Melissa has been a Board Certified (nationally recognized), Licensed Massage Therapist since 2003, a Certified Prenatal Massage Therapist since 2005, and a Board Certified Structural Integrator since 2010.  While living in Central Florida, disillusioned by her higher education options in the area but wanting to continue her education, she stumbled upon a quirky little massage school located above a county courthouse.  She enrolled for fun with no intentions of pursuing massage as a career, but to her surprise her eyes were opened to a whole new world. While a student, she received an intense Myofascial Release treatment from an instructor at the school that she will never forget.  On that day, an obsession for this stuff called FASCIA was born.  Movement never felt so free, she gained almost a full inch in height, and several friends commented on a positive change in her appearance over the next several days.  She spent the next several years advancing her touch skills and taking Myofascial Release and Structural Integration workshops, until the day presented itself she was able to enroll in a full certification program in Structural Integration.  In 2009, Melissa received her Certificate of Completion in the 500-hour Anatomy Trains Structural Integration program, and went the extra mile to become Board Certified in 2010, an important distinction that sets her apart from most other professionals in Arizona.

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Melissa began her career in sports medicine at an out-patient rehab center at the Florida Hospital.  She worked closely with a team of physical therapists, exercise physiologists, and occupational therapists, treating patients of all walks of life in some form of acute or chronic pain including pregnant women.  She later moved her practice to Arizona where she dabbled in the spa industry for a short period. Bored by the lack of challenge spa-based treatments presented and unfulfilled by the difference she was making (or rather not making) in her community, she migrated back to treatment-based therapy.  She was introduced to Rachel Carroll, owner of the Neuromuscular Studio, by a mutual friend, and found that Rachel shared her passion for helping people. The studio was treating clients in need of rehab and working in conjunction with other healthcare professionals, not unlike her previous position at the hospital but in a private more relaxed setting.  She spent ten years working at the Neuromuscular Studio, and maintains her own private practice, Arizona Myofascial Release, inside the studio today.  She also continues to work in conjunction with other healthcare professionals to provide her clients with the best care possible.

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In 2018, Melissa was offered a teaching position at the Arizona School of Integrative Studies (ASIS).  She has the great pleasure of teaching her specialty Myofascial Release as well as a Clinical Note-taking class there.  It's her wish to help mold the next generation of massage therapists into anatomy-driven, critical thinkers that will carve their place into the medical community.

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As her own testimonial to Structural Integration, Melissa was hit by a car on her bicycle only weeks before completing her training.  The car struck her in the hip, and dumped her in the middle of the street where her elbow took the full blow of the pavement and her bicycle landed on top of her.  Structural Integration has always been promoted as a therapy that can increase the body’s resiliency, and Melissa credits it for walking away from this accident with soft tissue injuries that could have been far worse and with absolutely no broken bones.

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Her passion for Prenatal Massage goes much further back in her history.  Her mother tried for years to have children with no medical explanation as to why it wasn’t happening.  Melissa has an older brother that was adopted at birth after her parents came to terms with not having any biological children of their own.  Two years later, Melissa was born, again with no medical explanation; and two and five years after that, two more biological brothers found their way into this world with no trouble. She’s in awe of the human body every day, and thinks its ability to cook a little baby from scratch is absolutely miraculous.  It is her belief, though we’ll never know for sure, that the pressures of trying to get pregnant and the havoc that stress reeks on a woman’s body is the reason her mother couldn’t conceive. So many women share her mother’s story, and it’s captured her curiosity for many years.  Something about treating pregnant women gives her great peace, and if she can help keep those stress levels down, she feels she’s contributed to the health and wellness of Mom and Baby in some meaningful way.

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Melissa’s hope is to help people understand their bodies just a little bit better, to empower individuals to stay out of pain on their own, and to give her clients' tissues that little extra push towards wellness when self-care just isn’t enough.