About Shane

Swedish is what most people picture when they hear "massage." Long, gliding strokes, gentle kneading, and a steady, unhurried pace. It works the surface layers to ease tension, move blood and lymph, and quiet the part of your nervous system that's been running too hot.

I think of it as the gentlest doorway into bodywork. It's right for first-time clients, for anyone coming off a long stressful stretch, and honestly for most bodies on most days. Pressure stays in the light-to-medium range.

If you've never had a massage before, I usually start people here.

Esalen massage was developed at the Esalen Institute on the Big Sur coast in the 1960s and 70s, in a community of bodyworkers and somatic teachers who wanted bodywork to feel like more than mechanics. It's not really about fixing anything.

The strokes are long, oil-rich, and flowing. My hands travel from one end of the body to the other in unbroken sweeps, at a steady, meditative pace. You don't feel a series of techniques being applied to you. You feel one continuous experience of being held and integrated, head to toe.

This is the modality people reach for when they need to be received rather than worked on. It's deeply restful, often emotionally settling, and it pairs beautifully with whatever else your body needs that day.

Fascia is the connective tissue web that wraps every muscle, bone, and organ in your body. When it gets stuck, whether from injury, repetitive motion, or years of holding the same patterns, it pulls on everything it touches. Stretching alone often won't fix that.

Myofascial release uses slow, sustained pressure on those restrictions, usually with little to no oil so my hands can actually grip the tissue and lengthen it directly. The release tends to feel different from regular massage. Less like kneading, more like a slow melt.

This is what I reach for when something keeps coming back. Recurring shoulder tension. Posture-related pain. Range of motion that won't budge with stretching.

Deep tissue reaches the layers underneath the surface ones. The strokes are slower, the pressure sustained, the patience much higher. Tightness that's been sitting in one place for a long time needs that kind of time to actually let go.

This is the right call when lighter work hasn't done it. Athletes coming off heavy training, desk-bound bodies carrying months of accumulated tension, that one spot in your trap or hip that always seems to come back. I'll use forearms, elbows, and knuckles to apply real pressure, but I never confuse firm with harsh.

We talk through pressure as we go. The goal is what your body welcomes, not what it can endure.

Lymphatic drainage is one of the lightest, most precise forms of bodywork I offer. Instead of pressing into muscle, the strokes are slow, rhythmic, and very gentle, working with the lymphatic system that sits just below the skin. Pressure is so light it can surprise people the first time. That's the point. The lymph vessels are tiny and shallow, and they respond best to a delicate, repeated rhythm.

It's the right call after surgery, after illness, during periods of swelling or fluid retention, and any time your immune system needs a gentle assist. It also pairs beautifully with chronic conditions where deeper work would be too much.

If you're looking for the kind of bodywork that doesn't feel like work at all, this is it. Many people fall asleep within the first ten minutes.