Business - Business News

POSTED: Monday, Sep. 07, 2009

Bodywalk Massage offers feet-first approach

Each week The Bellingham Herald takes a closer look at a business. This week: Bodywalk Massage.

What it is: Danielle AhMaiua, who began her training at the Ashland Institute of Massage, offers four types of massage: Ashiatsu, therapeutic, Swedish and transformational. She has her own studio near the Haskell Business Center but also offers massage at clients' homes or offices as long as they live within 10 miles of Bellingham.

Ownership: AhMaiua began Bodywalk Massage in January of this year.

Employees: One.

How it began: AhMaiua worked for almost two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Republic of Kiribati - a chain of islands in the South Pacific about 1,000 miles north of Fiji. The people there had no doctors, no modern medicine, she said. When someone got sick, the locals massaged people and never asked for compensation.

"It inspired me so much beyond going to massage school," AhMaiua said. "It changed my view of life."

Before her experience in Kiribati, AhMaiua said she felt overwhelmed by career choices and assumed she would become a college professor.

"It makes such a difference when work doesn't feel like work, when it's just another part of life, another part of fun that you do."

What's makes it different: AhMaiua offers Ashiatsu massage - a pain-free method where the masseuse uses her feet.

"One of the biggest complaints about regular massage is it doesn't go deep enough," she said. "The great thing about the barefoot-style massage is I have total control over how much body weight I put down. It can always be as deep as someone needs it to be."

The foot also has a broader surface that creates a consistently smooth effect. People often equate barefoot massage with being walked on and being in pain, but that's not how AhMaiua says she performs the massage.

"It's like surfing or dancing," she said. "There's no stomping. It's a gliding, consistently deep pressure."

Bodywalk Massage

1221 Fraser St., Suite E-1

Bellingham, WA 98229

360-224-9550

bodywalkmassage.com