Hello! I'd like to thank you for taking a interest in me and my massage message. I am a graduate from New York Institute of Massage in Williamsville, NY. It was a challenging but rewarding year of hard work & discovery.

I started massage a little late in life. I've been interested in all sorts of alternative healing, off & on for decades, but never saw any of it as a real possibility as a career, what with the expense of school & all.

Without boring you with a lot of details, at a certain point of my life, I was overripe for a change. Quite accidentally, I discovered VRAP (Veterans Retraining Assistance Program) and met all the criteria for eligibility. I applied & was in class a week later, head spinning on shoulders like Linda Blair: "How did I get here again?" Wow. Just wow.

The whole process fascinates me, so I find myself adding a little of this & a little of that to my massage approach, just letting the situation & that little birdie in my head dictate what I should do at the time for my client. I've taken a generalist, intuitive approach to problem solving all of my life, why should massage be any different?

As for my military career, I spend 1983 to 1989 in the Navy at an Electronics Technician on the USS McKee AS-41, attached to Submarine Group Five. After that, I was a Communications/Navigations Specialist in the Air Force Reserve at Travis AFB, switching to Structural Maintenance after several years. I then relocated back home to Buffalo & spent the remainder of my reserve career at Niagara Falls AFB, retiring in 2007.

Now that I am retired, I see veterans coming to VAMC for medical needs right along side me. It's quite a busy place with a lot of fine Doctors & practitioners of every stripe. Except massage! I'd been looking for a way to help my fellow vets even before starting massage school.

And Eureka! I have found it! I am the proud recipient of the first Crouse Hospital's Massage for Veterans Program educational scholarship. This will allow me to be part of the VAMC team to help Veterans with PTSD to integrate back into society. I am particularly excited to work with veterans. After all, the VA helped me get my license, this is my opportunity to give back.

For those who have never tried, I hope you can come discover what massage is all about. But that's enough about me; I look forward to hearing all about you!