Massage Therapy Specialist Opens Practice in Townsend
Author: Nancy Marks, MT43 News Reporter
Massage Therapy Specialist Opens Practice in Townsend
Nancy Marks
MT43 News Reporter
Kate Buckley has opened Myokinetic Restoration Therapies, LLC at 100 B Street in Townsend. She is offering massage specialty treatments in the office where therapist Melissa Smith served Townsend recently.
Buckley’s practice is not a “one and done” massage with soothing aromatics and soft music. She was licensed in 2014 as a massage therapist after a long educational road to becoming a structural integration therapist.
In a few words, structural integration is balancing the body to itself and gravity.
Buckley, 31, began her career right out of high school in Hillsboro, Oregon. She attended massage school at East-West College for the Healing Arts in Portland where she did 15 months of intense study; then went on to work in places where she helped heal clients who were suffering long-term effects from auto accidents or who had chronic pain. She moved to Utah in 2018.
In Utah Buckley’s massage training moved toward treating clients who practiced powerlifting or were in cross-fit competition.
Structural Integration is a first step to gaining a license in the Rolf Method, a deep massage therapy first taught by Ida Rolf, a biochemist in the 1920’s. Rolf’s theory was the body and its parts were directly affected by the gravity of the earth. As a human ages, the body begins to curl toward the ground rather than staying upright. Her therapeutic massage worked on retraining the body to become straighter, to work against gravity.
Buckley explained doctors often refer clients who have tried everything for pain but had no relief. She has worked with pregnant clients and elderly patients with chronic arthritis.
Buckley explained: “The Rolf Method and what I do have long received the public’s connotation as being scary and painful. That could not be further from the truth. What I’m looking for is where the fascia (the organism between the muscles and the skeleton which looks like bird netting in the body) has become twisted and out of place.”
Buckley begins slowly with the clients to learn exactly where the problem lies. She asks questions such as what movements set off the pain. The four-page intake form gives her an idea about the client’s pain issues and injuries. She begins with a more traditional massage session to gain the client’s trust, then does a full body assessment. Clients should not expect relief the first treatment,” she said.
Buckley explained to obtain long-term or even permanent relief from pain, she recommends a 10-session regimen to retrain the body away from its old habits. The treatments include homework in self-care and drinking lots of water. “Epsom saltwater baths are the very best for getting relief because the magnesium sulfate helps reduce inflammation in skin, muscles and joints,” she said.
Myokinetic Restoration Therapies is open daily except Thursdays and Sundays. For more information, please see Buckley’s post on Facebook or call (406) 282-1672.
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PhotoCredit: Nancy Marks, MT43 News Photographer
Image 1 Caption: Massage therapist Kate Buckley displays tools she uses to reduce stress in clients, including compression bands used on arms and legs to "floss" layers of strained muscles and disturbed fascia. Flossing creates counter strain and tension which in turn reduces pain.
Nancy Marks, MT43 News Photographer
