A transplant from the Pacific Northwest, Melissa came to know and love the value of therapeutic massage after she sustained her own musculoskeletal injuries in a car accident just out of high school. From then on, she wanted to share the profound effects massage had on her wellbeing with others as a massage therapist. After completing massage school, she took the Maternity and Infant Massage Program at the Cortiva Institute, allowing her to specialize in prenatal and postpartum support. She also became a birth doula, assisting her clients throughout their pregnancies, births, and beyond. Supporting families with massage remains a huge passion for her.

While growing her initial specialty practice, Melissa also learned she had a penchant for working with complex injuries. She loved solving the puzzles such injuries present, and in doing so began to hone her medical massage skills. Learning multiple massage modalities to support this work proved fulfilling for her and effective for her clientele. She has put all the knowledge she’s gained into service by working as a massage therapy instructor, teaching prenatal massage, advanced orthopedic treatment massage, and ethics. She has also had the pleasure of mentoring other therapists pursuing their calling to this work.

Melissa is fascinated by pain science and how the body heals. Over the years, she has worked with professional athletes, office workers, post-surgical clients, and others with a wide range of chronic pain disorders. Using skillful assessment, a multimodal approach, and her knowledge of orthopedic treatment massage, she develops individualized, holistically minded treatment plans to help clients alleviate their symptoms. Melissa loves helping clients understand their bodies better, offering techniques for self care and suggesting small changes they can make in their daily lives to improve quality of life. She remains committed to always learning new ways of approaching her work and bringing her best to the populations she serves. Whether a client is suffering from complicated injuries or just needs a break from the stress of daily living, she is confident massage therapy can help.