Jonathan graduated from the Cortiva Institute in Watertown, MA, in 2016, and has been a practicing massage therapist ever since. For as long as he could remember, he had been trying to help his father with back spasms. As a child, he used to walk on his back to help with his pain, and as a teenager, he’d ask to have some compressions done to his back to see if I could get it to crack. When nothing seemed to work, he started researching massage therapy instead more seriously so he could make a difference.
His other major inspiration was his aunt. Before taking the dive into massage therapy, Jonathan was a shift leader at Dominos Pizza, but when his aunt enrolled in a massage therapy program at the Cortiva Institute, it inspired him to pursue a degree as well. That was a pivotal moment in his life, and if not for her, he couldn’t imagine what he’d be doing today or what career path he would’ve taken. His whole family now benefits from their shared knowledge of massage and bodywork, and his father’s back has never felt better.
He fell in love with everything the moment he started massage school. The coursework, the massage clinic, the opportunities to learn from teachers and fellow classmates. Everything just felt right. Now he loves being able to help his clients. He can help people in their healing process, whether it be emotionally, spiritually, or physically, and he finds it powerful to see the ‘before and after’ of what a bodywork session can do – you can visually see people standing up straighter and moving better.
Rather than a ‘fluff and buff’ massage therapist, his style is more therapeutic in nature, and he’s honed his skill sets in deep tissue bodywork. While he enjoys giving a good relaxing massage, he likes when there’s something else going on and the client has bigger goals for the session. With this in mind, his overall approach is intentional and methodical, always gauging the right pressure for the client, and utilizing the best techniques to help facilitate their goals for the session. Everything is connected in some way, and he maximizes his time with the client to affect the most change. He loves helping clients who do a lot of manual labor, such as construction workers.
Outside of massage, he’s a lover of music and sports, especially basketball and football. He also loves to decompress after a long day by playing some video games!