"Its not just a matter of doing a lot of massages, it is about paying attention to what you are feeling and experiencing with your hands on a person’s body when the tissues are different than they should be when you start working, and feeling them change to be more pliable or supple and the person having less or no pain and more range of motion and improved function.”

Commitment • Experience • Passion

John is a licensed massage and body work therapist in North Carolina and South Carolina. He has been practicing massage full time for over 32 years, performing over 1-0,000 massages. He worked for three chiropractors part time from 1993 to 2001. He had the opportunity to work with many people who were in pain. John feels that his clients have been his greatest teachers.

Previous Education and Character Enhancing Experiences

B.S. Mechanical Engineering Louisiana State University
Designated Naval Aviator - Naval Aviation Flight School Pensacola Florida
Marine Officer and Helicopter Pilot 9 1/2 years including a year in Viet Nam, two years as flight instructor and 3 years as a search and rescue pilot.
Real Estate Broker 12 ½ years, 9 years selling on Hilton Head.
Licensed Massage Therapist from the time the license law passed in South Carolina in 1994 and in North Carolina when the law was passed there.

Educational Courses Taken

Oncology Massage, A course reviewing the clinical and practical considerations
relavant to the provision of massage for people with cancer. By Institute of Integrative Oncology, Oncology Massage, Skin Care and Wellness, and Educatinal Divisin of Greet the Day.
24 CE Hours Feb 7-9, 2015

Esalan Massage by Robin Fann Costanzo September 14-15,2013

Introduction to Manual Lymphatic Drainage by Lynn Harris October 5-6, 2013

Introduction to Manual Lymphatic Drainage by Laura Rose Boyle Oct 28-30 2011

Practical Applications of Shiatsu Course, by Jim Sandonato of Asheville NC

Pain Management Soft Tissue Techniques
27th Regional Symposium on Fibromyalgia
Neuro Muscular Therapy I and II
Integrative Neuro Muscular Therapy for Headaches
Connective Tissue Massage
Myofascial Components of Low Back & Leg Pain
Myofascial Components of Neck & Shoulder Pain
Clinical Applications of Structural Release Techniques
Cranial Sacral Therapy Level I, II
Reiki Level I, II
Medical Chi Gong
Chi Gong Healing
Advancements in Event & Clinical Sports Massage
Self study; nutritional aspects on health use of essential oils in massage

Touch for Health I

Touch for Health II

John studied Deep Tissue/Neuromuscular Therapy with Burt Gornto, of Columbia, SC. Burt Gornto trained many Massage Therapists in Columbia before the state of SC required mandatory training, certification, and licensing of Massage Therapists.

John passed the National Certification Exam for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork in 1994.

Read how John was led to massage therapy:

I have always wanted to help other people even in my childhood and adolescence. I saved two people from drowning , once when I was 13 and once when I was 17. I studied Mechanical Engineering in college. I wasn’t interested in biology until my senior year in college, when two things happened. I was the design team leader to build a mechanical brace for someone who had lost the use of their muscles below the knee. We won the Phillips design contest award for that year. I also attended a lecture on biomedical engineering. It was then that I realized that the human body is the most wonderful engineering masterpiece on the planet. I considered going on for a masters in biomedical engineering, but I was already committed to go into the US Marine Officer program and Naval Flight School. The year I spent in Viet Nam was a life changing experience. Flying Helicopters in Viet Nam was at times wonderfully exhilarating, and at times scary as hell! I was most passionate about flying Medivac and being a Maintenance Test Pilot. Also that year my father almost died of an aneurism to his main aorta. I was able to go on emergency leave and be with him for 16 days in London England where he was when he became ill. While there I began studying nutrition and its medicinal benefits. My experience in Viet Nam, with things that happen in war, my passion for Medivac, and my experience with my father led me to redirect my life to helping people have healthier, happier lives.

When I returned home, I became a helicopter flight instructor in the Naval Flight School in Pensacola Florida. My passion for nutrition inspired me to try to get into medical school about a year after I got back from Viet Nam. After a year of part time classes, it became obvious that my chances of getting into medical school were too slim to continue pursuing it. I made nutrition my avocation, and pursued other ways to make a living. Ultimately, however, my passion for nutrition and helping people led me to Reiki and energy work in 1987 and Massage in 1991.