Massage Therapist
“My journey toward bodywork began in the early 2000s, in a jujutsu dojo in Oakland, California.”
Montpelier
Monday 2-7pm
Thursday 2-7pm
Saturday 9-2pm
Meet Petra
Every Friday evening after hours of vigorous training, we would settle onto the mat to explore complementary Japanese & Hawaiian massage techniques associated with the system of Danzan Ryu Jujutsu. This inspired me to arrange an ongoing skill share with a chiropractor I knew: I tutored him in jujutsu, he introduced me to anatomy, physiology, and basic soft tissue assessment and treatment techniques.
I followed this with a formal 720 hour massage therapy and health education program at the National Holistic Institute, which I completed in 2006. That same year, I began a five year period working as a massage therapist in San Francisco’s Immune Enhancement Project, a Traditional Chinese Medicine clinic that opened its doors in 1983, offering health care to people living with HIV. During that time, I was also privileged to provide grant-funded, no-cost massage sessions to low-income clients of Trans-Thrive, a project of the Asian & Pacific Islander Wellness Center, started to serve marginalized transgender people.
Between 2006 and 2020, I operated a small private practice, sometimes out of a home office, and at other times traveling to clients with my table.
When I’m not practicing bodywork, I find a great deal of deep joy and satisfaction in collaborative storytelling through improvisational theater and role playing games. I also love making music: New Orleans second line, funk, klezmer, and Balkan Romani brass are genres I have long relationships with.
In the summer of 2022 I began working to co-create an LGBTQ+ self-defense training collective, and hope to start holding regular classes and workshops in 2023. I have been honored over the years by wonderful teachers who have shared their knowledge of systems of Aikido, Jujutsu, Battōdō, Eskrima, and Tai chi, and I look forward to sharing with members of my LGBTQ+ community in central Vermont.
And I am privileged to be co-parenting two young humans with my partner of 20 years; they regularly challenge us to embrace the potentials inherent in us all, for which I am profoundly grateful.
