Meet the Therapist
Christine Nordquist, Board Certified Massage Therapist
Christine graduated from Blue Cliff School of Therapeutic Massage in Lafayette, LA and became Board Certified in 2001. After graduating, she moved back to her home state of Minnesota and began her career as a professional massage therapist at Shear Dynamics hair salon in St. Cloud.
After 2 1/2 enjoyable years there, with the support of her wonderful husband Marty and several friends and family members, she ventured off to pursue her dream of starting Art of Healing Family Massage.
“The inner passion that drives me in this career and, in large part, in life, is the desire to ease others’ pain and improve their quality of life. In massage, Neuromuscular Therapy (NMT) has been foundational as an effective modality in achieving this.
In NMT, the focus is on resolving imbalances in the body’s structure via easing tension from overly-tightened muscles and soft tissues as well as stimulating weakened, under-firing muscles to restore balance in body function, often easing pain. But there’s so much more to it.”
Over the years, Christine’s taken the opportunity to study more advanced approaches to NMT; the main training being Don McCann’s Structural Energetic Therapy (SET) course 2004-2006.
SET combines Cranial-Structural techniques with specific supportive Deep Tissue bodywork protocols to address the body’s many different patterns of imbalance and disfunction.
“Through the many years of applying SET to my daily massage practice, I’ve been fascinated to watch and learn from my clients just how deeply of an effect unwinding the body has – not just physically, but emotionally and energetically as well. The variety of releases are as varied and unique as each person on my table.”
“SET is so rich in cranial and structural techniques and so powerful in initiating unwinding for people, I believe it will be a foundational part of my practice for the rest of my career.”
“I’ve been so thankful to have also discovered Suzanne Scurlock’s Healing From the Core seminars. They’ve provided so many essential and indispensable tools in helping me to be grounded and fully present to each session. It is the ‘Yin’ to SET’s ‘Yang’, in my opinion. These tools help me greatly to be able to hold a therapeutic space for my clients to unwind safely in and to help my clients better know what to do with all the unwinding they are experiencing in their sessions. Often, my clients can learn some helpful tools for themselves to take home and incorporate into their daily life situations to help them continue to be in touch with their own inner, personal needs for balance. This has proven to be very helpful in feeling and healing the emotional releases that sometimes surface in session when one is ready to let their stresses go. There’s a saying from Healing From The Core that I like: To Feel is to Heal. Helping people to do that in a productive way is an important and joyful part of my practice.”
In 2022, Christine suffered a neck injury that left her unable to deliver full sessions of deep tissue massage by hand. Since she wasn’t ready to give up massage or the pain-relieving results of cranial and deep tissue approaches she’s come to value through the years, she found a new way to deliver massage – with her feet!
She received her certification in Ashiatsu during the Summer of 2022, through Deep Feet Bar Therapy. Ashiatsu is a barefoot massage technique that delivers deep, consistent pressure through the broad, rounded surfaces of the feet while utilizing the therapist’s relaxed bodyweight and gravity. Many find it is a more comfortable way to receive deep tissue massage and is deeply relaxing. It’s a modality that’s been around for centuries in many countries, and Christine is excited to be able to practice it, right here in St. Cloud, MN! Thanks to her amazing clientele being open to trying something new, Christine has been able to quickly integrate this new way of giving massage into her daily practice. Now Christine offers massages that are still structural-balancing focused with a mix of both hand and feet techniques throughout the session as needed.
Christine also enjoys incorporating a variety of other modalities into sessions when called for, including… Cupping, Aroma Therapy (Rocky Mountain Oils), Weighted Tuning Forks, InfraRed Heat, Ice/Heat, Light and Sound Therapy, Color Therapy, Weighted Blanket, Crystal Singing Bowls, Visualization, Foot Reflexology, Ear Reflexology and Ear Acupressure.
** Christine is unfortunately unable to take new clients currently due to a full clientele. If you’d like to be added to the New Client Waiting List, please let her know.