fbpx
0 items - $0.00 0
0 items - $0.00 0

Author page: Jeni Spring, LMT, BCSI

HomeAuthor page: Jeni Spring, LMT, BCSI
Meet each Myofascial Ashiatsu Instructor by 07/12/2019 0Comments

Barefoot Massage Class Instructor Spotlight: Erin Poovey

Fun fact: Colorado Springs was recently named the best city to live in for the 2nd year in a row (US News & World Report). Visit Helen Hunt Falls, the Manitou Incline in Manitou Springs, paddleboard in the Springs, or get a massage from one of Erin’s gifted therapists. And now, meet Erin!

Your name?

Erin Poovey

Pets? 

I’m a crazy plant lady but no pets currently.

My husband and I keep talking about getting chickens. I think that would be so fun. 

Tell us about your family!

Married to Justin for 6 years and I’m mama to Norah Luna. She’s 2. I’m a completely obsessed mama so be fair warned that if you follow my personal social media its just Norah. They keep my life full of light and fun.

What did you want to be when you grew up and why?

In elementary school, I wanted to be a teacher. I totally forgot about that until thinking about this question. Guess that came true <3

Where do you teach?

I teach in Colorado Springs Colorado at my business Camino Massage Therapy.

What’s cool about your city (or fun things to do)?

Meet each Myofascial Ashiatsu Instructor by 07/05/2019 0Comments

Barefoot Massage Training Instructor Spotlight: Dawn Dotson

Nestled amongst trees and goats in Delmar, near Albany, NY, is our barefoot massage training instructor Dawn. Yoga (including Goat Yoga!) and mobility training are her jam, along with barefoot massage for athletes. And she likes to TYPE IN ALL CAPS.

Your name

Dawn Rochelle Dotson

Pets?

Doggie: Lola,
Goats: Benni & Joon

Tell us about your family!

I have a large family mostly in the greater Seattle area of Washington state.

My immediate family is:

✓ Son: KC /25yr/ CrossFit coach, cf affiliate owner, Olympic lifter. He takes after mom. Loves to watch people move & their mechanics.

✓ Hubs/Corey/old dude/ environmentalist / musician /  working on the compound & playing disc golf now days

What did you want to be when you grew up and why?

Ashiatsu barefoot massage, Guest post, Meet each Myofascial Ashiatsu Instructor by 07/02/2019 0Comments

Learn Barefoot Massage with Instructor: Julie Marciniak

When you meet our Durham barefoot training instructor Julie in person, you may be fooled by her petite size. Her sweet-sounding Southern way of talking is simply sugar coating on her wickedly deep and specific feet, which she uses to Rolf. 

Your name?
Julie H Marciniak

Tell us about your pets!

Jack is our last dachshund baby. We lost Max right before Christmas this year. He was a dachshund too.

Introduce us to your family.

My eldest is our son Blake, SPC (Specialist) in the Army. Our daughter Michaela is a sophomore in college. My husband is Michael, a lieutenant colonel in the Army National Guard (his photo is in the header.).

What did you want to be when you grew up and why?

Meet each Myofascial Ashiatsu Instructor by 06/25/2019 0Comments

Barefoot Massage Class Instructor Spotlight: Sara Newberry

Sara in St. Louis is the owner of Sole Shine Barefoot Massage, located in an eclectic neighborhood in St. Louis. Fun fact: she has a very large painted plaster foot outside her office (see it in the photo of her studio)!

Your name

Sara Newberry 

Tell us about your pets.

2 Cats- Sully & Weekend (Their names came from the shelter. Weekend is unusual and I thought surely my kids would change her name but it stuck. She came in with a litter on the weekend (hence her name) but her brothers and sisters were all named Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Weekend We ended up with Weekend) 1 Dog- Mickey. He’s super old and barks a lot

Tell us about your family!

I have 2 kids, 1 stepdaughter. I’m a single mom of two with an amazing partner named Stephen. My mom passed away almost 3 years ago and I’ve been a guide for others going through the grief process since then. 

What did you want to be when you grew up and why?

Meet each Myofascial Ashiatsu Instructor by 06/18/2019 0Comments

Barefoot Massage Training Instructor Spotlight: Hillary Arrieta

Today’s Barefoot Massage Instructor spotlight is coming at you from Richardson, TX, a suburb of Dallas. Say hello to Hillary!

Your name

Hillary Arrieta

Tell us about your puppies.

I have two dogs, Winnie (Maltese mix age 11) Luna (Great Pyrenees mix age 3). Both are girls. (And she shamelessly puts capes on them sometimes).

Tell us about your family too!

NAH…hahah! Just kidding. My husband and I have been married for 10 years and we love to do things with our dogs and travel when we can. He has a nerdy job with a company where he makes 3D printed collectibles and props for movies.  

What did you want to be when you grew up and why?

I wanted to work for myself because I have a strong need for autonomy. It’s also in my blood. My grandpa owned his own service station for 50 years in the small town where my mom grew up and I always looked up to him.

Where do you teach?

I teach in a suburb of Dallas, Texas called Richardson at my workshop space at Gaia Bodywork.

What’s cool about your city?

Richardson is a great place to EAT. Especially if you like a large variety for all different kinds of food. 

Which classes do you teach?

I teach FUNdamentals, Fijian, and the Relax track classes (currently Hot Ashi).

How has doing barefoot massage changed your career?

It’s made me enjoy massage therapy so much more. I don’t get bored and I feel like it’s creative and challenging every day. I use my mind and my body which I think helps to keep me engaged.

What do you love about teaching barefoot massage?

I love seeing my students get excited. For some of them, It’s been a long time since they’ve felt passionate about their career. I feel like I get to be a part of bringing that spark back to their massage practice.

Other than doing barefoot massage until you die, what would you do when it comes time to retire?

Move to Costa Rica, be a beach bum, and chill out with a billion dogs on the beach. 

Hobbies?

Herbalism and kitchen witchery, reading, walking, gardening, and skin care. 

Can you drive a stick shift, scooter, motorcycle, boat? (If so, what? Or any other random thing you can drive.

Nope. hahah!

Any tips to keep yourself healthy as a massage therapist?

I think sleep is super important because I need that regeneration time and also taking breaks to keep a healthy mindset. 

What’s a random thing that most people don’t know about you?

I use to take syncronized swimming classes growing up. I don’t think you can get any more random than that! HAHA!

What are your favorite foods?

Pizza.

Where have you been published?

✓ ThriveGlobal.com

✓ Spotlight on Fijian Massage

Where can people schedule an appointment with you? 

At Gaia in Richardson! (Note: Mary-Claire here. I had a client who visited Hillary when he was in town for a wedding. He LOVED his barefoot massage!)

Find Hillary at the Center for Barefoot Massage 

Texas Ashiatsu: Instagram

 GaiaBodywork: Instagram

Hillary’s official bio:

Hillary Arrieta is a holistic wellness expert, licensed massage therapist, industry educator, and small business owner. She specializes in barefoot massage and Ayurvedic therapies to help her health-conscious clients reach their wellness goals.

Located in Dallas, Texas, Hillary’s customized sessions are infused with Western herbalism, aromatics, mediation, and restorative bodywork to ease her clients towards radiance and joyful living.

Hillary has taught massage therapists since 2008 from the basic certification program to her own workshops at Gaia Bodywork. Hillary has the honor of teaching as an approved instructor for the Center for Barefoot Massage. She strives to create an organized and comfortable learning environment.

Meet each Myofascial Ashiatsu Instructor by 06/17/2019 0Comments

Learn Barefoot Massage with Spotlight Instructor: Sharon Bryant

Today’s Barefoot Massage Training Instructor spotlight is Sharon, our multi-faceted hoola hooping, pirating, ukelele playing instructor, who is a whiz at creating pickled concoctions.

Your name:

Sharon Bryant (no, I’m not related to Bear Bryant, that we know of…)

Pets?

Maddie and Gypsy, my precious rescued fur babies (dogs). Gypsy is our little girl, a black lab mix that is around 8 years old. She came to us so frightened we had to adopt another dog to break through her fear of EVERYTHING.

After an entire year working with her, she still couldn’t take a treat from my hand. Maddie is our big girl. We adopted her from the pound where she’d been incarcerated for half of her short little life (she was about 6 months old). She was on the list for euthanization and we sprung her literally two days before it was her time. She is now around 6.5 years old. She’s a boxer, German shepherd, rottweiler mix and is an awesome dog. They are both ROTTEN.

Ashiatsu barefoot massage by 06/16/2019 0Comments

FasciAshi is not easy

Myofascial Ashiatsu is not easy. Even our ‘beginner’ class, FasciAshi Fundamentals, is really hard. There is a lot of anatomy knowledge that we expect out of our students. Although the work will get much easier with practice, these first 3 days in class are definitely challenging on your mind, body, and ego.

You’ll be massaging for two full hours in a row every day, plus learning to massage with a new tool (your feet – which is SO much harder than it looks) and then somehow massage a client using everything we learned over 2 days boiled down into a 90 minute session on the 3rd day. THAT’S FREAKIN HARD!!

Why?

I want our students to understand WHY the angles and approach to each stroke are in place, so that the work doesn’t turn into a mindless smearing of lotion, or result in injury. I don’t just want you to look good doing the work and have cool Instagram pictures, I want you to get the intention of the stroke down so that your clients feel the full potential of the technique. If you can understand why ‘Lateral Leg 2’ uses a certain foot to massage as it posteriorly tilts the clients pelvis while bending their knee, then you can use that particular stroke, or parts of that stroke, intuitively on the clients who “knead” it most… Not just because it’s the next item on the list of massage strokes that you are ‘supposed’ to do.

Methods get muddy when you don’t understand the theory or reason behind them.

What we are trying to teach in class helps you offer the pain relieving, stress reducing healing that the public is looking for… the expectations your clients and future clients have for therapeutic massage can be met under YOUR FEET.

FasciAshi requires MINDFULNESS, but in the process of being a student again, it really does fill your mind, and can be overwhelming.

I know that its hard.

If it were easy, it wouldn’t be called Continuing Education.

Don’t give up.

Lervvvv Jeni

Pro tips, The Barefoot Massage Open Ashi-Challenges by 03/27/2019 0Comments

BAREFOOT MASSAGE OPEN 2.4: #Massage Week 4

Throughout the course of this years and last years Barefoot Massage Open, we’ve pulled out some pretty heavy challenges. I hope that todays challenge helps to answer a very common frustration that many of my mid-level students have: how do I fit it all in?!?!?!

I think that these particular past topics will help you optimize this weeks challenge – so go review these before scrolling down too much further:

1.3: Game Face (Spend an hour with the client supine!)

1.4: Not yo’ momma’s Ashi: (Spend an hour with the client in Sidelying!)

1.5: Weight then Wait (Stop moving!)

+ Take what you learned from this years 2.2 Challenge (Xray Vision) which helped you study the structures that lay underneath the tissue you are aiming at AND revisit the last challenge I posted, 2.3 Mindfulness – where you took a long hard look at what strokes you do most often and why.

 

Got all that at fresh in your thoughts again? OK, now lets scroll down!  >>>>

Pro tips, The Barefoot Massage Open Ashi-Challenges by 03/24/2019 0Comments

BAREFOOT MASSAGE OPEN 2.5: #Mobility Week 5

The Barefoot Massage Open 2.5 #Mobility with Dawn Dotson

Ashi Bar Pass-Thru:

  • Start off laying prone on the ground. Keep your arms extended and grip loose. See video
  • Raise the PVC pipe behind of your body . Once overhead, retract the shoulder blades down and pull behind your back.
  • You can adjust and widen your grip if that movement was too difficult. Narrow the grip if you had no difficulty executing the warmup drill. Repeat up to 10 times.
  • Modification or Isolation: Shoulder Pass-thru’s: just do one side at a time instead

Turbo Dog

While it might appear to be about strengthening your arms and back, there’s a lot more to it.

  • Start with Downward Dog: (Hold 5 Breaths)
  • On your hands (shoulder width apart) and knees (hip width apart)
  • Wrap your shoulder blades toward armpits, feel for activating chest muscles and upper back, and relax head and neck.
  • Inhale – Bend elbows 3 inches from the floor, moving them toward each other
  • Exhale – Straighten your legs and lift into Downward Dog.
  • Keep energy moving through your arms and chest, keep collarbones moving towards your feet.
  • Reach your forearms away from your wrists. Use your upper back, chest, and arms to hold the space between the bones of the shoulder joint.

Elevate & Depress Scaps during Scap pull-ups:

  • Begin in a normal pull-up position with a palms-away grip and hands shoulder-width apart.
  • From a full hang, with just slightly shrugged shoulders, you want to draw the scapula down and together, thus raising your body slightly but without bending your arms and pulling as in a regular pull-up.
    • The best learning cues are: Try to “bend the bar” and think about doing a reverse shrug (i.e. shoulders drawn downward). Do this, and you’ll feel your head shift backward and your chest raise upward, as your scapular pinch together.
  • Hold the top position for one second, then return to the starting position. The range of motion is only a few inches to a foot or two (when you get really strong!).
  • Do six to twelve reps, keeping nearly straight arms and tight spinal erectors and glutes throughout.

PULL-UPS YO!!!

Use your bars! Start with scap pull ups then pull all the way through!!!! Tighten all the things! You can do it!