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Let’s face it: switching from hands-on massage to foot-delivered work can feel awkward, uncertain, or even intimidating at first. But that’s normal—and you’re not alone. At the Center for Barefoot Massage, we’ve trained thousands of LMTs to work smarter, not harder, by using their feet with clarity, skill, and care. Whether you’re new to FasciAshi or just refining your mechanics,…
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?
I have been an Ashiatsu instructor for almost ten years, and many types of massage therapists have come through my training studio. A few newbies fresh out of school and some seasoned massage therapists that been in the field for several years. But learning ashiatsu can level the playing field when it comes to length of experience for many massage therapists.
Unlike other massage CEUs massage therapists take to when they get out of school, we’re not only learning massage theory; we’re learning to use different TOOLS altogether: the FEET!
I’ve found three things make a great Ashiatsu therapist. Talent, Practice, and Passion. These are the words of a great visionary and architect, Frank Lloyd Wright,
What is talent?
In 2006, at a massage convention, I ran into the author of the article that saved my back from pain, Richard Rossiter. I told him that I had been studying his work through his online website, DVDs, and books since discovering the powerful effect Rossiter had on my back. Since my wife, Mickey, was the only person who had worked on me thus far, I asked if I could sample the foot of the master.
Eager to grant my request, he invited me to hit the floor and proceeded to apply weight with much more authority. It was definitely more difficult to move through the stretches, but the effect was much more profound.
My back felt even better!
A year later, I was a Certified Rossiter Coach, and through continued advanced work on my legs, I experienced the ultimate back pain relief that continues to the writing of this article.
The crazy thing is, nobody ever touched my back.
All Rossiter work (for my situation) was done on the inside of my thighs (adductors). The work was done in less than thirty minutes, and my reward was a back that felt like it did when I was in the prime of my dance career.
When people meet me and find out that I’m a manual therapist with a reputation for getting people out of pain very quickly, they want to know what it is I do and how do I do it. To keep it simple, I tell them that my work is nothing more than power stretching and that they should visit my website (DontFearTheFoot.com) to get the full picture on how it works.
Here’s where the fun starts. They immediately want to know what does fearing a foot has to do with massage, stretching or getting out of pain?
I spent 20 years of my life professionally stretching, for I was a professional Broadway dancer for twenty years. And during my professional career, I probably stretched more in a day than most people stretch in a year (or a lifetime for that matter).
My flexibility served me well throughout my dance years and now, with the addition of mobility and stability training, it continues to be my preferred weapon in maintaining a “relatively” pain-free body. now help others in their quest to getting out of pain.