Introduction: I have been practicing massage for over 14 years after being tired of working for low pay as a restaurant cook.
I started in massage because I thought that I could have a better lifestyle and still help people. One day after a long day of cooking, my body started to hurt, so I booked a massage from a referral, but I had to book three weeks in advance and save up about 8 to 10 hours of pay, as a cook, for the 1 hour massage.
When I was finished, I felt so much better. That's when I started looking into massage schools and ended up at National Holistic Institute in Emeryville, CA. At the time the course was 720 hours and I completed over 710 official hours of those 720. While in school and after, I took continuing education classes in Sports Massage, Chair Massage and Hawaiian Massage (Lomi-lomi).
In school learned a variety of modalities, Swedish, Deep Tissue, Sports, Hot Stone, Shiatsu, Thai, and Accupressure. I also learned anatomy, physiology and pathology. A couple years after I graduated, I learned Hawaiian Massage or Lomilomi. Lomilomi means rub rub in Hawaiian. Not only did I learn the fundamentals of Hawaiian Massage, I also learned about the culture and the meaning behind it.
In 2003 I began developing my spirituality which I feel helps me be intuitive. With my spiritual practice, my food handling and my palpation education all plays a roll in the quality of my ability to best serve my clients in assisting them to feel better.