New body massage studio opens in downtown Marshall - Citizen Times

[massage]

MARSHALL - Walnut resident Ivelisse Rivera's career path took a number of turns before she opened a new downtown Marshall massage studio Feb. 4.

Wise Body Massage & Bodywork, located above Zuma Coffee, is a "labor of love," its owner said.

"I'm so happy to be here in this space," Rivera said. "It's been an amazing opportunity to find Marshall, and to actually find housing here. We were able to buy our home last year. I don't take it for granted what all this community has done for me and my husband."

According to Rivera, her practice will focus on neuromuscular therapy, a specialized form of massage in which digital pressure and friction are used to release areas of strain in a muscle. Strain areas are called tender or trigger points, and they tend to be the cause of ongoing muscular pain symptoms, according to the American Institute of Alternative Medicine.

"I focus primarily on neuromuscular therapy, and I help people with chronic pain," Rivera said. "I do also practice general relaxation massage, but my passion is to work with people experiencing pain - particularly neck pain and jaw pain. That's what I really like to do."

Rivera's concentration on pain comes from her personal experience, as she was born with scoliosis.

"I have experienced pain in my own body. Early on, at 19 years old I discovered yoga - or it kind of discoverd me," the studio owner said. "So that's been a part of my journey. I'm really interested in experiential anatomy, and I pursued a yoga training certification back in 2015. It just felt like an organic unfolding."

Prior to opening the massage studio, Rivera worked in her native Puerto Rico as an attorney until 2011 before moving to Gouldsboro, Maine.

"It was mentally stimulating, but very sedentary and very stressful," she said. "It was not for me."

In Maine, Rivera transitioned into farming, which she loved "because it gave her and opportunity to use her body, and she was with the elements and nature," she said.

"I was doing something that gave joy to people, and it made me feel really good," she said. "So, it seemed like an organic progression to come into massage, because I'm still using my body, and I'm trying to resolve these repetitive stress issues that I developed doing farming. It's a good thing for me."

According to Rivera, she hopes to combine a number of modalities, as well as her yoga training to offer customized massage and bodywork sessions.

"I see myself not as a healer - I do practice a healing art, but I'm more of an ally," she said. "My sessions are collaborative, so I use a lot of communication, and I use my knowledge in experiential anataomy to observe and notice how clients are using their body. That may happen as early as when you walk through the door. I see how they carry their body, and I see how they put their bag down.

"It's a matter of getting to know how their bodies move so I can share more about how to (offer advice), like, 'You can actually do this in this way,' or 'You can pick up this way,' or 'Have you tried this stretch to release the lower back?' That's all important through my background in experiential anatomy."

Some of the modalities and techniques employed in addition to neuromuscular therapy include myofascial release, trigger point therapy, yoga-informed stretching and cupping. Neuromuscular therapy is Rivera's preferred modality, she said.

"Neuromuscular therapy is what spoke to me in the long menu of what massage therapy can be," she said. "I like neuromuscular therapy because it works with manipulating the soft tissue in a way that can help our body work better. I also do myofascial release, which is related to neuromuscular therapy, but it involves more static holding to help the soft tissue relief."

Rivera said she is looking forward to the opportunity to serve Madison County and other local residents.

"For me, it feels amazing to be here and to be able to give back," Rivera said.

Wise Body Massage & Bodywork is located at 7 S. Main St. in downtown Marshall and online at Home - wisebodymassage.com.