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Massage therapy

first step to wellness center

New Beginnings Bodywork helps clients become aware

By MONIKA GUENDNER, Of the Park Record staff

"I want to help people focus on what their personal definition of wellness is," said Marnie Beacham, owner of New Beginnings Bodywork.

For Marnie Beacham, offering massage therapy to clients is only the beginning of her plans. The licensed massage therapist and certified personal trainer is working toward a larger goal that would put her skills, and the skills of other local professionals, to work. "Right now it's just me; But ultimately, I would like to have a wellness center that hosts retreats, different services with different programs," said Beacham. She would like to add a nutritionist and a chiropractor as well as other professionals who are "wellness minded from a natural approach."

One of the first steps toward that goal are wellness workshops that will begin within the next month, said Beacham. The workshops are slated to feature a variety of local body workers with a different theme each month. The goal behind the workshops and the future wellness center is two-fold: Beacham hopes to offer liaisons between clients and approaches to wellness that will increase the quality of their lives, and Beacham wants to expose the different talents and skills available in the local area.

Beacham is also developing her own skills as a massage therapist with New Beginnings Bodywork. Her specialties within her current business are pregnancy massage and craniosacral therapy.

During her pregnancy massages, Beacham has a chance to nurture and cater to the mother-to-be during a period when the body is going through a great number of changes in a short amount of time. Clients receive emotional benefits as well as physical ones, she said, and the massage gives them an opportunity to feel calm and relaxed. Pregnant women often have different needs or wants during various phases of the pregnancy, said Beacham, and her bodywork can address those differences. "A pregnancy massage should be purely pleasurable," she added. "It might be a slower process, but a pregnancy massage is able to address very specific issues related to pregnancy, and without being an invasive modality."

Beacham also addresses the thirst to know what is going on during the changes of pregnancy and incorporates a fair amount of education with the massage. “When women understand why physical and emotional changes are happening, they feel a greater sense of power,” she said.

Massages after the baby's delivery can also address more issues, such as helping the body recover from the stresses of pregnancy and birth. Post partum massage also helps address new stresses of caring for a new infant. Beacham helps the new mothers become aware of these stresses as they do their daily routine and tune in to their bodies.

Craniosacral therapy, Beacham's other specialty, has a vastly different look and feel than pregnancy or therapeutic massages, which focus on strokes. "[Craniosacral therapy] is very uneventful in that it consists of different holds," said Beacham. This modality or technique focuses on the head and "tail" and works on unwinding the connective tissue that surrounds the brain and spinal cord. This allows for a more efficient flow of cerebrospinal fluid and improves the overall communication of the body. Clients can picture that the connective tissue has a "memory" that becomes molded to a repeated activity, such as sitting at a desk in front of the computer. When the client picks up a new activity, the full range of motion may not be there anymore. Just like with a bunched-up telephone cord unwinding when it is allowed to stretch out, craniosacral therapy can make a client feel taller and less bunched-up and breathe better.

Beacham works with both male and female clients and with children and adults of all ages. In addition to her specialties, New Beginnings also offers aromatherapy massage, aromatic salt glows, deep tissue massage, full-body paraffin treatment, reflexology, sports massage and therapeutic or Swedish massage.

The different modalities are a microcosm of her future wellness center where clients will be able to pick and chose different treatments according to how their bodies feel.

"I want to help people focus on what their personal definition of wellness is," said Beacham.

New Beginnings Bodywork is located in Toll Creek Village at 3070 Rasmussen Road, Suite 140. Hours are Wednesday thru Saturday by appointment only. For more information, call (435) 655-2659 or log on to www.newbeginningsbodywork.com. (10/03)