My intention is not to share every detail, but to bring forth some key points of my history that will provide a glimpse into what has led me to my massage career.

My previous work history was comprised of 30 years in the warehousing industry. I know, right?? “How do you go from all those years of warehousing to massage??”, you might ask. Well, back in 1979, I received my first warehouse job, and I enjoyed the variety of tasks that kept me engaged, working with my hands, and driving anything that had forks on it! But most of all, I really loved not being cooped up in an office!

Over the years, there was a lot of fork-lifting, delivery, inside sales and outside sales, and I eventually ended up managing the warehouse. About mid career, I began thinking: “Is this really what I want to be doing for the rest of my life?”. Fast forward to 2009, I was disenchanted, and when I got laid off from my final warehousing gig, I left and never looked back.

Concerning the more personal areas of my life, martial arts has always been an interest since I was a young boy. I became a martial artist in the late eighties. My two favorite studies were the Philippine and Indonesian arts because of the style of movement. For 10 years, I traveled, trained, co-owned a school, taught seminars, studied energy work, and earned multiple black belts; but, eventually, it became apparent to me that I was burning out and I needed to stop. Even though a number of years have passed since then, the muscle memory still exists and my love for the arts and energy work will never leave me. All in all, I will just say that I’m a master of nothing, and a student of everything.

These areas of my life carry a lot of weight in my massage practice (well, the martial arts and energy work part anyway), from my stance and leveraging from the massage table, to sensing areas of tightness and discomfort and how it affects my client. Also, keeping myself grounded has played a vital role, so that there are no energetic side-effects after each session.

Circling back to 2009, I had never even considered being a massage therapist, but with some encouragement from friends who thought I had the gift, I did a complete 180 and went back to school to prepare for a career in massage therapy, with the anticipation of what I hoped would be a fulfilling new adventure. My graduation with honors from Everest Institute in September 2010 launched me onto my new path. It took me a couple years to fully appreciate my decision, but it has truly been a gift, and I’m very happy the winds of change prevailed.

It’s amazing for me to see what has come from my combined history of martial arts, energy work and massage therapy. It has created a triangle of bodywork experience that has truly been a blessing for me and for others. I never thought that through my life experiences I would be able to touch hundreds of people in a way that brings healing to their lives, and it is something I hold sacred.

My ultimate hope is that when someone sees or hears about me, they’ll be able to say: “Hey, I know that guy, and he really helped me!”