Cancellation/rescheduling notices for non-sickness related reasons need to be at least 24 hours in advance to avoid being charged for the appointment, and cancellations/rescheduling for sickness need at least 12 hours of notice via call or text to (608) 733-1483 to avoid being charged the full service fee. Cancelling or rescheduling your appointment before the 24 hour window can be done via your site account login or your appointment confirmation email.

No shows will be charged the full service fee and may have future appointment requests declined.

Arriving late is okay but will cut into your appointment time. If you know you will be running more than 5 minutes late please let me know. Appointments need to end within their scheduled time.

When you’re sick, have an open or active infection/rash, are 48 hours or less removed from a major surgery, have an unaddressed broken bone or torn muscle/ligament, have a herniated or partially herniated disc, if you are intoxicated, have severe/uncontrolled high blood pressure, or are fewer than 13 weeks along in a pregnancy.

You will need medical clearance from a doctor if you have cancer and/or are receiving chemotherapy or radiation treatments, have deep vein thrombosis, blood clotting disorders, or have had a recent major surgery.

Deep tissue, cupping, and hot stone massage isn’t suited for people with severe bleeding disorders or blood clotting disorders, varicose veins, severe edema, cancer patients or those going through chemotherapy or radiation, severe osteoporosis, or women who are currently pregnant. The reasons for this vary from risk of dislodging blood clots to spreading cancerous cells.

In some rare cases a physician’s note can be obtained to be cleared for these services, but the decision will ultimately come down to my comfort level with using these techniques while certain conditions are present.

Cupping and hot stone massages are similarly not permitted for

The first trimester of pregnancy carries the highest risk of miscarriage. While pregnancy massage has no known affiliation with this, it creates higher risk of liability for myself in the event of a miscarriage.

Yes! Pregnancy massage has been credited with pain reduction, improved sleep, reducing cortisol levels (stress), and even reduced pain during delivery when received consistently throughout the pregnancy.

This can vary depending on trimester, but the general list is as follows:

• Cardamom

• Ginger

• Eucalyptus

• Frankincense

• Grapefruit  

• German or Roman Chamomile

• Lavender

• Mandarin 

• Neroli

• Petitgrain

• Rose or Rosewood

• Lemon

• Sandalwood

• Tangerine

• Wild Orange 

• Ylang Ylang

• Aniseed

• Basil

• Birch

• Camphor

• Cinnamon Bark 

• Clary Sage

• Clove 

• Cumin 

• Geranium 

• Hyssop

• Mugwort

• Nutmeg

• Oak Moss

• Parsley Seed or Leaf

• Pennyroyal

• Peppermint

• Rosemary

• Rue

• Sage

• Tansy

• Tarragon

• Thuja

• Thyme

• Wintergreen

• Wormwood

DO NOT COME!

This includes tickle in your throat, mild so re throat, mild cold, fever, flu, anything. If you knowingly show up sick and get me sick, you will not be welcome back.

I am presently immunocompromised and once caught a "mild cold" from someone who was only sick for a week, but it left me coughing and wheezing for 4 months. Also please consider rescheduling if you have sick family members/roommates at home.

If you wake up the morning of your appointment and find yourself experiencing sick symptoms, call or text me and we can get you rescheduled at another time no charge.

The 12 hour policy is in place to keep people from trying to cancel within minutes by claiming to be sick, but if you’re genuinely sick I want you to stay home and get better (and not get me sick).

If it is contained to one area, it can be covered and avoided during the massage—just let me know beforehand. But if it is active and spreading infection, do not show up for massage.

*If contagious conditions like warts, athletes foot, and the like are not disclosed before the session, you will not be welcome back.

Expect a wonderful massage from my home office! Ideally you arrive around 5 minutes early so I can show you where to park in the driveway and where to put your shoes, and from there we’ll head inside to go through intake—this is where I ask questions to get the best idea of what you’re wanting for that day’s service, and this is also when you can most conveniently ask any questions you may have (questions are welcome at any time throughout the service though). This can take up to 20 minutes, but it’s usually more like 5 minutes.

After intake, I leave the room for a couple minutes allowing you to get undressed and under the blankets on the table. I’ll knock, ask if you’re ready, and once you confirm that you are I’ll reenter the room. Once I place my hands on your shoulders, the session time starts and, unless requested otherwise or starting late, full scheduled time will be given. This is incredibly important and rare as most massage businesses cut your session time unbeknownst to you because of tight scheduling windows and flip times.

Once your session time is up, I will notify you and give instructions on what happens next; once I leave the room, you’ll get up and get dressed and come out. I’ll have water for you if you didn’t bring your own, and I’ll show you where the bathroom is if needed. After that, we’ll do outtake and checkout—this is where I ask for any feedback you may have and give instruction and what to expect for the next couple days depending on what your session entailed as well as when I’d recommend you come back. From there I’ll walk you out and you get to continue your day feeling loads lighter and relieved :)

Please note that we do have a dog, so if you have moderate-severe dog allergies please let me know so I can quarter him off to a confined space and thoroughly vacuum before your appointment. He is semi-hypoallergenic and hasn’t bothered my moderate dog allergy.

You’ll be provided instructions and an address in your confirmation email.

For reference I am located in North Minneapolis at my home office.

If I have the time and energy availability to do so, yes! Otherwise if there is another appointment afterwards or I need to eat/wrap up my day, then no. It never hurts to ask.

I numbered each massage service according to its pressure depth. 1 = Lightest pressure and 4 = Deepest pressure I currently offer.

60 minute massages: Great introduction if you’ve never experienced my technique before, you only have 1-2 major areas you want to focus on (like the back), only need an hour to fully relax, or you’re returning at a frequency of once every 1-2 weeks.

90 minute massages: Ideal minimum time for a full body massage, you want focus to 3 areas or more, have an injury or major focus area that you want the majority of your time spent and some time spent for the rest of the body, or you’re returning at a frequency of 3-6 weeks.

120 minute massages: Best choice for the most thorough full body massage, you have several focus areas, you’re in the process of recovering from an injury with potentially complex elements, or want enough time to fall asleep during your session.

NEVER. This is not a sex service or erotic in any way. Comments, suggestions, gestures, or advances that are sexual in nature are not welcome, and any advance will result in termination of the session and reporting. Offenders are not welcome back.

*Massage parlors advertising or offering these services should be reported to authorities immediately; they are illegal in Minnesota and the United States.

It can (and likely will) be emotional from the moment it starts and up to two weeks after the session. The reason for this is because of a form of muscle memory as it relates to physical and emotional trauma. We often think of memories only being stored in the brain, but the brain is only one half of the nervous system while the other half is the spinal cord and all its nerves reaching into every part of our body. If regions of the body go unaddressed after a physically or emotionally stressful event, the memory of that event can be partially stored peripherally until muscularly addressed—even if the original stressor wasn’t innately physical.

Massage can also cause muscle soreness due to depth of pressure, going an extended period of time without massage, or both. There’s a lot of misinformation about what the true functional cause behind muscle soreness is such as excess toxin buildup or release of lactic acid, but both of these are incorrect. Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness is caused by microscopic muscle tears which cause a minor but healthy inflammatory response to help the muscle fibers repair themselves. This can happen after a massage, workout, or stretching, and the reason water is highly encouraged afterwards is primarily because every cell in your body requires water to function, especially when repairing. Secondarily blood flow is increased after massage which means the lymphatic system and kidneys are going to be working quickly to remove anything in excess from the bloodstream. The best way to do this is staying consistently hydrated all the time, but for massage it is especially important before and after to the tune of multiple days.

More than anything, I wish everyone knew that your bodies aren’t broken. As much pain as you will experience through your life, that means your nervous system works and is communicating to you the problems that exist. It is then up to you to discover what those problems are and what to do to best remediate them. Whether you believe your problems are incurable or conquerable, you are right. So if you ask me, “How bad was it?” After a session, I will likely tell you how wonderful of a job your body is doing at taking care of you :)

To take a quote from their website, “Since its 2008 inception, doTERRA has provided the highest-quality essential oils to people around the globe. With no industry standard for purity at the time, we created one: CPTG Certified Pure Tested Grade®. This standard ensures you receive only the best essential oils.”

In my own words, it’s the only essential oil brand that’s rigidly tested, ethically sourced, and effective. The price is a reflection of this and is the reason why other brands are cheap; they don’t work or they don’t work as well.

I personally rely on their DigestZen blend on nearly a daily basis for gut pain or period cramps, and in my allergy seasons (spring and fall) I use their Breathe blend on a daily basis. Their most impressive blend is their Deep Blue oil with the instant relief it brings to muscle pains, and I find myself using this on a daily basis when experiencing severe pain related to chronic inflammation. I use other blends and individual oils for infections, stress headaches, and other ailments that come up. I haven’t had nearly as much success from any other brand of oils (including Young Living) or even several medications that either didn’t work well or came with adverse side effects.

If you want to know more and are interested I will happily share my experiences as well as several products of theirs that I recommend, and if not no worries—I’m not trying to sell anything unwanted or unneeded.

Below is my affiliate link. It will gift new users a free yearlong membership ($35).

https://referral.doterra.me/17919840

Muscle knots or “trigger points” are hyper-tensed bands of muscle fibers that contract in response to stress, injury, or misalignment. They are the body’s attempt at keeping your structure safe against real or perceived threat. Trigger points that keep returning even after being thoroughly addressed in myofascial release massage can be indicative of a greater root issue than just the trigger points themselves.

Muscles are the contracting and releasing tissues that attach from bone to bone underneath the surface of fascia and skin.

Fascia is a thin, fibrous connective tissue that contains the muscles, organs, and blood vessels. Superficially it connects our muscle to our skin which is what I am able to focus on when doing myofascial release.

My trained techniques include a blend of eastern and western modalities which is where most massage programs focus on one or the other. My personal technique incorporates a strong sense of intuition of the human body which I can’t explain well, but it’s how I know where to find the problem areas quickly and the angle at which to apply the perfect amount of pressure.

It’s also worth mentioning that Minnesota doesn’t require licensure for massage therapists, and there’s a big difference between a “Certified Massage Therapist” (CMT) and a “Licensed Massage Therapist” (LMT) both in education and nation board exam (MBLEX). I am licensed in Wisconsin and Iowa, but Minnesota as a state and Minneapolis specifically doesn’t offer individual licensing. This is where you will find a big difference in anatomy and physiology knowledge along with safe versus unsafe technique application, and it’s why being seen and treated by a LMT is so important across the board.

It's never required, not expected, and always appreciated.

For the technique I use it is always best to have as much access to the skin as possible. This means being completely nude under the blankets is ideal, but it’s most important that you are comfortable. If this means leaving underwear on that’s fine, but bras or shorts are going to be in the way and obstruct the quality of the overall massage. For pregnant and nursing women I have plenty of towels and spare linens on hand for potential letdown or additional needed draping during the session, so you will be both literally and metaphorically covered :)

The way some businesses or therapists use the stones, sometimes yes. But since my approach involves holding them in my own hands throughout the entire application, the answer is thankfully no—if the stones were at a temperature that burned the skin, I wouldn’t be able to handle them. And since they’re never left directly on the skin during the session, that will never be a risk. If they ever feel uncomfortably hot, please speak up and we can let them cool more before reapplying.

Do: Drink plenty of water before and after, be careful about your caffeine and alcohol consumption afterwards (blood flow is improved after massage which means these things move through your system a lot easier, more quickly, and more powerfully), take a hot epsom salt bath that same day if you can, and get plenty of rest afterwards.

Don’t: Consume alcohol or recreational drugs before your appointment (intoxicated individuals will be turned away per legal parameters), over-exert yourself with physical activity prior to or after deep tissue or myofascial release, or expose yourself to anything high stress.