Plans for 2022

 My dear friends. 

I can't believe how fast time goes. This year has been good to me and my family, but as you all, I am so looking forward to more 'normal'  world without masks and travel restrictions. Many of you may know that the covid situation is worsening in Northern Europe at the moment while we are just accommodating the idea of things getting better here. Please, keep your fingers crossed for the situation continuing getting better everywhere.

Last couple of years should have taught us all to evaluate our lives, lifegoals and thing we want to achieve. It is so easy on the paper when you are pouring your soul into your personal notebook or stamping down the goals and prospects for your company. It gets definitely harder, when you are supposed to put your foot down and tell everybody what you are giving up, doing less and letting go in your life. I am lucky to have people around me who understand my goals of doing less and feeling better. So here are my goals and promises for 2022:

👉I am rising my pricing 10 % (this happens every 2 years just because I am gaining new skills all the time and also because the life is getting more expensive.)

👉I am taking every 4th week off even if it affects to many of my regular clients' scheduling. This is because:

    👊I have reached limits of my physical well-being in this profession (average massage therapist works for 7 years, I am starting my 16th year in this profession.)

    👊I am also working almost every weekend as a teacher, so off time is desperately needed.

    👊I am an avid writer and unfortunately I am the type of writer who needs space and time to get to the creative zone. 

👉I plan on going to Finland for 6-8 weeks on summer!

I still appreciate each and everyone of my clients, but it has been a rough journey to get to this point. I will be steady and more slowly working on my Ortho-Bionomy skills, but won't probably apply for any certification in it. I am perfectly happy doing things Kata's Way, since it is painless and effective. 

Have a Happy Holiday Season! 

Gut-Brain -Connection

Did you know, that our gut is the largest immunological organ of the human body (320-430 square feet) which means that 80% of the immune system cells are located in the gut. The information between gut and brain is a 24 hour dialogue through gut-brain axis, that is, vagus nerve (with a help of the blood circulation). This connection is a big part of the autonomic nervous system and functions as a security alarm to inform us when something is wrong in our body. (If you eat something inappropriate or dangerous, your gut makes you throw up.)

Our gut is full of bacteria, viruses and other microbiota which produce neurotransmitters and metabolites. Those are the important substances that do the actual communication between gut and brain IF there isn't too many barriers to overcome: stress, harmful bacteria, inflammation or restrictions in blood flow. Can you see now why I am so interested in this? As a trained bodyworker I can definitely help you with the circulation AND reducing stress level, if I keep the bodywork  and pressure of my touch in the right level. What I am mostly interested at the moment is HOW ORTHO-BIONOMY CAN REORGANIZE AND EMPOWER THIS SYSTEM AND THE GUT-BRAIN AXIS.

This huge communication system has now a name: Enteric (nervous) system and a bunch of scientist are looking for the cure to ADHD, autism, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's with the new information about gut flora and our individual bacterial fingerprint. There is still so much unknown about the subject, but we do know that stress reduces the information flow by reducing the amount of  serotonin and dopamine. If our body in stressful situations (injury, cancer, depression etc.) does not secrete enough of these transmitters and the gut-brain axis is blocked, the situation gets even worse and our body's healing powers can't really kick in. The latter I can help you with Ortho-Bionomy!

Ortho-Bionomy is very light form of treatment, but it really helps in various conditions. For me it means tuning in deeper to really listen your body and it's messages, and if you already are my client, you have experienced some bits and pieces of it. It is a HUGE advantage in my tool box and next year I will hopefully have a certificate to show that. The best news here are, that with Ortho-Bionomy I can treat you in some situations that for safety reasons so far I have refused to touch you (acute or severe pain, right after surgery or osteoporosis to mention a few).

Contact me about your unique situation and we can plan accordingly! If, and this is a big if, we decide that your treatment plan is to have plain Ortho-Bionomy Sessions, I will give my special student pricing for 2020 (25% off of packages 5 or more).

I love learning and helping you in your individual path of healing! I'm so proud to tell you that this is Kata's Way and it means that Balanced is Painless, but also because Balanced Gut means Better Functioning Brain, and Empowering your Immune System makes all the difference.

Next step

2019 has been a great year after all! I'm back on working 4 days a week, because I just need to. First of all, I have plenty of clients who I love, and there seems to be more waiting to get in. How great is that. Secondly, I am so exited about learning new stuff that I want to practice every day!

As I have mentioned earlier, I'm in a learning process of a new style called Ortho-Bionomy. It has deepened my understanding of human body; it's structure, function and how all different systems intervene and connect to each others. I kind of already knew most of the stuff from my school in Finland, and because I have been working as a massage therapist over 10 year now, but Ortho-Bionomy has opened my eyes to feel and understand the connections in a new level. There is so much to learn!

Human body is not just muscles and bones, as we know, so we can't treat just those layers. We have plenty of knowledge about lymphatic drainage and myofascial release techniques as well as how cellular tissue or nervous impulses operate, and my training has always tried to get deeper into all this information. Now I feel like Ortho-Bionomy is truly giving me practical tools to do this! All I need to do, is learn to listen.

At the moment I feel like everything is about how to meet my clients' body, and then decide what level of that body to work with. It feels like I have finally grown not only eyes, but also ears on my fingertips, so that I can detect what is needed. And as you know, it's not always what your brain want, sometimes we need to work in a completely different level to release the tension on an effected area. I can always keep pushing the tissue and force the trigger point to open, but in that case we have simply over-ruled the nervous system and compromised the healing process. Healing happens in certain order that is individual, and who am I to decide how your body heals?

I am swimming in the deep waters of learning how Enteric nervous system functions and more importantly: how we can help it! Of course I knew the importance of Vagus Nerve, but only in past couple of months I have UNDERSTOOD the significance. Think that we can support our nerves by creating order in digestive system or that opening brain-gut-axis can affect how we feel and support the hormonal balance. For me this is truly amazing and eye-opening!

I am sure you will be hearing me explain these new discoveries and also my frustration with so much new stuff to learn to! I am so happy to keep learning and being inspired by this. My professional framework stays the same, but my understanding of this line of work has already deepened my skills a lot and shift is happening: I won't have any idea about what's going to happen in each and every session, but this works in so many ways. My goal is to be worth it and be the best supporter to Your health in your current situation!

That is, has been, and will be Kata's Way, and that my friends, is Balanced and Painless, but only if I can stay Balanced and Painless. There will be more time off 2020, but also so much deeper understanding of the world we live in. There are so many possibilities, alleys and paths to dig into. For me, this is the only way and I am honored to share it with you!

Check my pricing for 2020 on upper right corner.

I want to wish you Merry Christmas and a Very Special Year 2020. The new decade.

Let's treat your wrists - but ankles first!

So many of us have some numbness, tingling or even pain in our wrists. The more you need to use your computer, especially the mouse, more prone you are to any trouble in your wrists or in your thumbs. If these symptoms are left unattended for a long time, you could have ended up to a diagnosis called the carpal tunnel syndrome. While I certainly hope that you are seeking my help a long before you have that diagnosis, there is something worth trying before scheduling that surgery. The surgery should be ultimately the last choice and there won't be any harm done, if we try to resolve your 'tight' wrist in Kata's Way.

You know that wrist is connected to forearm. Hah, that's what I learned at the massage school. In my work that simply means that the first step to take care of wrists, is to treat the forearms, and the second step would be making sure that also the metatarsals (the bones on hands) and fingers are working the way they should. When we have proceeded to this point at the my treatment, it means that I have already opened the lymph on the forearms, discovered what is going on in your flexors, extensors and rotatores of wrist and most probably we have also done some movement therapy for your elbow to make sure that this hinging joint is functioning without any restrictions.

But wait a minute, before we can truly open up the lymph channels on forearms, they need to be opened on an armpit and chest. While I do that, I also check the tightness of your pecs (chest muscles) and their opposite forces which would be upper back muscles and shoulder rotatores. That actually means that I need to treat your upper back and spine, before we can concentrate to the forearms and wrists.  If you, like all the rest of us, have a slightly forward leaning posture, we should work on that before we proceed to the arms.

At this point I'll ask you again (it's on the questionnaire) or you just got reminded that you have actually have some discomfort in your low back. So, we'll take a quick look to that and find out that left and right side of hip muscles are kinda imbalanced and left (or right) hamstrings are awfully tight. While I work those hamstrings, I also notice same side lateral tightness in calf and we end up talking about how you broke or sprained your ankle several years ago and since that the one ankle has been looser or tighter or in the wrong position or shins has been aching or something else.

So, we make the treatment plan and start from that imbalance in the ankle and treat the shins, quads and hamstrings the next time. The third session is all about hips and some work on legs to be sure. On the forth session we concentrate to the spine and keep working on the posture in sessions five and six. Then, when you come back for the seventh time, we finally get into that forearm, which actually has already been so much better and numbness has already been dissipating significantly. I will still work with your arms, forearms and wrist for a couple of sessions, since we truly want to get rid of that pain and discomfort for good.

Basically this is my work with you: we'll start from somewhere, but eventually we need to touch every part of your body to make sure that different parts function in sync. Sometimes everything goes this smoothly, but many times I have told my client after the third session that we have reach the point where I'm not sure I can help you. And then I will do that again after the seventh session, if I still feel that I'm not delivering what you expect. This simply means, that treatment is a negotiation where I do my share and you do yours. I will give you my honest opinion and explain what I've accomplished and what leaves me questioning my abilities to help you in your current situation.

There is no guarantee in the bodywork, but as a therapist I will always try to find the underlying cause and you may discontinue the treatment plan whenever you feel like it. That is the way I work! My way in Painless, effective, different and time consuming, but it works. I don't deliver the schemed sessions since I never know what will happen ahead of time. So many times I have told a client that today we will focus your shoulders and then I have spent 60 minutes in the hips. This may seem that I don't know what I'm doing (half of the time I don't actually), but it also means that I have the skills to listen to your body and its needs. That's how we get results.

Welcome to Kata's Way! It's Balanced (whenever I am Balanced) and it's Painless.

That's the simple goal.

How did I get here?

The schools are getting ready to start a new semester, which means that it's time for the new cycle, the beginning of the (school) year. This is the time when I want to buy a new calendar even though my current one is valid until the end of this year. The beginnings have always been important and powerful times for me; I love fresh starts and  creating something new gives me such a joy and feeling of being in a center of things.

This past July has very much felt like a new beginning in my professional career. Here are couple of the reasons for these feelings: first of all, I have got a several new clients in July and that always refreshes my way of thinking. I love the challenge, and resolving some physical issues together with a client just feels extra good! The second thing that comes to my mind, is the fact that I (finally) got over the hump of turning fifty. I know it's just a number, but for some (hormonal) reasons, the past year has been pretty harsh for me. I have been struggling with some imbalances and it took me too long to figure out that not everything can be solved in the physical level. I have been taking care of me, I have been exercising, I have had a somewhat healthy diet and my family is here with me and everybody is ok. Still, I was exhausted, grumpy and in the surviving mode. Finally I decided to do something about it, and accepting hormonal (organic and natural) supplement has helped me to feel like me again!

The third thing that affects my life in every day, is the fact that I am Finnish! That might sound like a no-brainer, but the roots of the identity are pretty deep in me. You know, I am a Finnish teacher and my training for a massage therapist was not just that, it was the Traditional Finnish Way of holistic, therapeutic bodywork and multi-dimensional treatment. Being a Finn is my brand, my identity and my way of living. Back home I didn't ever think about it, but I had my colleagues and my professional networks to think things over. I was a part of the community in which everybody supported each others, and gave feedback or boost whenever you needed. I lost all that when I moved to the States. I re-created myself and my work (which wasn't easy) and I still take a huge proud of everything I have accomplished (like being able to write this post, which yet isn't without mistakes, but I get my message out there pretty easily) in the past 7 years.

That just brought me to the fourth circumstance: I have lived here for SEVEN years. I have already lived one big cycle in this second home of mine. That became very clear this summer when I spent four weeks in Finland being a tourist. Me -  a tourist -  in my own country! Every earlier visit that has felt awful and heartbreaking, like something gnawing slices out of your soul. But all of the sudden in summer 2019, for the first time, that was okay. I was able to give up an outer layer of my identity to make space for something new to emerge. I can be Finnish living in the US and I don't have to give up what I have learned even when I am starting to learn something new. I let go my pretty obnoxious adolescence and dug deeper into my soul. I found myself eager to return back home, to my current life, in the US.

So here I am. I am creating a new community, learning new style and having my life in order. We don't know what future holds, but at the moment I am full of positive energy, ready to conquer my career to the next level. Everything is changing while everything in my core self stays the same. I will be working next 20 years and future will bring us stronger and deeper Kata's Way. Still, that is the best and the most effective treatment that I have (or will) ever learned, because it's all about the Balance. I might have found a momentary balance in my personal life, in my physical body, in my work and all these other circumstances we call Life.

I am going to enjoy this Balance as long as I can. In my work I do sometimes know what I'm doing, but what's more important: when I have no idea what I am doing, my client's own ability to heal takes over! My job is to keep balancing. And taking care of myself. Balanced is Painless and sometimes life is too. Let's enjoy these moments!

The Big 2019

It looks like the year 2019 is a BIG ONE. In so many ways. Let me tell you.

Right before Independence Day 2019 it will have been seven years since my family, including me, moved to the United States. SEVEN years. In the mysterious life of mine, and so many others, seven year cycle is an important and meaningful period of time that marks change, renewal and (self-)reflection. That is how it has always been for me. As many of you also have been reminded (not that I have been complaining too much, right?) that I just had a big birthday, which really didn't go as planned, yet I survived. I'm not saying that I feel old, but I am experiencing that this life of mine has brought me so much more understanding and maybe even wisdom, but it sure has introduced me to some stiffness, longer recovery time and funny hormonal changes. But let's not get too deep into that this time.

Most of you know me as an energetic and straightforward, but also creative and enthusiastic person, and those of you who are close to me, also know that I can be pretty introvert at times. But, more than anything, I do need something to be excited about, to be able to thrive and go forward. That excitement has been missing for a couple of years and I have been trying to tell myself, that this period of calming down is desperately needed. Maybe it was; I needed my time cocooning and gathering my thoughts, since something strong and powerful is evolving.

I need the change to stay alive! That's the truth, so I'm happy to be in the beginning of a new cycle. I am creating a new, better, less sustainable way of living and working. It will include some self-reflection, but even more recilience and perseverance towards me and my own ways. I know what I'm doing and I will learn to do it in a less wearing way. My inner turmoil and learning process will have some effects to my clients: I will upgrade my skillset this year and raise my rates next year. I will bring more ease to my work, lessen the pressure I have taught myself to use and be more perceptive to my clients needs. That will not work for some of you, so I truly won't mind if you decide to find an another therapist (I will recommend one for you if needed).

I need to do this for me, to keep learning, to find the passion that was lost for awhile. I want to keep some variety in my work (like extremely interesting neuropathy work and frozen shoulder protocol), but my style of working will definitely lighten up and have more and more pieces of Ortho-Bionomy. Some of you won't experience any changes since I already have changed some pieces of my protocol, some of you will experience the big shift in their treatment plan, an all this happens because I can't physically keep working the way I have been past years. I just can't!

With my new style there's going to be some days that nothing seems to be working, and there will a lot of explaining what I do. It's actually pretty funny; I need to talk myself through some pieces where I usually tend to start pushing and forcing the tissues, verbalizing seems to help me keep focused at this point of learning process. Feel free to tell me if you need your relaxing time on my table to be quiet. I promise to do my best.

I will definitely explain more later, there is so much to learn! I feel like my whole belief system needs to be changed in a way. But nothing will change, that's the beauty of this treatment. I will always do my best to help you in your issues and aches. This is Kata's Way and that means Balanced is Painless. Let's make it painless for me too!

See you in July, I'm off to Finland for a month.

Neuropathy

Hello my friends!

It's August and the beginning of a new season is on the door. I don't know about you, but I'm ready to buy new calendar, some notebooks and binders because the fall is calling. Maybe it's because I have been a teacher for such a long time, that in August I start preparing for a new (school) year?

Well, I don't need a new calendar at the moment, nor have I purchased new gadgets, but I am full of excitement after a couple more lazy months. Today I want to talk you about Neuropathy!

As you already know me, I won't give you a complete picture of the ugly and very, very uncomfortable disorder, that's your doctor's job, but I will tell how I have been able to help my clients who suffer this condition. Neuropathy can be not only painful, but also very disturbing with numbness, tingling, cramping, twitching, over-heated or restless legs and feet. It can be all of those at the same time.

There is nothing I can do to help with inflammation of the nerves or your (pre)diabetes, or other causes of this condition, nor can I promise to make your feet painless. But I do promise to:
- bring flexibility back to your tendons and muscles on your feet,
- help your ankle to function in it's best
- open up your peroneal, tibialis, gastros and soleus (meaning calves) muscles
- make sure that flexors and extensors of the feet are equally strong
- open up each and every joint, muscle, tendon and ligament connected to metatarsals and
- make your feet feel good!

When all this is done, many of my clients have been able to stay painless 5-15 days in a row! 

So, neuropathy is one of the rare cases when I need you to come see me weekly at least for 6-8 weeks and pretty frequently even after that, because we need to keep peripheral blood flow going and help the lymph climb up towards the heart manually. Clients with neuropathy also need to keep seeing me frequently; some clients stay symptomless with monthly treatment, others need the 30-45 minutes treatment every 2 to 3 weeks.

I hope that you are not suffering from neuropathy, but if you are, don't hesitate to contact me and get same help! We can figure out together if Kata's Way can help you. And Kata's Way is painless, very relaxing and effective. 

Plantar Fasciitis

My clients keep asking me about plantar fasciitis and is there anything to be done? Yes! There is a lot I can do to help you either with your diagnosed plantar fasciitis or any other unspecified  heel, foot or ankle pain or discomfort. This is one of my specialties and usually pretty easy to fix.

Question number 2 is usually (and it should be) that how many treatments is needed to 'heal' plantar fasciitis? That is a bit harder to answer without knowing what has happened to the ankle (yes, an ankle is always involved), is there more muscular or ligamental changes and what is the current state of inflammation. If there is an acute inflammatory processes going on (that means there is pretty severe pain), that needs to be dealt with first, before we can really treat the area of pain. But that doesn't mean we can't start the treatment, on the opposite.

What ever part of the body I am balancing or treating, I will first treat all the surrounding tissues to 'make room' for the troubled part of the body to accept healing properties and lymphatic fluids to do their cleaning. In case of a foot issue that means concentrating on the muscles and tendons on your shins and calves.You can read more about the ankle on my last post, all that is valid with plantar pain! But the deeper (or original) reason for the discomfort could be found actually anywhere in the body, so there is no treatment plan without going through the whole body at least once.

With plantar fasciitis there is a pretty effective stretching program for you to follow, so I will be teaching that too, so you can fast up your healing process. But remember, stretching is much more effective if the tissues are relaxed, bones in their right place and muscles brought back to their normal length.

An answer to the question number 2 will always be an estimate, but I have been able to help my clients with these issues in 4 to 10 treatments. Sometimes we have concentrated to relax the foot for a half an hour twice a week for a couple weeks, before being able to rally work through the muscles of the calves and shins. Some clients have been training for a marathon, so we needed to schedule the treatments a bit differently: you just can not run 16 miles the day (actually 2 days) after the treatment!

In Kata's Way the key is, that Balanced is Painless and on our way to the whole body balance there is some steps forward and backward. Pain is your body's cry for help and we have to respect that and proceed accordingly. But, if you can not see ANY improvement after 3 sessions, we need to re-consider our treatment plan and if Kata's Way is the best suitable way for you.

I wish to see you soon and find a right way to help you. This is Kata's Way and it means Balanced is Painless!

P.S. I also offer an excellent, PAINFREE and most beneficial foot reflexology done in my way; half an hour ($40) or 45 minutes ($60) session available. Check the pricing for 3 or 5 series. 

Take time to yourself and believe in what you do!

Two of the most important and the most difficult things for me, and I believe I'm not the only one with this, are to remember to take care of myself and to believe in my skills. It's easy to say, but sometimes difficult to achieve, to stay in a balance with your work, social life, taking care of yourself and free time. Yes, taking care of me just can not be considered as free time, not in this profession.

My work is quite physical, but even more intentional and staying in the moment. My job is to discover misabalance and disstress in my clients' bodies, and to be able to do that, there cannot be a huge misbalance in my own body, nor distress in my life. Or, I should say: there shouldn't be, since I'm struggling with the same issues as you are. I have muscle tension, overly stretched ligaments, reduction in lymphatic flow, my hip tends to rotate on one side and I do have a tension neck most of the time. Not fun, since I cannot treat myself.

So how do I cope? Of course I have a bunch of  great therapists around me and they certainly help me a lot, but I'm also getting better in taking time to be with me. For me and my overly sensitive body, it's a necessity to recognize why I get stuck. Sometimes it's just an amount of clients I take care of some week, but most of the time there's something else happening in my life, that I have ignored. Let me tell you an example.

I'm living one of my most interesting summers at the moment (I have only once been more excited than now and that was four years ago when we moved to States in the beginning of July). I had visitors from home to take part in my daughter's graduation and they stayed for over three weeks. On that time we drove to the beach and to the mountains and arranged a party for my daughter and also for Midsummer celebration (this is my family's tradition; to bring a piece of Finnish roots with us and celebrate the midsummer sun). And I was working. In a week I will travel to Minnesota, Duluth, to teach Finnish language at a week long seminar. After that I will be moving my daughter to the dorm for the first time.

I am super excited about all this, but it is taking a toll on my body. So what can I do? I just need to make sure that I have enough time to do nothing and enough time to exercise. I have just joined back to my book club, so I'll actually read something interesting (besides Principles of Osteopathy) and I have also started Pilates classes to challenge my body to work in a different ways. How exciting! To have someone guide me on-in-one for a couple times of week.

Because there is so much more to learn about human body. There is things you can learn from books, but that is not the only way, especially if you are a bodyworker. We all need touching, palpating and sensing what happens under our skin. And at least in my case, sensing needs time, you cannot rush the tissue for a quick reaction! I have decided to take that time and slow my process, feel the touch. If you feel like I am rushing with your treatment, please tell me that immediately. I believe that only working slowly with your tissue, in your body's allowance, all the sensations can reach the brain, parasymphatetic nervous system will activate and channels for refreshing and healing blood can flow to help the tissue.

I know, that this is the truth. Sometimes I still keep rushing and trying to prove that I can treat your whole body in an hour. Well, I can't! That is why I have added 90 minutes treatment to my services:
until the end of August, you can get 90 minutes treatment for $100 (or 3 sessions for $270, or 5 sessions for $425). I will update my pricing September 1st!

It is still Kata's Way and Balanced is Painless. 

You want to know a bit about me?

I think (well at least I hope) that you, who are reading this blog already know bit or pieces about me, but since I also hope that you refer my blog to your friends and colleagues, I want to tell a little bit about myself.

I am originally a Finnish Language Teacher from Finland and I never thought that I'd move anywhere farter away from my home than Tampere, where I lived over 20 years. And yes, I found my hubby at that city and my daughter was born there. She is our only child and currently a senior at Ardrey Kell High school, so we are soaked in a process of trying to find a great (and reasonable) college here.

So, what does a Finnish Teacher do in Charlotte, North Carolina? She is learning her way to resolve some physical issues that are causing a discomfort or even pain in our bodies. I started my way to this second profession because I had some back pain of my own, and I certainly did not like the way my doctor treated me. There had to be a better way to help than give a bunch off pills and tell that it's just a matter of growing old. I was in my early 30's at that time! I tried some massage (it helped me a ton!), some foot reflexology (so relaxing if it is done that way) and then I finally found a therapist who was called a Bonesetter.

He changed my life! He was a welder in his 60's and his office for this bodywork located in his garage. He glanced at me and said: "You little girl (33 yrs and a mother of one) have a major issues with your right knee. That need to be placed back in it's place, so that we can relax those muscles in your spine. Seems like you have issues at your right wrist also." All that in 2 minutes. I was blown away and thougt that he must possess some magical eye! And then he did his assessment and treated me 3 times.

I had seen my chiropractor 4-6 times a year 5 previous years to keep my body functional and able to work, and this man took all my pain and discomfort away in 3 sessions! There was absolutely NO PAIN or discomfort during the sessions, but my body felt a bit 'off' after each treatment for a day or two. I enjoyed every minute of his his sessions (no need to anticipate what's gonna pop next like with chiropractic adjustments) and: I was amazed!
So, I learned that this treatment is an 'ancient' and organic and kinda folklore's  way of massaging people and there has been quite a bit of these masters mainly in the Ostrobothnia area in Finland. I also learned that there's an association whose main purpose is to document this treatment as authentic as possible and educate newer masters to keep this historical treatment alive. There was not two words about it, I headed to learn this treatment myself and found my calling.

It took me 3 1/2 years to master enough skills to get a certificate and start helping my clients. I also certified as a licensed massage therapist and learned some reflexology, head massage and aromatherapy on my way, but there was never a question about what I truly want to do and which way to develop my skills. It is this Integrative, Structural, Functional, Medical, Therapeutic way of soft tissue treatment that I do the best. And yes, sometimes it is called as a bone setting, but I really don't like that name, since we don't set any bones in 21st century. We have a great amount of surgeons to do that; my work is to make sure that your bones have enough room surrounding them and by that I'm talking about muscles, tendons, ligaments, nerves and lymphatic system among other things. Those are the areas and systems I work with. And my work always includes touching.

Well, life is full of surprises and one of them was a chance (well, chance for someone, more like a challenge to others) to move to U.S. since my husband was relocated in his company. So here we are, and now a Finnish Teacher is re-educating some muscles and kinetic chains to move better, more effortless and painless ways. After 4 years in Charlotte I am definitely loving it and finding my ways to learn and treat my awesome, open-minded clients. I still don't know everything (ha ha, never will), but I am surrounded by these great therapists and co-workers I can learn with.

I had to accomplish massage therapy license here in NC (yes, I went back to school) and I have been working as a massage therapist practically 2 years now. I have done some CE (continuing education) classes and found myself a great office with the best possible chiropractor to work with. I am ready to do this!

But I am who I am, and I need to work my way. I wish that you will challenge my way, ask me questions and make me explain what I do and why I do it the way I do. I am here to learn and since I don't have many colleagues in U.S. (that's not completely true, there is one in Gainesville, Florida), I have to find this way as I go. Step by step. And every step is with a pure intention and an open mind. I have a great background education, but that is only the beginning in this career.

I hope You will enjoy this path with me: It's Kata's Way and Balanced is Painless.

P.S. I am struggling a bit between keeping this blog as authentic as my written English is or ask someone to proof read it. What do you think? Can you manage with my mistakes, this a blog, not my official web page, after all.

A couple Testimonials

I love my clients. I love my work. Here's two testimonials:

"Kata my friend I'm so thankful we met. Your hands are healing tools...better than any drug or medication. I feel my body healing with every session. I would highly recommend you to anyone who wants to improve their health of body or in need of pain relief. Thank you and I can't wait for my next appointment." Deborah Clese 2016 


"My sessions with Kata are extremely relaxing, and my aching muscles always feel so much better after I have seen her. She has a friendly nature, is very professional and knowledgeable, and what I really love, is that she genuinely cares about doing an excellent job. 

Kata has a gentle touch, but don't be fooled, the beauty of her work is that I experience tremendous relief without any painful massage. She is a gifted practitioner who is able to listen to my body and do exactly what it most needs to regain balance.

As I do a lot of exercise, and spend hours painting, I see her every month to help maintain good health by addressing any issues that have arisen since I last saw her." Rachel Linnett, 2015

Love your neck!

Some of you know that 'Text Neck' is fast becoming a huge issue in out health. Not just adults, but adolescent and even children, suffer neck pain and head ache due to excessive use of mobile devices. Everywhere you go, you'll see people looking downwards to their devices and soon the muscles of the neck become extremely tight and stretched or shortened.

More specific info you can read at this great article: 

Text Neck

Opening a spine with my thumbs

Sometimes we need an Advil or too to help with immediate pain, but I hope that you all understand, and explain to your children, that painkillers never correct any factors or issues behind the pain. Any kind of pain is  an important signal from your body that yells: something is wrong!

Client helping with 'wings up'.

Usually neck pain and headache will  just gradually get worse if we don't remove the tightness of muscles attaching to upper spine and neck area and correct the posture. That is what I do in my work: correct the posture with clients help.

If you have neck/head pain, my main goal is to bring back the flexibility of mid and upper spine, which allows your a better, natural, posture. And I am not talking just how you're supposed to constantly think of sitting/standing with your head up, but allowing those deep postural muscles to do their job. And for that they need nutriens, blood and mobilization, since the lack of blood had been immobilizing the deep muscles (think how the motor of your car needs oil, our joints and muscles need circulation the same way).

Client helping with 'wings down'.

With special technique that I have learned the mid and upper body treatment is being done in seated position! That allows the spine movements and gravity to help in the process. The prone (face down) positioned massage  won't allow me to use all the natural movements of the spine (flexion, extension, side flexion and rotation), so that's why I add seated part (15-45 minutes) to my type of spine massage. And I strongly suggest you to join to my excellent spine stretching workshops every Wednesday @11!

Relieving subscapularis muscle - I will not force
it, so there is NO PAIN.

So help your neck and relieve the balance of your muscles. Keeping our posture upright is hard work and I can not do it for you. But I can re-activate and soften the muscles, make sure that joints are moving in their best range of motion and help your nervous system function in its best. And all that I do, in painless, gentle and there is no manipulation of bones! (I can refer you to an excellent chiropractic care in case I suspect there is something out of alignment in vertabrael level.)

Welcome to an evaluation for $25 or just book the first treatment for $60 (70minutes!). It's Kata's Way that keeps you in balance. And Balanced is Painless!

Our Feet

Those of you who already know me, also know that I like feet. Not just my own, but also my clients. That´s simply because everything starts there. Feet are like a basement of a house and you sure want to have a firm, healthy and stable base to built your house on.

Here is some facts (http://www.webmd.com/pain-management/picture-of-the-feet):

The feet are flexible structures of bones, joints, muscles, and soft tissues that let us stand upright and perform activities like walking, running, and jumping. The feet are divided into three sections:

• The forefoot contains the five toes (phalanges) and the five longer bones (metatarsals).
• The midfoot is a pyramid-like collection of bones that form the arches of the feet. These include the three cuneiform bones, the cuboid bone, and the navicular bone.
• The hindfoot forms the heel and ankle. The talus bone supports the leg bones (tibia and fibula), forming the ankle. The calcaneus (heel bone) is the largest bone in the foot.

Muscles, tendons, and ligaments run along the surfaces of the feet, allowing the complex movements needed for motion and balance. The Achilles tendon connects the heel to the calf muscle and is essential for running, jumping, and standing on the toes.

 My job is to make sure that each and every one of those joints are movable, muscles and soft tissues are flexible and there is no ischemia. What does that mean?

In my treatment I will check all the joints between each parts of toes, toes and metatarsals, between metatarsals, between cuneiform and cuboid, between cuboid and navicular etc, you get the picture. Sometimes the muscles and tendons are so tight that the first session goes on more superficial (soft tissues) work, since a big part of the picture are muscles of the shins (peroneals, tibialisis, soleus and gastrocnemius) and only in the second session we can try to move those ligaments to open the joints.

Opening the joints is essential because we want all the nervous tissue be free of any kind of impingement and discomfort. Is it painful? Definitely no, if it's done in a right way. When I am opening your joints, it happens with time and you probably don't even feel it. If we have more stubborn foot, I might ask you to flex and extend your ankle, so that you are always in charge of the movement. That is if I have a slightest idea that my work would give you any pain.

Why you want your feet to be flexible? Because that is how they are meant to be to keep you going. If we wouldn't need the flexibility all those joints give us, we wouldn't have that many joints in our feet!

Most of you have also heard about Reflexology, that addresses all the pressure points at the souls of the feet to help in a huge variety of issues. And yes, I do some reflexology, but that is not my specialty or the field where I am in my most comfort zone. In my believe, you can't get all the benefits of reflexology if you feet lack blood, are swollen or immovable. If the signal from the brain (like keep your feet warm) can't reach the feet, how can the signal from the feet (reflexology) make it's way to a different parts of the body? At least the reflexology session is much more helpful to you if your feet are healthy.

Okay, I will not start to explain about how an imbalance in one ankle affect to the knees and hips etc. You can read about that in my other blog posts (About Posture, More about Soft Tissues) . But what I want to tell you, is that I am able to help you so many issues with your feet: plantar fasciitis, bunions(!), rheumatoid arthritis to a certain point, achilles tendon issues, edema, calluses(!), corns, heal spurs, fallen arches, mallet toes and claw toes (depending on situation) and sometimes even in Morton's neuroma. My treatment is helpful also in cold feet or even peripheral artery disease and peripheral neuropathy if it is supervised by a medical doctor.

Unfortunately I can not help you, if you have gout, fraction, any kind of infection or osteoarthritis or osteoporosis (unless your doctor is working with us). I also need to know and be prepared, if you have warts, athlete's foot or any other kind of fungal infection.

And if you don't have anything special going on with your feet, just come and relax. I know some relaxation techniques that make you sleep in my table.

Loving your feet is healthy!

What are those soft tissues I keep talking about?

  Ok, let’s take a second try. Blogger was so kind and throw away all my hard work yesterday. I am going to try to explain what I mean about all the soft tissues I keep talking about. Like you already know, I am a licensed massage therapist and as so, I feel blessed to work in a field I truly love and am passionate about. But I am also something more. Or should I say, that I am trained in a two different ways.

Originally my massage therapist's studies are from Finland, where it takes 10 months to complete your studies and get your license. We were taught pretty much the same techniques than here in NC, but our qualification system differs quite a bit. On the other hand the muscles and joints are the same where ever you are learning your basics, so I feel pretty confident about knowing my muscles. Well, at least I have learned them (and passed my exams) twice; once in Latin and second time in English. (And by the way all the 650+ muscles also have a name in Finnish).

But my true passion is that functional and structural bodywork in which I completed 3 year program while working with my clients. We were taught to see the big picture and in my education it was crucial to see the differences between the body's left and right side, rotation in your skeleton and leg length discrepancy (pretty often caused by rotation in hip bones). We were challenged to analyze different ways to stabilize the body and see how dysfunction in joint or a problem in a  range of motion will affect to another joint. I am also able to see and feel adhesion not only in a muscle, but also in a ligament and analyze its function to the whole kinetic chain.

Pictures are about ankles; here flexion.

That being said, I pretty often start by treating your ankle, even if you make your appointment to treat pain in your neck. That is because if your left ankle (‘s joints) isn’t functioning properly, that definitely affects to your (left) knee. And if you have trouble in your knee, your body will compensate it all its best ways to keep pain away and that brings you (most probably) some trouble in the opposite hip, which tries to ease up left knee’s job. And finally, if your hips’ muscular balance is off, your spine compensates the situation and you might end up having neck issues. Sounds easy enough, right? But no, it is not that easy or predictable every time, but that’s pretty much how it goes.

This is the way my special training in Finland taught me to see your body, and I am unable to see it any other ways. I can (and I am) use many different techniques and modalities, but my inner self always wants to figure out this chain of functional and structural alignments, and try to bring your left and right side as even as they can in their current situation be. So, I work with your tendons (they attach your muscles to the bones) and ligaments (they attach bone to bone where is no muscle) as much as with your muscles. My work is always gentle, so stretching the tendon is not painful, and we’ll do it together with a client’s own movement.

But our body is not only muscles, tendons, ligaments and bones, but as I have recently learned, we have to pay so much more attention to our lymphatic system, since it is one of our cleaning processes and has everything to do with our immune system too. Lymph has its special ways and directions to run around our body, but unfortunately it doesn’t have its own designated pump (like the hearth is the pump for blood circulation). Our lymph needs movement to keep functioning properly and in many cases we (yes, I am looking at my own mirror right here and now) are sitting too much and not being active enough. The best lymph pump is to get up and walk/get up and down to your toes/run. So again, if you come to see me with that neck pain and I figure out that your lymph isn’t functioning as well as it should be, we’ll go back to your feet and start our pain relieving process from there. Just be prepared, that I could suggest you something completely different that you think you need, and so we’ll make you a customized treatment plan.

But it is always up to you. Or actually, let’s just ask your nervous system what it wants to have done. This is probably the biggest difference between Kata’s Way and deep tissue/trigger point massage (and I can do both): I don’t want to give you any pain! (And actually, no therapy, not trigger point therapy nor deep tissue massage should ever, ever, be painful.) In Kata’s Way we go as deep to your tissues than your tissues allow. So simple! If I try to press too hard, your nervous system gets activated in a nanosecond, and do you think that hyperactive nervous system will allow us to relieve any pain? Then, if you ask me to go deeper, I will tell your brains to be quiet, since I’m working with the body and not with your brains. And I say it with all my love.

And here's the extension (of one) of  the ankle joint.

Now, don’t get me wrong; my treatment will be effective and deep, sometimes even a bit uncomfortable, but if you really want some deep deep tissue work, maybe I am just wasting your time (and you are wasting money). But if you have some specific issues (tennis/golf/shoulder tendonitis, plantar fasciitis, sciatica etc.) or you just feel that something is off, please come to see me and we’ll figure out together, if my style and my skills can help you.

Your body is an amazing system and it knows how to heal itself. You just need to know how to listen. I am pretty good at listening your body, so please bring your body to me and let’s figure it out together. I am here to learn new ways to help you relieve your pain and bring your body to its balance.