Felicity tailors each session to meet your particular bodywork needs and wants. Felicity has been a practicing massage therapist for the past thirty years along with eleven years of teaching massage therapy throughout the country. Through this experience, Felicity has developed a deep confidence and a compassion filled intuitive approach to her work. Felicity’s modalities include Swedish, Deep Tissue, Shiatsu, NMT, Lymphatic Drainage, Pre and Postnatal massage, Kripalu bodywork, Reiki, and other various energetic approaches.
Practitioner Bios
blah blah
Hunter Villa Gawboy
Hunter is a trans, non-binary, 2nd generation intuitive massage therapist.
As a 2nd generation therapist, their work is influenced by a lifetime of familiarity with the practice. As a kid they learned to understand what a deep support for wellness massage can offer. Through first-hand experience as an active child they directly felt what relief it so often brought to their own aches and pains and restless legs. Growing up they started to integrate the practice into their own life, at first more casually trading with friends and family for many years as they developed a closer and closer relationship with the art.
Eventually, they began to note a certain lack of accessibility for many folks in their own communities who don’t always feel comfortable in mainstream settings of Wellness and they developed a drive to finally become professionally certified so they could use their skill set as a professional trade and offer more access to the benefits the work provides as such. As they continued their journey, they received affirming feedback from peers that their massage made a difference for those in their community who were able to receive it, and that their goals resonated with many.
A graduate from Cypress Health institute in Santa Cruz, they were formally trained in elements of primarily Swedish Massage, Deep Tissue, Polarity, and Craniosacral in 2019.
While Hunter’s background supports a certain comfortability in providing a firm hand with some pressure if desired in the work, they find a special joy and satisfaction in being able to listen to the client and meet them wherever they are at.
They love learning and understanding how each bodies’ needs are so unique and different from one another, and figuring out how to meet those needs and how they change over time. Their utmost passion is to help one’s body feel more fully integrated so we can all feel more wholly embodied and connected to the inherent resources inside of us.
Janie Kientzy
Hailing from the East Coast originally, I am a new and eager addition to Santa Cruz. I came into this world with a love of adventure, nature, dance and MOVEMENT. The human body fascinates me – particularly how all of the muscles, tendons, ligaments, bones, and connective fascia work together to create movement. I am equally fascinated with the mind-body connection and the potential of achieving peace and resilience in the mind and ease, health, and resilience in the body. Living with a profound EASE in the mind, body and spirit being the name of the game. With these areas of interest and a background in dance and holistic nutrition/wellness, massage school was the natural next step for me…
In 2015 I answered the call and moved to Asheville, NC (an alternative health Mecca) to attend the Center for Massage and Natural Health. Immersed into a comprehensive curriculum of anatomy and kinesiology, we were able to explore many massage and energetic healing modalities and learn the inner workings of the muscular, skeletal, and nervous systems. I was on top of the world, learning how to help folks live and move through their worlds optimally and pain-free. Since attending massage school, I have had the opportunity to work with many clients from all kinds of backgrounds in Asheville, NC, as well as Park City, Utah, for the last couple of years.
My massage style is integrative. I like to incorporate long, connective strokes to help my clients sink into the parasympathetic state of true relaxation, then go deep with effective therapeutic work that incites the body to heal itself. I incorporate neuromuscular therapy, deep tissue and passive stretching to create SPACE for the body to heal and the mind to regulate. My hope and intention is that you will leave feeling more ease in your body and mind, more grounded, more integrated, lighter, brighter, and ready to face the world with your best foot forward. It’s my passion to help you achieve and maintain an active and vibrant quality of life.
Jason Mandell
Jason Mandell has been offering massage to the world since 1995. Initially trained in Swedish and Polarity, Jason has gone on to study and incorporate into his own unique style other various modalities including Shiatsu, Thai massage and Phenomenal Touch. He views his mission in massage as a way to locate holding patterns held in the nexus of the physical, mental/emotional and spiritual body. Once found, an invitation is given to redirect the energy of these holding patterns, offering a release of tension and an opportunity to find more groundation in one’s body and one’s sense of self. All is connected. The less tension in the body, the less tension in the world. The less tension in the world, the less tension in the body.
Jennifer Gordon
Jennifer has been practicing massage for 24 years and is nationally certified. With over 2000 hours of training in a variety of modalities and experience working on many types of clients, she customizes each session based on client goals and feedback. Jennifer draws mainly from Swedish, deep tissue, Thai and cranial sacral techniques. Her goal for each session is that you leave with more awareness of your body, breathing deeper and feeling refreshed.
Jeremy Kotenburg
Trained in Swedish, Thai, Reiki, Acupressure, Chakra balancing and deep tissue massage techniques.
Jessa Steinman
Jessa studied massage at Cypress Health Institute and the Monterey Institute of Touch. She specializes in deep tissue and myofascial release and draws upon the foundations of cranial sacral to calm the nervous system and invite the client into deep relaxation. Her study and practice of Yoga & Ayurveda initially inspired her to become a massage therapist — as a path to continue learning about the human body and expanding within the field of Healing Arts. Jessa enjoys integrating her education in movement therapy with massage in order to guide clients in caring for their own bodies.
Julienne English
Holding space for relaxation and recovery for 16 years. Jules offers a combination of modalities in every massage. Pulling from her tool box of massage techniques to fit everyone’s specific needs, incorporating intuitive Swedish, Thai, Acupressure, specialty Pre-natal, rocking and stretching.
Karen Ahn Ruiz
Karen Ahn has been practicing massage therapy since 2002. She specializes in Swedish, Deep Tissue, Polarity, Acupressure, Thai, Reiki, Energy, Aromatherapy, and most recently Lomi Lomi. She has studied at both Cypress Health Institute and Southern California School of Massage where she obtained her Therapeutic Massage Certificate and her Holistic Health Certification. Her philosophy is to cherish yourself always, keep your heart open, and reflect and grow.
Keren Aylon
My name means ‘a ray of light’ in Hebrew. I began my studies in Tel Aviv, focusing on Body-centered Psychotherapy and Body-Mind-Energy Balancing.
After that, I continued to learn and grow as a massage therapist, leading workshops with an emphasis on Breath Work.
Next my journey took me to Nepal where I continued to evolve my craft at The Institute of Natural Medicine, mentored by Nabin. Here I explored a variety of massage disciplines such as Ayurvedic, Swedish, deep tissue, hot stones, reflexology and Thai massage.
Laurel Wanner
I graduated in 1992 from Twin Lakes College in Santa Cruz, certified with a focus in Swedish and Polarity. I have since studied table Shiatsu, deep Swedish and Prenatal which I incorporate into my work when appropriate.
I have also completed studies in Myofascial Release, Reflexology, Lymphatic Drainage and Sports Massage.
Lisa DiBello
Lisa has been in private practice and employed at note-worthy spa and healing facilities continuously for 20 years since her graduation from the Swedish Institute in NYC. Though originally from NY, she has lived, trained and traveled in Asia, and has resided in six US States on the East and West Coast, the Southwest and Colorado. She has studied Traditional Thai Massage extensively in the US and in Thailand as well as one year of formal TCM study at Beijing University for Traditional Chinese Medicine. Her work aims at resolving both short and long-term soft-tissue imbalance and her style is defined by quiet, deep relaxation – utilizing Swedish, Thai and Japanese Shiatsu massage techniques. It will include the subtle use of specific points along the energy meridians as well as suggestions for take-home physical/postural behavior modifications. Expect to walk away from the table with your nervous system noticeably calmed and your senses reinvigorated.