Body in Context Medical Massage & Wellness Clinic

You may have noticed something different downtown at the old Video Quick location. Over the last month, the building has begun undergoing a transformation… into Body in Context Medical Massage and Wellness Clinic. The clinic is the realization of a dream for Talent locals Brian and Helene Shoen. “We wanted to fill a need we saw in our community for affordable, focused care for injury, pain, and holistic wellness. Too often people are hurting after accidents and injuries, sometimes for years, and don’t know what to do beyond taking pain medications. We wanted to offer a holistic alternative to that. Pain does not have to be your ‘new normal’.”

THE GROWTH OF ‘BODY IN CONTEXT’
What brought them to our area? “We had been visiting family and dear friends in the area for over 10 years and just fell in love with it. Once we were ready to leave Maui, we knew we’d end up in Southern Oregon... and Talent just seemed like home.” They moved to Talent in 2017 and originally opened their practice in a building adjacent to their home across from the Talent library with just one treatment room.

Their practice quickly began to grow, and soon they needed to dedicate another room and then an office. In the last year it continued its rapid growth and it quickly became apparent that it was time for another expansion. “When the space opened up downtown we took a deep breath and decided it was time to take the next step.” While Brian and Helene have been tackling the exterior work, a team of local contractors has been hard at work inside helping them realize their vision: “We’re really excited. We’re adding new walls so that we will have a total of 4 treatment rooms and still a good sized lobby for patient education and community health workshops.”

When can we expect a grand opening? “We’re already open for appointment-only business at our location across from the library on Lapree Street and will be continuing to accept new patients there until the work at the new location is completed.” They hope to be finished with the renovations sometime in mid-to-late September and will be announcing their Grand Opening at the new location (100 W. Valley view, next to Biscuits & Vinyl) sometime shortly after that. To book an appointment you can schedule online at www.bodyincontext.com

THE TEAM
You might recognize Brian and Helene from their booth at the Friday evening Markets; or perhaps have run into them outside of their new clinic location, up a ladder painting the exterior, weeding, watering and digging holes for the new landscaping.

Over the last decade the pair have both been guest instructors and core faculty at several top therapeutic massage schools, including Maui School of Therapeutic Massage, National Holistic Institute and, most recently, our own local Ashland Institute of Massage. Along with teaching, they have had their own successful Medical Massage practices and have also worked at high-quality therapeutic massage clinics and top rated spas on Maui.
The couple are enthusiastic about their field and are always looking to expand their knowledge and skills; “We’re truly health and wellness geeks.

We really love understanding how the human body works and ways to help it return to balance. We’re always on the lookout for specialized therapeutic training that will allow us to better help our patients get out of pain and regain their lives.” The couple has extensive training in both the physical sciences (e.g. anatomy, physiology, kinesiology and pathology) and manual therapy modalities, including everything from cadaver dissections to in-depth training for specific conditions from whiplash, nerve entrapment and rotator cuff issues to trigger point-induced headaches, low back pain and dysfunction, thoracic outlet syndrome, sciatica and beyond.

MEDICAL MASSAGE: NOT JUST YOUR REGULAR MASSAGE
What makes Medical Massage different? “A lot of people are not familiar with the term ‘Medical Massage’. This type of manual therapy refers to massage that is results-oriented as opposed to aiming for overall relaxation. “Instead of only being able to give a generalized massage, we have the training to assess specific injuries or conditions and provide targeted, goal-oriented treatment to help people heal from their injuries and return to pain-free living.” Medical massage has been shown to be highly effective at reducing the development or continuation of chronic pain conditions by dealing with the root cause of the problem. Current studies have shown that the vast majority of pain in chronic conditions, over 80%, comes from soft tissue injuries and over 74% is directly related to trigger points.

In order to be most effective, Medical Massage should be provided by a practitioner with specialized training in dealing with specific injuries and conditions. “We utilize a lot of techniques that the standard massage therapist is often not trained in, including: orthopedic assessment, proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation, myofascial release, cranial sacral therapy, Polyvagal Theory, HRV biofeedback, trigger point therapy, dynamic cupping, IASTM, kinesiotaping, and manual lymphatic drainage”. This wide array of training, tools, and techniques helps them better address injuries and pathological conditions and help to speed recovery, even with older, longstanding injuries and dysfunctional movement patterns.

MEDICAL MASSAGE COVERED BY INSURANCE FOR MOTOR VEHICLE ACCIDENTS
“The most common cases we specialize in are due to Motor Vehicle Accidents. We have advanced training in assessment and specific therapeutic techniques to deal with Motor Vehicle injuries including whiplash, lumbar (low back), thoracic and hip issues that often surface after a collision.”

DO YOU NEED A DOCTOR’S REFERRAL?
“No, you don’t need a doctor’s prescription- You can still come and visit us without a referral. If you have pain, generalized tension or a newer or old injury you would like to work on, we’d be happy to help. The only difference is that without a referral you will be paying us directly for the treatment session instead of paying through your insurance.”
For those paying out of pocket, Body in Context offers a “Talent Locals” discount of 10% and also has affordable packages listed on their website which take the price per treatment down even more.

A HOLISTIC, MIND-BODY APPROACH TO PAIN: COUNSELING & HEALTH COACHING
The couple loves working together with other local health professionals. “Talent has a wonderful thriving community of health and wellness practitioners and we are proud to be part of this community. We love working with Middleway Medicine, Talent Chiropractic, The Movement Studio and the Talent Clinic along with others and really are looking forward to expanding our offering to help round out our local health community even more! We find the team-approach allows us to help a wider variety of people and leads to much better outcomes, much healthier, happier people.”

Body in Context will not only be bringing on other experienced LMTs and MMPs at their new location, but plan to have a mindfulness-based Somatic Counselor and a Board Certified Health Coach at the location to help balance out the team. The pair have both experienced the power of having a team of people to help them overcome their own injuries and chronic pain. “Sometimes pain runs much deeper than just a muscular or postural problem. We have both felt the benefit of having an experienced counselor to understand how our behaviors and emotions can play into the pain we feel in our lives—and then to have support from a health coach to turn that understanding into action and a healthy lifestyle.”

The team also have additional treatment spaces available for rent and are on the search for other mind-body aware practitioners from biofeedback coaches to naturopathic doctors to movement/yoga therapy and beyond to join their team.

Body in Context is currently located at: 102 Lapree Street. Their new soon be at 100 W. Valley View. Phone 949.842.6153