Today we’d like to introduce you to Ashley Whitaker.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Ashley. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I thought I had my life planned from college and on. I studied Biology and Chemistry graduating under the pre-med program, I was then set to join the Peace Corps, after which I would go to med school and eventually join Doctors Without Borders. Well, life had a different plan for me. After graduating college in 2009, I took a giant leap into the unknown when I left to join Peace Corps Zambia under the Community Health Improvement Project. I had no idea how big of an impact it would have on me and naively thought I would be the one creating the impact. I was trained extensively on education to improve community wellness through different avenues focusing on HIV, malaria and malnutrition. About one month into my service I was struck by a car while riding my bike injuring my left hip, lower back, wrists and hands. I walked away from the accident with bloody palms and a badly bruised hip. The next day, however, I was unable to walk from the intense pain.
Suddenly, my physical pain was at the forefront of everything. I received two weeks of physical therapy and was told that was all I was able to get in country and if my pain persisted, I should make the call to go back home for further treatment. Being stubborn, I chose to tough it out and stay. Luckily for me, I had a foundation in yoga and a fellow volunteer was a massage therapist. She showed me some self-massage techniques that I added to my daily practice to help manage the pain. Despite the pain, I managed to have a beautiful yet challenging experience working closely with the people of Munyambala (and later Solwezi) towards a healthier lifestyle. During those three years of Peace Corps, I had an incredible journey of self-discovery while also accomplishing many of my educational goals.
When I rang out in October of 2012, I felt called to go on a spiritual pilgrimage in the form of a yoga teacher training in Rishikesh, India. This training deepened my spiritual exploration and gave me a foundation for the type of healing work I sought to do moving forward. This also helped me immensely on my path towards physical well-being. Along with the yoga classes and meditation, I was also receiving massages regularly for the first time. I noticed that the combination of spiritual/mental health went hand-in-hand with physical health. Med school was no longer calling to me after my experience working with the traditional medical system and seeing little results that were actually positive. This is when I found the massage community and started school in the fall of 2014. Massage school opened up so many doors to the healing world and made me feel like I had truly found my calling in life. It’s also worth mentioning I finally reached a place of comfort in my body with consistent and intentional bodywork. I graduated in 2016 with my license in massage therapy in Eugene, Oregon.
After two years of practice and persistent work on myself, I was ready to return home to Miami. I feel so elated to have finally found my true purpose and have the ability to share that with others. I loved myself enough to want to put in the healing work which in turn gave me the capacity to heal my relationships with family. I’ve been loving the opportunity to work with this community in expanding healing on a new level. All this to say, I am not a one stop healer of all wounds-I am merely a facilitator for the work each individual is open to experiencing at my level of expertise. My tool belt now includes massage therapy, yoga, reiki, tarot and coaching practices. I tend to use a combination of tools when working with each person and allow them to guide me on how I can help most.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It certainly hasn’t been a smooth road. I grew up in a lower middle-class family and believed I was destined to work paycheck to paycheck with no real way out of the rat race. I took jobs that I could do, that paid the bills but were consistently unfulfilling. After Peace Corps, I went back to the same waitressing job I had before I left. The problem was that I had a whole new perspective on life. I struggled to be happy at a job where people constantly disrespected me and inserted their feelings of entitlement to receive things in a specific way. Note to the readers, tip your servers well! It is a tough job with very little recognition. Besides being unhappy at work, my relationships with my parents suffered a great deal during my time overseas. Having little support made it difficult to move forward in the direction of my dreams. I knew I had to make a change, a big one.
Moving to Oregon gave me the permission to start over and tap into my deepest desires. I had a community of friends built-in and found an unconventional job working as a nanny and personal assistant to a well-known family in Eugene. Once I created a network of support, I had the freedom to explore what I truly desired. Despite all those challenges, I feel I arrived at my calling. Now, I (along with the rest of the World) am experiencing one of the biggest challenges of my life. I’m making adaptations to the way I can offer healing facilitation without actually being in the same room as my client. While massage is my gift, I get the opportunity to adapt my offerings during this pandemic. I’m confident that once this is all over, I will be very busy working with my hands again.
Blissful Wellness – what should we know? What do you do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
I started my business, Blissful Wellness, in 2016 but left it on the back burner until I moved back to Miami. My massage techniques are mainly focused on working with the connective tissue and the nervous system. I’m very skilled in pain relief and relaxation. I also specialize in cupping which gives me the chance to work on multiple things at once and get to a much deeper layer in the body. I also love to integrate reiki, healing light energy into my practice. I’m a reiki level 2 practitioner. Once the session is complete I love to give the client supportive stretches for at home care as well as a tarot card reading. Each client and every treatment is unique. If it is needed, I also enjoy coaching the client on certain areas where they feel stuck. This actually is known to create stagnations in the physical body preventing healing from taking place. Adapting to these times, I can offer all services besides the hands on aspect. I’m tapping more into my role as a coach and light energy worker.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
My proudest moments are when I receive positive feedback from my clients. To see someone come into my space in pain and leave in bliss is my ultimate goal. When I can make a lasting impact on someone and how they experience the physical plane, I am most proud and happy. Receiving the following review was a specific moment I knew I had done the work I came here to do: “Ashley’s medicine is very gentle, flowy, and has a way of slipping beneath your conscious mind to help access the unconscious parts of yourself that need healing the most. She’s the only massage therapist to date who has put me to sleep during my massage. My normally neurotic nervous system was somehow able to surrender and rest without me even knowing what happened. That’s her supportive, restorative, and magic undercurrent. If you’re specifically interested in targeting the subtle yet powerful realms of yourself, I highly recommend you give her a try.”— Ilea B.
Pricing:
- $100 per hour
- $120 per 90 minutes
Contact Info:
- Address: Earth N Us Farm
7640 NE 1st Ave - Website: BlissfulWellness.net
- Email: hello@blissfulwellness.net
- Instagram: BlissfulWellness
- Facebook: Ashley Whitaker Massage
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