MEET OUR COMMUNITY OF HEALING ARTISTS
SUSANNA ALONGI, LMT
Shanti Center Co-Owner, Clinical Visceral Bodywork, Orthopedic Massage
As a Licensed Massage Practitioner for over half of her lifetime, Susanna works in the expansive, energy moving, field for healing her client's physical and energetic bodies. As a Clinical Visceral Therapist, she has a passion for creating movement, fluidity and to promote healing in abdominal organs, hips, pelvis and spine. Susanna is a coveted healer in Bellingham, WA and has a long track record of client success. She has a passion for birth work, and in the past has served as a Doula and Midwifery assistant in the community of Bellingham, WA. Today her practice focuses on supporting the mother with fertility bodywork, prenatal and postpartum massage.
LINDSAY WORLEY, LMT, CERTIFIED SOMA PRACTITIONER
Shanti Center Co-Owner, Soma Structural Integration
*Currently on Maternity Leave until April 2024*
I have been practicing bodywork since 2013. As my practice has evolved I have served a wide range of clients with different backgrounds, needs and goals for bodywork. My sessions range from helping people get out of pain and shifting chronic pain patterns, to facilitating a deeper connection in body-mind-spirit and felt sense awareness, to promoting structural balance for more easeful posture and movement, to helping folks unwind from a stressful week at work. Whatever your goals for bodywork, I aim to meet you where you are and seek to understand how I can best support you in your journey. Through my practice I hope to contribute to a kinder, more compassionate, more embodied world.
I offer Soma Neuromuscular Integration as part of an 11-session series, ongoing treatment or maintenance sessions, and/or as stand-alone sessions designed to facilitate greater structural balance and easeful movement. This is also potent work for shifting chronic pain patterns and healing old injuries. I also offer Somassage and Integrative Massage Therapy for those looking for something more closely resembling typical massage therapy and for those seeking relaxation & stress relief. My work is slow, deep and meditative, with the intention of helping to ease your body/mind/spirit into deeper harmony and balance.
Learn more at www.somabodyworks.com.
LEAH GROSSMAN, CERTIFIED ADVANCED SOMA PRACTITIONER, LMT
Structural Integration Bodywork, Tuning Forks, Hypnotherapy
I have been practicing bodywork and energy work since 1992. Through my diverse modalities, I aim to enhance physical vitality and foster self-understanding. My passion lies in helping clients tap into their personal power and innate ability to heal, addressing both surface-level and core aspects of their being. I hold a special fascination with exploring and regulating the nervous system as a means to expand consciousness.
Receiving bodywork has been the most consistent and powerful pathway of obtaining health and increasing self awareness I have experienced. I graduated in 1992 from the Brian Utting School of Massage and continued training at The Bellevue School of Massage in Bodymind Shiatsu, and then at the Soma Institute in 2005 as a Certified Advanced Soma Practitioner. As a true believer and experienced provider and recipient of Soma and massage, I am honored to pass on the work to my clients who want to experience the gift of physical and emotional balance: freedom of pain, healing from injury, nurturing the immune system, increased flexibility and grace, self awareness and internal peace.
If you'd like to learn more about my services and read testimonials, please visit www.somamassagebellingham.com.
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XANDER HEATON, LMT
Deep Tissue Massage, Injury Treatment, Myofascial Release
I’m passionate about helping people relieve painful symptoms that they present with and formulate treatment plans that help them build awareness in their bodies and manage their symptoms so that they can feel empowered, embodied, and rejuvenated.
I am a graduate of the massage program at Whatcom Community College, class of 2022. At WCC, I resonated most with me with treatment & trigger point therapy during my training, and use these modalities most.
My career as a yoga teacher and movement coach has been a huge inspiration for me to become a massage therapist and I’m excited to continue to grow as a wellness professional. My goal is to empower my clients by educating them about their body’s systems and helping them develop tools to maximize their physical health.
I am highly skilled, ethical, and professional and I look forward to growing my expertise as a massage therapist and contributing to our growing industry. I deeply care about being an evidence and research-informed practitioner and am dedicated to conducting legitimate research throughout my career and thinking critically in all aspects of my career as a massage therapist.
EMILY WATERS, LMT, CERTIFIED SOMA PRACTITIONER, RYT-500
Structural Integration & Somatic Soul Work
A fascination with embodied change has guided my work through its many phases and inquiries. A paradox: how do we become who we already are? In session this has evolved into an invitation for clients to organize around their own compassionate, grounded, coherent self. Physically, Soma Structural Integration informs my practice style—the global considerations of this modality resonate with my emotional and spiritual ethics, which also attend to whole-systems thinking. Soma allows very specific and focused myofascial listening to have vast implications throughout the entire body.
Whether one’s goals are optimizing movement facility, bringing consciousness to embodied patterns, or recovering from an injury, touch-based containers are uniquely effective for the access they offer to the multiple domains that the ‘self’ inhabits.
Alongside Soma Structural Integration, decolonization theory, embodied social justice, soul/spirit/energy work, and numerous other somatic and movement modalities have all created what I know as my practice and approach. I have a 500hr Yoga Teacher Training Certification, as well as 300+ hours spent studying Body-mind Centering. This has saturated my tablework with a sense of motion and multi-systems multiplicity.
Outside of work, I’m pursing a graduate degree in counseling psychology. I enjoy depth nature connection, conscious dance, meditation, audiobooks, and making innovative muffins. What about you?
MELISSA SETUM, LICENSED ESTHETICIAN
Holistic Skin Care, Natural Hand Crafted Products
I have been a holistic esthetician for 17 years and I believe that healthy skin is achieved not only through the healing properties of clean, whole plant ingredients but also through balancing your body, mind and spirit.The goal is not perfection, but being in harmony with your skin’s natural process, bringing forward your natural beauty and helping your skin return to a healthy, balanced state. Real beauty comes from a place of loving yourself fully and feeling great in your own skin. This is why I love to combine skin care with energy work, creating radiance from the inside out.Skin is a living organism and is nourished and regenerated by whole plant ingredients that utilize nature’s intelligence to heal and balance. I believe in using only simple, pure and highly energetic products in my skin treatments, which will bring life and vitality back to your skin. This is not just a facial but a holistic treatment that will truly make your skin and spirit glow!
CYGNE LACHAUSSEE, LMT, CERTIFIED SOMA PRACTITIONER
Soma Structural Integration
As a proud graduate of the Soma Institute of Structural Integration, I have acquired the skills to establish a profound connection with your neuromuscular system and the intricate fascial network within your body. My ultimate objective is to alleviate discomfort, combat stress, and conquer fatigue through the art of skillful unraveling, realignment, and re-education of deep-seated holding patterns.
By incorporating somatic influences into my practice, I strive to enhance your mental connection, fostering a heightened sense of body awareness and self-discovery. This holistic approach aims to achieve a harmonious integration of your mind and body, resulting in overall well-being.
The Soma Series Structural Integration 11 series program is our most comprehensive approach, designed to bring balance to your entire system. Whether you are new to this therapy or have already completed the series, a Somassage session serves as an ideal introduction or a maintenance session.
SHIRA SMASON-MARCUS, LMT
Licensed Massage Therapist, Thai Massage
*Available Fridays beginning in January*
Shira has been a massage practitioner for nine years here in the Pacific Northwest and is excited to share her healing practice at The Shanti Center.
Her style incorporates elements of Swedish Massage, Deep Tissue and Integrative Myofascial Release. In 2015 she received training in Traditional Thai Massage in Chiang Mai, Thailand and brings these ancient techniques to the table as a means of addressing mobility issues and increasing overall flexibility. Her Thai Style bodywork is also available for clients interested in fully clothed sessions, positioned on a floor mat in pretzel-style body contortions or more gentle, assisted yoga poses.
Shira crafts all-natural body care products, with the intention of using simple, organic ingredients. Her soaps, bath teas and massage candles can be found in the waiting room at The Shanti Center as well as various farmers markets in the greater Bellingham area.
ELIZABETH RUFF, CERTIFIED ADVANCED SOMA PRACTITIONER, E-RYT 500, LMT
Structural Integration Bodywork, Functional Yoga & Ayurveda
Elizabeth focuses on a practice that helps people experience long lasting relief from pain and greater joy in life. She offers Soma Structural Integration which is an intense 11-session series of hands on bodywork that makes use of fascia manipulation and movement to train your body to become balanced & limber. In addition, you can book a 2hr session that will combine movement and bodywork to help you transcend dysfunctions that may be holding you back in CrossFit, Running, Mountain Biking or just moving through life with grace. Additionally, Elizabeth has been a yoga instructor since 2002, a yoga retreat leader, and founder of the SomaYoga Teacher Training. She presently leads classes via livestream through her platform: Modernyogatribe.com.
Reach out, and find your line of grace!