Safe and effective therapeutic massage therapy can be a powerful proponent of your wellness. When you feel supported, informed and the appropriate therapies are utilized, this sets the stage for your bodies astounding ability to heal itself.

My Massage Background

I was trained in massage therapy at West Coast College Of Massage Therapy & Hydrotherapy in British Columba Canada. I graduated from their 3,000 hour/3-year Registered Massage Therapist program in 2007 then went on to successfully complete my Provincial Board Examinations in B.C. just after graduation (R.M.T.).

Once I successfully completed these examinations the Washington State Department of Health recognized that designation and granted me a Washington State Massage Practitioner license (L.M.P). Prior to completing my provincial board examination I successfully completed the National Certification Board exam for therapeutic Massage and Bodywork (NCTM).

Did you know you can search for current professional credentials and licensing information for ANY (legal) massage therapist? Just follow the links on these websites provided below – or search for them by name yourself.

• Washington State Department of Health
• National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage & Bodywork
• College of Massage Therapists of B.C.

Life Changing Direction

Before kids, when all things in life could be ordered according to my schedule, I had a career developing in Information Technology in the Seattle, Washington area. I believed that one day, when I married and hopefully had children I would take my 6-8 weeks maternity leave and return to the office like most other women I knew.

Then I fell in love with Peter, who lived far far away, and he wasn't moving to the city! Seven years later we married and my next adventure was to be in the country.

Operators Manual Not Available

As love would have it, I quit my job, moved to the dairy my husband Peter was rebuilding 100 miles north in Lynden, Washington and began anew - really new -as a farmer. I learned to "wake on demand" when the cows were out or the babies were crying. I learned to milk cows, mow lawn (city apartments don't have those) and pull calves. I learned to love crabby babies and even crabbier husbands. I worked to make my new life as fulfilling and interesting as the one I left. The change was every bit as drastic as it felt.

Our family farm

I was born and raised in a pretty big Catholic family in Seattle. Moving to a farm wasn't ever something I pondered - what is a heifer anyway?! But here I am, and very grateful for the privilege of raising our children in this environment and being a part of this agricultural community. We love our farm and the lifestyle it brings our family and our community. Who wouldn't love never being able to count on the weather, your daily plans, your income or your future! That often sums up full-time farming :

Since 1988 for me and 1970 for my husband Peter, we have farmed here - where I have just built my new massage therapy facility (2009) - on the north edge of our 110-acre dairy. We milk Holstein cows - about twice as many as we have acres. Our kids have grown up feeding calves, milking cows, operating farm equipment and understanding - we're it - when it comes to getting the job done.

Our early years here seemed to move so slowly when we were raising young children and had a young (dairy) business. Obstacles and challenges seem endless. It was tiresome to hear couples with older children tell us time will fly by and before you know it your children will be grown and off to college. Poof! Here we are - three teenagers and our first child in college. Time does seem to speed up exponentially with each passing year now.

New Horizons

In the early 2000's I began to turn my attention to what life after kids might look like. Our children would be moving steadily towards their adult lives and as parents our role in their lives would be changing as they grew towards independence.

This prompted me to begin asking myself what I would like the next stage of my life to look like. For the last 20 years I have focused my love and attention on my husband, our dairy farm, certainly our kids, and a number of community not-for-profit organizations. Now I found it very compelling to throw open the floods gates, so to speak, and see what might come of it. I have always like being in new situations and the thought of taking on a new adventure. Not that raising children isn't the adventure of a lifetime : not to mention marriage and farming no less! Yet it remains very important to me to continue working at home and being available to my family, farm and home.

Part of the Circle

I was first introduced to massage therapy as a "stressed out" office professional in the 80's seeking alternatives to manage a healthy lifestyle. So when it came time for me to seriously consider where I might put some of my energy and creativity the area of healing and stress management was very interesting to me.

Once I committed myself to seeking out my next horizon, as a Christian women, this meant offering prayers like this - "Lord where do you want me, how can you use me, show me how I can make this happen". Be careful what you ask for!

When the student is ready the teacher appears

Now if you know me at all, you know a good challenge doesn't scare me one bit. But this landed me back in school - after quite a hiatus - how did that happen! Starbucks coffee shop. While on a day trip north of the boarder, my shopping partner and sister-in-law, was in need of a coffee. I parked while she dashed for coffee. I "just happened" to be parked in front a Canadian massage therapy school. As it happened I had been seriously considering massage therapy as future vocation - interesting timing. So I set out to compare training as a massage therapist in Canada verses the U.S. It was an interesting comparison. I was astounded to learn that the better (U.S.) massage therapy schools were up to 1,200 hours and typically one year or less in duration while the massage therapy schools in British Columbia were all 3,000 hours and 3 years -the highest standards anywhere for this profession.

The largest differences are in time spent developing your manual skills, treating specific segments of the population (high risk pregnancy, MS, Parkinson's, Spinal cord injuries, athletes etc.) safely and effectively. In addition, a considerable amount of academic education and training in athletics and rehabilitation therapies as well as learning to incorporate hydrotherapy where appropriate. Oh- and absolutely relaxation massage therapy : the bedrock of any successful practice in massage therapy.

Why Bother

Why choose to take three years of training when one was all that was required (the state of Washington only requires 500 hours of training) my husband asked :. I can only answer by saying, I don't really ever do anything part way -when I could do it better. He also asked if I could I charge more money? Nope, not really, I would need to be competitive. For me, the bottom line is, this is where I can best equip myself to meet the future needs of the patients/clients I hope to serve. So this is where I need to be.

One big Hurdle

I graduated from West Coast College of Massage therapy (WCCMT) 3 year/3,000 hour program in May 2007. It was a long and arduous journey being a full-time student. But like many of our lives journeys it was the journey and not the finish line that began to equip me, in this case, to work in healing. I believe we make ourselves available as a conduit to our creator so that healing, in my case, together with the permission of the patient/client, can take place. This is a varied and sometimes complicated journey for some and an easier journey for others.

Continuing Towards the next Horizon

I love working and planning how I can continue to develop my manual massage therapy skills but also my spiritual development to continually avail myself to the work of the holy spirit.

We are afforded all kinds of opportunities in life. Some are obvious, some less so, some we aggressively pursue and some pursue us until which time we are "ready". I believe I have found an ideal place for my physical and spiritual energy and creativity. I am very grateful to be done being a full time student and traveling north of the boarder five days a week, my husband and kids are especially grateful.

Life is such a wonderful teacher

In retrospect, one of the most interesting things I learned about being an adult student, aside from how difficult it is, was that beyond being supportive, my family really empathized with my struggles and were elated at my successes. In return, I learned to be a more empathetic parent when dealing with their daily challenges of school, faith & friends. Compassion on both our parts grew enormously during this period of time in our family. That experience in and of itself was worth very much to me as a mother and spouse.

I have moved into post-graduate mode. Today that means being able to take continuing education classes to further develop my skill and add therapies I was not originally trained in. It also means I will enter a bachelor of health science distance learning program to complete my degree. West Coast College of Massage Therapy partnered with Thomson Rivers University to provide a degree completion program for R.M.T.'s (registered massage therapists) in Canada. During my three years at WCCMT I earned 89 credits toward this degree and now will complete 31 more credits to finish my degree. Albeit at a much slower pace than the program I just finished!

To that end, it is my goal to build a massage therapy and hydrotherapy practice and serve patients/ clients, on both sides of the border, for many years to come. I have a real love for teaching and hope when I am able to complete my degree I will be able to also develop a teaching career in this area of work. In the meantime I relish the opportunity to work with and teach my clients how they can get along just a little bit better with their own body.