About Your Therapist
Massage is a very personal thing. You will want to know what the qualifications for your therapist is - what is her background. Below you will learn a little bit about your personal massage therapist that will help you relax and feel confident.
Phoebe Belk always knew she wanted to be in the medical field even as a little girl. If someone fell and hurt themselves in the play ground she was always by their side helping clean out the scrape and comforting the injured. In high school she took business and computer programming classes. In college she took psychological classes. All the while she was working as a cook in several different restaurants. Let us just say she didn't quite know what she wanted to do.
At 18 she took a course to become a Nurses Aid and started to work at a nursing home in Petoskey, Michigan. That was the most influential time of her life. The six months she spent taking care of the residents helped her hone her skills and realize the value of touch. She would put the residents to bed at night, but before they would go to bed she would rub their feet, hands and back with lotion. She soon realized what a difference it made in how they slept at night and how their wellbeing improved during the day after such loving touch was administered. She knew that was what she wanted to do for the rest of her life.
She moved to South Carolina and researched schools in the entire state and one school stood out to her South Eastern School of Neuromuscular Therapy - this school specialized in medical massage (neuromuscular therapy) concentrated studies on touch and hands on practice rather then superfoulus classes that had nothing to do with massage therapy.
The very day she got her license she started working for a chiropractor in Summerville. She has worked with several doctors over her many years in practice. Now she no longer works with any doctor, but is able to solely work for her clients and what will benefit them.
Phoebe knew that the education she received, though it was great, was just the beginning and she had an incredible desire to learn more. While she was in school she took "Craniosacral I" a class that teaches the basics of Craniosacral therapy. Then she went to Switzerland and spent one month in Zurich with a well known massage therapist that specializes in Swedish Gymnastics. Soon thereafter she went to a course called "Healing From the Core" which explored inner strength to help prevent burn out. Then over to Arizona in Sedona where at the foot of the georgous red mountains she learned Reflexology - this is unique because the style learned was developed encompassing the feet, hands and the ears.
Then over in India she spent one month in Bangalore where she worked with a doctor of Aurvedic Medicine and in receiving the treatment and also practicing on his patients she learned enough to know that she could never learn Ayurvedic Medicine in one month! But what she did take from that experience was the value of using herbs and essential oils to better help the healing process of massage. Which she does - blending her own oils for each client.
Recently she spent a month in Chaing Mai, Thailand learning Nuad Bo-Rarn Thai Massage directly from those who developed the techniques. What a wonderful addition to the already long list of skills and techniques Phoebe Belk has learned. She wanted to learn this technique because of the way Thai Massage stretches and moves the body like a dance between the therapist and the client. After the massage both the giver and receiver of this massage derive great health benefits!
I will not stop improving myself and my skills in Massage Therapy. I went in to massage therapy because we all need touch - as humans we thrive on touch. I want to provide the most skillful, beneficial and compassionate touch possible for you.
