about our simple yet complex daily activities.  The new year is a time of resolutions.  A time when we consciously try and change our habits.  I have seen over the years that our posture, our way of moving in the world is a place where people can often flex the habit changing muscle.  Pain can be an effective motivator and bodywork can be a way to gain insight.

An example.  I worked recently with a woman who had a bad case of tendonitis in her elbow.  We did some soft tissue work on the inflamed tendons but also during the session noticed that her palm was tight on that hand.  She reported a limitation in sensation in that hand- like things were further away when she touched them.  During the session I coached her in opening up the sensory channels of her palm. As she did the tension in her forearms relaxed.  We had found a habit.  A habit of clenching and not feeling as much with that hand.  After the session she went away with the homework of paying attention to her palm and to keep it soft even when grasping the bucket handle or lifting the firewood.  Over the next couple sessions the inflammation reduced and the pain went away.  But more importantly she changed a habit.  She learned how to keep the center of her palm soft while working and in doing that felt more and used less effort.  This simple change supported the specific soft tissue work so she can go on with her life and work with a much smaller chance of reinjury.

With this new year I think we can learn from the example of the soft palm.  A small change, committed to and achieved, can over time make big changes in our lives.