ABOUT SHELLY
Shelly Englert
CMT, LMT
Let me introduce myself with the most relevant part of my life story — my taking on massage as a career.
It began in 2010 when I accompanied a friend on the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer, a two-day, 39-mile fundraising trek all around San Francisco. Living actively on a Mendocino County ranch at the time, I prepared for the walk with repeated long hikes. However, the grass and dirt underfoot was much softer than city pavement. San Francisco gave my knees and thighs a beating. While I pushed on and completed the Breast Cancer walk, for days afterward I was in a lot of pain and could hardly get around.
I called a massage therapist I knew, and the next few months were life-changing. She not only helped heal my legs, she also treated my lower back, which had gone out after trying to compensate for my injuries. To say she worked a miracle would be exaggerating, but she gave me the knowledge to rehabilitate my wounded body. She made me aware that injuries force unrelated body parts to take on burdens they’re not designed for. Soon viewing massage as preventive medicine, I’d see her once a month and leave feeling healthy and alive.
That is what led me to enroll in extensive massage therapy training. Now, as a graduate of the National Holistic Institute with over 800 classroom hours under my belt, I’m a Certified and Licensed Massage Therapist (CMT, LMT), with training and experience in many areas, including Swedish, Myofascial Therapy, Deep Tissue, Shiatsu, Thai, Lymphatic Drainage, and Energy.
While at NHI, I volunteered in the teaching clinic, performing massages on members of the public willing to undergo “rookie” massages. Later, leaving rookie status behind, I volunteered in the sports medicine department of Santa Rosa Junior College, massaging and treating student athletes, trainers and administrators. As team therapist, I’ve traveled with the SRJC swim team to conference finals and the state competition, where several of “my” students beat their personal records.
My goal is to give my clients a happier, healthier, more pain-free life by strengthening, motivating and teaching body awareness.
Life Before Massage
Born and raised in Colorado, I’m an Environmental Science graduate of Metropolitan State University of Denver. My ex-husband (a college classmate) and I moved to Mendocino County’s Anderson Valley in hopes of living a self-sustainable, lesser-impact lifestyle. There, we soon began care-taking a 160-acre ranch. This was home for two decades. I grew most of our food, raised a variety of farm animals and homeschooled our kids — Rowan, born in 2000, and Ethan, in 2005. We routinely canned, dried, fermented and preserved our bounty, producing enough sauces, salsas, butters, soups, jams, olives, and pickles to last the year. I also learned to breed, raise and butcher hogs. I fed co-workers and friends too.
While this lesser-impact, more-sustainable lifestyle was not easy, the payoff was enormous. The kids have a healthy understanding of what it means to grow your own food as well as how to care for, water, feed, store and process it. They know that what they put into their bodies is better for them, the community and the Earth. Teaching our kids that living a conscientious lifestyle regarding our impact on the planet and our awareness of those around us is all the sustainability I need as a parent.
I also offered classes on fermenting and preserving food, taught in a Montessori school, and served as VP of a board determined to get a bike trail through Anderson Valley. I sold eggs and pork to neighbors while working at the land trust, taught myself web design, and remodeled our house. When not volunteering for the water board or trying to write grants to get new playground equipment at the community park, I managed a friend’s farm and restaurant.
Now living in Santa Rosa, I recently bought a house with my boyfriend, Andrés, in a really cool neighborhood on the west side of town. We live here with Ethan (now 15) and our rescue dog, Sophie. Rowan is in Anderson Valley and attending college classes on-line. Andrés has three kids, two in college and one who attends San Leandro High School and is able to come stay with us from time to time. The house has established fruit trees, a large area where I can grow food, and space enough for chickens and an outdoor massage setup that allows me to treat clients despite the pandemic.
What to expect when you book an appointment with me.
- I will greet you outside and we will walk through my lush and peaceful garden.
- Once inside my office you will fill out a brief intake form and we will discuss what is going on in your body.
- We talk about how I can help you get out of pain, increase your range of motion, perform better, or improve your body awareness with different massage techniques.
- I step out of the room and you get on the table, clothed or unclothed, depending on your comfort level, and under the sheets.
- I perform the massage using CBD, if requested, or an unscented lotion. We may also do some stretching or use other massage tools (cups or scraping) and I always encourage your feedback during the session.
- You get dressed and I check in with you about how you’re feeling.
- We make a plan for any future work depending on your bodies needs.
