Welcome. Please join me in my practice of honoring and celebrating all bodies and beings!
Services
Therapeutic Massage
A therapeutic massage tailored to your unique needs. After a conversation about your health history, we work together to craft a massage that meets you in the moment. Your unique therapeutic massage can include a combination of techniques, including Swedish, deep tissue, trigger point, myo-fascial release, lymphatic drainage, and energetic and healing touch. 60-120 minutes/session.
Structural Integration 3 Series
An introduction to Structural Integration bodywork, or a "tune up" for those who have received the 12 series. For introductory work, the three sessions respectively cover the lines of myofascial force transmission up the front, back, and lateral sides of the body. For those getting a series tune-up, the sessions travel from feet to pelvis, pelvis to head, and then the head, neck, and spine. Sessions include an intake conversation about your goals, health history, and current experiences in your body; postural analysis; myofascial release bodywork; and exercise or awareness cue recommendations to enhance the structural benefits beyond the session. 90 minutes/session.
Structural Integration Single Session
A single session of structural bodywork, working with your posture, positioning, and neuromyofascial web to bring the most balance and harmony in your relationship with gravity. Sessions include an intake conversation about your goals, health history, and current experiences in your body; postural analysis; myofascial release bodywork; and exercise or awareness cue recommendations to enhance the structural benefits beyond the session. 90 minutes/session.
Structural Integration 12 Series
Redefine your relationship with yourself, your body, and gravity: a series of 12 progressive sessions that work systematically within your neuromyofascial web to release structural holding patterns. The first four sessions address the superficial lines of myofascial force transmission on the front, back, sides, and spiral lines in the body; the next four sessions address the deep front line structures, working the inside of the leg, deep abdominal core structures, deep back, and head, neck, and jaw; the final four sessions integrate the legs to pelvis, pelvis to core, the arms, and the spine. Sessions include an intake conversation about your goals, health history, and current experiences in your body; postural analysis; myofascial release bodywork; and exercise or awareness cue recommendations to enhance the structural benefits beyond the session. 90 minutes/session.
Frequently Asked
What is Structural Integration?
Structural Integration is a form of bodywork that invites the release of holding patterns within the fascia, and more easeful ways of moving, being, and inhabiting oneself.
Structural Integration work can result in improved body awareness, improved posture and alignment, more easeful movement, reduced pain, and more of a sense of being at home in one's own body.
A cornerstone of Structural Integration – one that differentiates it from conventional massage – is its collaborative nature: throughout each session, you will be an active participant, moving during many of the fascial release techniques. Structural Integration is done in a progressive series-- either an introductory "3 series," or a "12 series" following along the Anatomy Trains (the lines of fascia that your bones float in). Explore this video for a general introduction to structural bodywork.
What are your rates?
My practice operates on a donation-based sliding scale. If you are in need of bodywork, and are ready to show up fully as a collaborator in your own healing, I invite you to pay what you can afford. Market rate is ~$140 per session, and my sliding scale ranges between $50-$180 per session. To those with means, I invite paying above standard market rate, which helps subsidize the work I offer to those with less financial abundance. I also welcome donations to my Scholarship Fund which makes bodywork available for those for whom $50/session is a significant barrier to access.
Where is your practice?
I offer sessions out of my home, a semi-off grid cabin by beautiful China Lake in South China, Maine, occupied Wabanaki Confederacy Lands.
Preparing for your Appointment
Structural Integration involves your movement, as well as postural analysis, so please wear clothing you are comfortable standing and moving in. Underwear, small shorts, or swim bottoms are ideal; if underwear includes a chest covering for you, ones that have the least amount of strap coverage in the back are preferred. That said: wear whatever makes you feel comfortable. You are in charge; this is your body, and your experience. Also, please avoid using body oils 24 hours before your appointment if possible. Myofascial techniques use water or oil-free lotion, and require precise contact with different fascial layers. Extensive oil can create gliding on the surface of the skin and limit full effectiveness of the techniques.
Does Structural Integration hurt?
Structural Integration, the myofascially-based bodywork pioneered by Dr. Ida Rolf, sometimes has a reputation for being painful. Structural Integration should not be painful, and I practice with a listening and respectful touch. You are always in charge of the amount of sensation, and we will stay in regular communication throughout your session about the right level of depth and pressure for you. Force does not beget flow, and structural bodywork is a project of creating ease and flow where there has been tension and restriction.
Who are you?
My name is Ray (xe/xir pronouns). I have a deep belief in the power of therapeutic massage and Structural Integration to support the experience of being in a body. I do this work because I have been transformed by it: my experiences of disability, chronic pain, and complex trauma have eased, softened, and released through bodywork. Experiencing this healing propels my own passion to learn: I am a licensed massage therapist and structural integration practitioner, and constant student of anatomy, physiology, and embodiment. I welcome the opportunity to work anyone who wishes to explore how receiving bodywork may assist them show up to their lives more fully: with greater ease, less pain, and more presence. I am honored to do this work, and I look forward to meeting you in the moment and exploring together.