Hi, Iām Rachel.
Iāve been a licensed massage therapist for just shy of 10 years. Iām a wife, a kid & dog mom. I love coffee, popcorn, and homemade Mac & cheese.
I enjoy kayaking in the summer and antiquing in the winter.
Iām a self proclaimed āhot messā gardener: this is where I plant things in the ground and pay little to no attention to them again.
How I became a massage therapist: I married my husband, John, in 2002. In 2003 he decided to join the Marines. After deployments and training excesses, living in unfavorable conditions, sleeping on cots, wearing low grade footwear, his body is wrecked. He was always asking me to massage his neck or his back. After each deployment his discomfort and complaints were becoming more frequent. It wouldnāt be until after he got out of the marines that we would know the extent of his aliments.
In 2013 I registered for the therapeutic massage program at LCC. I figured that if my husband was going to ask me to massage his hands that tingle all the time (thanks cubital tunnel syndrome and tennis elbow) that I should know what Iām doing.
Helping other people was never my goal or my interest, but it turns out that Iām a bit of a natural.
After massage school, I worked for a year in a chiropractic office and a couple other small private massage practices.
In 2015 I opened Massage Livingston. And then in 2017 I took my first barefoot massage class.
The story of Massage Livingston begins with a need and desire to help my husband, but my story with barefoot massage begins with a need to help myself.
My barefoot massage story: in 2017 I started to experience my own physical discomfort. Massaginā aint easy. Especially with your hands, and I was beginning to experience a lot of upper body discomfort just 4 years into my massage career.
So when the pain in my right arm reached its peak, I knew I had to find a way to help myself.
I will also add here that I was bored, and decided it was time to take a class and learn something new.
So, I started researching continuing ed class, and barefoot massage kept showing up. I took it (and the throbbing pain in my right arm) as sign and registered for my first barefoot massage class with The Center for Barefoot Massage.
In 2017 I became the first massage therapist in Livingston Country to offer Myofascial Barefoot Massage: a westernized version of traditional Ashiatsu Oriental Bar Therapy.
Then in 2018 I became the first MT in the area to completely take traditional hands on massage off my menu.
Since 2017, Iāve taken over 100+ hours of barefoot massage continuing education.
*Voted 2nd in 2023 LivCo's People Choice for Best Massage, and was the ONLY SOLO (not a multi therapist location) practitioner on the list.
What is barefoot massage: If youāve ever wanted to be steam rolled, this is it.
Myofascial barefoot massage is slow, comfortable, deep tissue body work that is done with my feet, not my hands.
The advantage of barefoot massage is that I am able to use my bodyweight, gravity and the broad surface of my foot to provide a level of pressure that a hands on massage doesnāt come close to accomplishing.
Research shows that the central nervous system and the mechanoreceptors located inside our fascia respond better to greater pressure, delivered slowly, over a large surface area
- Sarga Bodywork
