Move beyond pain, and build lasting resilience.
In-Home Orthopedic Massage Therapy and Personal Training serving San Rafael, CA.
In pain from an old injury or surgery?
If your pain isn’t going away or keeps coming back, then your body needs more than just relief; it needs to learn how to change and sustain that it long-term. That’s resilient relief.
Using orthopedic massage, assisted stretching, restorative strength training, and practical coaching, I help you not only feel relief from your pain, but also learn how to change and sustain it yourself.
Pain relief may be your motivation, but sustaining it is your goal.
If you’ve been living with persistent pain for a while, you may have noticed yourself changing how you move and live to avoid making it worse. Over time, those protective responses can become patterns of tension your body holds on to, called pain patterns.
If you’ve worked with massage therapists, chiropractors, or physical therapists and your pain still persists, unaddressed pain patterns may be a significant part of the reason. That’s why resilient relief - enduring and sustainable relief - isn’t just about alleviating pain, but training your body’s ability to build and release patterns of tension.
Who This Is For
My approach helps best when:
You have pain from injuries, surgeries, or traumas that happened more than 3 months ago
You may have felt temporary relief, but the same issue keeps returning
You have a goal of becoming stronger or more active
You want to learn how to help yourself
You're looking for long-term growth and lasting progress instead of a quick fix
My approach may NOT be best when:
You have a new severe injury that hasn’t been medically evaluated
You need emergency care or insurance-funded rehabilitation
You had a surgery and haven’t been cleared yet for massage or exercise
You want to be passively worked with and not participate in your own growth or pain relief
Get the relief you need, then train it to last.
Enduring pain relief is rarely achieved through a single therapeutic method because pain is often caused by multiple interacting factors like exercise habits, inflammation, stress, posture, sleep, medical history, and nutrition - not just one injured muscle or stiff joint.
That's why I bring several pain-relief therapies into a single, comprehensive approach for resilient relief.
(1) Reduce pain with orthopedic massage that soothes irritated tissues, softens muscular tension, and helps your body feel immediate relief.
(2) Restore easeful movement with assisted stretching and joint mobilization to improve flexibility and functional range of motion.
(3) Build targeted strength in underactive muscles to improve posture, tissue integrity, and neuromuscular connection.
My Approach
(4) Create lasting change with personalized daily practices that support the endurance of your relief and alignment between your lifestyle and goals.
How We’ll Work Together
Step 1: Video-Call Consultation
30-minute video call • free
During our call, we’ll discuss what you’re experiencing, which activities pain has made more difficult, and the goal you want to work toward. You can ask any questions you have, and by the end of the conversation, we’ll decide together whether moving forward makes sense.
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Step 2: Comprehensive First Session
2-hour investment • $325
Your first session is structured to give us enough time to deeply understand your pain history, wellness goals, postural patterns, current movement capacities, and begin our work together without rushing.
Depending on your needs, the session may include:
Orthopedic massage
Assisted stretching
Gentle joint mobilization
Restorative strength training
Neuromuscular therapy
Guided tension-release meditation
Practical lifestyle coaching
Before our session ends, you’ll learn a personalized routine to practice on your own for long-term relief and goal achievement.
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Step 3: Targeted Follow-Up Sessions
90-minute investment • $250
Each follow-up session combines hands-on massage, assisted stretching, restorative strength training, practical coaching, and an updated home practice. As we continue working together, some sessions may emphasize massage and stretching, while others may emphasize strength training, neuromuscular therapy, or coaching.
Sessions are designed to help you understand your body and the practices we do together, so you can gradually rely less on our in-person sessions and sustain your progress beyond our sessions together.
My Commitment to You
If, after your session, you don't feel our work together helped provide you with relief and a clear plan for future progress, I'll fully refund your session.
About Nicky, CMT, CPT
I’m a certified massage therapist, personal trainer, and somatic educator, serving in-person throughout Marin County and virtually worldwide.
For more than 15 years, I’ve helped people work through their pain using a variety of movement, massage, and meditation modalities.
Earlier in my career, I focused primarily on helping people heal and feel better. Over time, however, I realized that wasn’t enough.
I wanted people to leave with a better understanding of their bodies and a clearer sense of how they could help themselves.
That realization became the foundation of resilient relief.
My role isn’t to get rid of pain. My role is to notice the patterns contributing to your pain, help you change them, and support you in achieving your dream life.
The purpose of my work isn’t to change how you feel during our sessions together. It’s to help you become more capable of adapting to your body's changing needs for the rest of your life.
FAQs
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Orthopedic massage is a pain-relief-focused form of bodywork used to address tissue tension, restricted movement, and discomfort related to injuries, repetitive activity, or physical strain. This differs from traditional sports, deep-tissue, or spa massage styles in that the goal is not just relaxation but structural change.
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Yes. I often work with people living with persistent or chronic pain following old injuries, surgeries, or long-standing physical patterns.
I generally use the term “persistent pain” instead of “chronic pain” because it describes an ongoing experience without suggesting that it will be permanent.
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Traditional personal training often begins with general fitness goals, standard movement assessments, and an exercise program that measures progress by increased workout intensity.
Restorative personal training begins with a comprehensive understanding of your medical history, current movement capacity, pain and tension patterns, lifestyle habits, and goals.
Then, exercises are designed based on your body’s unique needs as determined by an assessment of any imbalances in muscle tone, joint range of motion, and posture.
Progress is then measured over time not just by the intensity of an exercise but by its complexity. -
Physical therapists are licensed healthcare professionals who diagnose and treat medical conditions and injuries according to standard protocols and procedures.
My work combines massage therapy, stretching, strength training, and integrated lifestyle coaching to help you not only rehab and relieve a painful area, but also continue developing your body to achieve your greater life goals.
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No.
I work with active adults, but “active” doesn’t mean you need to be an athlete. It just means you’re committed to living an active life, whether that’s walking, gardening, hiking, exercising, playing a sport, casually playing with kids, or moving through everyday life with greater confidence.
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Yes. All clients receive a personalized exercise routine to help them practice the things that are most useful for them at that moment.
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The first step is a free 30-minute consultation.
We will discuss what is happening, what you want help with, and whether my approach is an appropriate fit.
Curious if my work will help you?
The best place to start is with a free 30-minute consultation.
We'll talk about what's going on, answer any questions you have, and decide together whether working together is the right next step.