PERSONAL HISTORY

Paula retired early from a successful career as an advanced software analyst and designer in the education, government, military, and financial industries. Always independent and outspoken, Paula was not satisfied with the corporate atmosphere, so she left after 20 years of computer passion to create a new life devoted to helping others, even though she didn't yet know what that would be. It was a daring thing she did to leave her salary and health insurance with no replacement.

Chronic lung problems used to leave Paula with four-to-six infections a year. She never experienced a simple cold or flu, but instead learned to be frightened of the onset, for each cold or flu always turned into pneumonia or some form of bronchitis, usually asthmatic bronchitis. Each episode would leave her bedridden and exhausted for weeks, resulting once in a traumatic two-week hospitalization and later in a tonsillectomy. Knowing this about herself, she would go to the doctor upon first symptoms of illness, but they would send her home with accusations of hypochondria. When the illness took over, as it always did, she would return to be given high doses of antibiotics. Often the oral forms would not work and she had to return for antibiotic injections. Shortly before moving to New York City, she had the great fortune (and gall) to listen to an Osteopathic family physician and gynecologist, Dr. Grant Born, who also studied Functional Medicine; a branch of medicine concerned with nutrition at the cellular level. He discovered that many of Paula's frequent bouts of illness were due to a combination of stress-induced hypoglycemia, chronic, systemic candida, significant hormonal imbalance, and an unheard of volume of both food and environmental allergies and sensitivities. Dr. Born, unlike the others, chastised Paula to seek medical care at the onset of illness, not after it had already set in. Within a remarkably short period of time, as compared to the thirty-plus years prior, Paula's bouts of lung infections drastically decreased. This impressed her to her core and left her thirsty for a better understanding of human health, and more importantly, gave her hope for her own. Upon arrival to New York, Paula sought out only enlightened physicians and took care to learn all that she could from them.

This learning path took her into questionable areas of alternative medicine and philosophies. Open minded, yet critical, Paula discovered how to quickly separate the wheat from the chaff and like other areas of her self-directed learning, she kept what worked, and dismissed what did not. With her mathematical and computer background, explanations for why some of these alternative methods worked, did not sit well with her and she became interested in research. There is great benefit to nutritional medicine, manual therapies, and bioenergy systems, and Paula wants to help prove it.

Two years after her corporate retirement, Paula discovered she had a natural gift for touch healing and at the urging of a friend, entered massage school. Paula also has a remarkably sensitive nature, both physically and emotionally, that may make her appear an odd duck in the modern world, but she finally learned to embrace her sensitivities as gifts instead of burdens and they became the foundation for a successful private practice as a holistic healer. The goal of her practice, Massage Energetics, is to help people return to a higher level of health that leaves them far more resistant to cancer, heart disease, diabetes, fibromyalgia, and other undiagnosed chronic illnesses that plague our modern world, with the ultimate hope that one day natural medicine modalities and philosophies will be a welcome addition to mainstream medicine and the gold standard for preventive care.

VOLUNTEER APPOINTMENTS

  • Thermography and Motor Recovery Research Lab Assistant at NYU Medical Center's Rusk Institute for Rehabilitation Medicine. 2010-Present.

  • Fascial and Connective Tissue Dissection Assistant to Antonio Stecco, MD, from Padua Italy at the Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine Cadaver Lab. 2011.

  • Veterinary Surgical Assistant to Dr. Delfino Guevara from Mexico; an extremely talented surgeon and incredible humanitarian. 2001. "He changed my life just by believing in me." ~ Paula

  • Administrative Assistant and part-time understudy to the brilliant, but now deceased Serafina Corsello, MD, a specialist and teacher in the fields of Functional and Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM). 1999-2003

PROFESSIONAL HISTORY

  • Massage Energetics, New York, NY, 2003-Present

  • Medical Copy Editor, Independent Contractor, 2010-Present

  • Oncology Massage, Breast Cancer Department, Beth Israel and St. Luke's, Roosevelt, NY, 2004-2009

  • Computer Software Design and Senior System's Analyst, various, 1981-2001

MEMBERSHIPS

  • Associated Bodywork & Massage Professionals (ABMP)

  • Massage Therapy Foundation (MTF)

  • Sovereign Medical Order of the Knights of Hope (SMOKH)

  • Previous member of American Massage Therapy Association (AMTA)

EDUCATIONClick on image to check the licensing status of your NY massage therapist.
Finger Lakes School of Massage 2003

  • Global College of Natural Medicine, Santa Cruz, CA, Ongoing

  • Gil Hedley PhD; Somanautics Workshops, Inc., Integral Anatomy Intensive, 2011
  • Antonio Stecco MD; Cadaver Dissection and Ultrasound Course, 2011
  • Massage Cupping Therapy, Sedona College of Natural Health, 2011
  • 2nd International Fascia Research Congress, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2009

  • Natural Medicine Conference, SMOKH, Scottsdale, AZ, 2008

  • Cranial Sacral Therapy, Upledger Institute, NY, 2008

  • NY State Law & Legislation Symposium, AMTA, NY, 2008

  • 1st International Fascia Research Congress, Harvard Medical, Boston, MA, 2007

  • Mastectomy Massage, Cheryl C. Chapman, NJ, 2007

  • Secrets of Deep Tissue, Body Mechanics School, WA, 2006

  • Hospital Based Massage Therapy, Mount Sinai, NY, 2006

  • NY State Education Department, License #016325, 2003

  • Finger Lakes School of Massage, Ithaca, NY, 2003

  • Davenport College, Grand Rapids, MI, 1988

  • Grand Rapids Junior College, MI, 1984