Studio

a place of my own

where the table can be set

ready to receive

Finally.

By appointment, I saw a space today, up on 15th ave, near Group Health. It's perfect. The rent is right, the hours are good, and the space is abundant. I will have plenty of room to set up my table and move around as I work.

For a start, I will not be using the room full time. And it is going to take some weeks while the previous tenant is moving out, and I move in. But I know where I am going to be. There is parking right across the street, and a number of bus lines pass right by the building. It really is a great location.

And, not trivially, the rent is less than I expected to pay by about a third.

When I have a firm move in date, I will put the address on the website, as well as here.

Have Table, Will Travel

Taking appointments

I will come and massage you

in the autumn night

I charge $65 for a sixty minute massage, $95 for a 90 minute massage, plus a flat $25 travel fee for outcall. I take Visa, Mastercard, American Express or Discover.
Some massage places do massage by the hour, which means 50 minutes, or less, of actual time on the table. I have no time for that. Your time is too valuable to shortchange it, and so when you schedule an hour massage with me, you get an hour massage from me. If you schedule for an hour and a half, then I will spend ninety minutes with you on my table, doing everything I can to address your concerns with my massage.

So email me or call me (at (206) 651 4214)) for an appointment.

Oh, and I give a $5 discount for cash rather than credit card.

Website

digital shingle

declares business open

the web is my door

I have a website. A permanent place of the internet, to help me get the word out. Right now, of course, it mostly says "Coming Soon". Hours, rates, locations. Contact information. But it is up, and declaring me ready to come to your house to do massage. Soon, it will also have the location and hours for my studio. There is, however, the trivial matter of not having a studio, just yet.
The website fills me with mixed feelings. On the one hand, I appreciate that I have enough technical knowledge and experience to be able to make it happen with a minimum of fuss and bother.
On the other hand, it reminds me how very glad I am not to have to do this for a living anymore. Having been a technical writer for a time, designing and implementing online help manuals and other such documentation was a good career for a time. It was not as stable or as long term viable as I could have hoped.
So, now I do massage, and I get to apply my online web design skills and experience to telling the world about it.

So, check out my website and keep an eye on this blog for the latest updates, specials offers and maybe even the occasional discount.

Fusion

Eastern intuition

and western anatomy

fusion energy

The very first massage class I ever took was "Bones and Muscles". The basic structures, the fundamental anatomy, that all massage practitioners need to know. Name and placements of the bones, names and placements and connections of all the muscles. Fun stuff.
More importantly, though, the functions of all the muscles. When I am typing, what muscles am I using? Where are they, how are they moving? And if I do this all day long, sitting in a chair, my head held just so... what is going on in my body? Does it matter how I hold my head, how I cross my legs, whether my feet are flat on the ground or toes tucked behind the legs of my chair?
There were a lot of questions, and a lot of information.
In a nutshell, though, the answer is Yes.

Yes, it matters where I hold my feet while my hands pound away at these keys. Everything a body does, at movement and at rest, affects the muscles. Even resting, some muscles are extended and some are contracted. Knowing how all the muscles interact gives me a basis for knowing how to treat them.
Much later, I started on energetic methodologies. Eastern style techniques, focussed on the flow of Ki, breath, life energy through the body. Finding places where the flow was inhibited, and using techniques to removed the blockages. And this involved listening. Not just with my ears, but with my hands; holding, and finding the subtle rhythms of the body.
Knowing the anatomy, I understood better what to listen for. Knowing how to listen, I could beter address how the body needed to be able to move.

Each feeds the other. Together, they fuse into a more complete process, finding ways for the body to better heal itself.