Healwell

Touch. Teach. Advocate. We touch people affected by illness. We teach massage therapists how to provide care safely and effectively.

We advocate for access to that care and for a broader role for massage therapists in healthcare. We all do better when we all do better. Effective, human-centered care is far from standard. Healwell partnerships provide care that prioritizes personal connection, quality of life and outcomes that are valuable from both the patient and provider perspective. We know that this kind of care does not exist in a vacuum and it never relies on a single discipline. When Healwell was founded in 2009, we did not fully understand how interdependent we all are as humans caring for humans. Over the years, as we have partnered with organizations, patients, family caregivers, researchers and others in ways that have opened our eyes to the need to be deeply collaborative. Thoughtful consideration and solutions to issues of racism, equity, access, inclusion and social justice are essential to the path forward toward health, even in the presence of disease. Our programs create and leverage unique synergies between research, service and education to bring all of health care, including massage therapy, to a higher level. A level that humanizes every single human. A level that listens generously. A level that redefines what it means to care. Our hands-on partnerships function not only as sites of compassionate clinical excellence where massage therapy shines its own light, but also augments the value of interventions that have long been considered standard. These collaborations also function as real world labs where we conduct research about important measures like self-efficacy, what it's like to be sick and what it's like to care for people who are sick. They are also our teaching labs where massage therapists and other providers who want to learn with us about how to cultivate deep self-awareness, effective, kind communication skills and personal accountability. Healwell is challenging the traditional silos of health care disciplines to create distinctive opportunities for interdisciplinary education and practice. We know that we'll go farther together, we'll create a broader impact in community and we also know that changing the world is just more fun with friends than it could ever be going it alone.

10/27/2025

Sometimes, one gentle touch changes everything. 💛
Your support helps make moments like this possible.

10/22/2025

Massage therapy creates connection. All donations up to $25,000 made by the end of the year will be doubled. Spread healing one touch at a time.

10/13/2025

Massage is healthcare for people affected by serious illness.

10/09/2025

Stephen Porges’ work on Polyvagal Theory continues to challenge practitioners across disciplines to move beyond reductionist thinking and embrace the complexity of human nervous systems. Maybe it’s time we in the massage therapy world stopped asking “What do I do with my hands?” and started asking “What state am I in, and what state is my client in?”

How Polyvagal Theory Reframes the Work of Manual Therapy

10/06/2025

Every connection made with a person affected by serious illness has lasting impacts.

09/29/2025

From pain management to holding space for a person to just be... massage makes being sick suck less.

09/25/2025

In our newest Substack, Corey Rivera tackles the several different-but-also-kind-of-the-same meanings of emotional labor.

Why Your Clients Would Follow You to the Ends of the Earth

09/22/2025

Don't take our word for it... massage makes a difference for people affected by serious illness.

09/18/2025

Healwell's Executive Director, Cal Cates with Dr. Sarah Fogarty, and Ronna Moore wrote “A Qualitative Scoping Review of Massage and Massage Therapy on the Mental Health and Well-being of Individuals Living with a Serious and Potentially Life-limiting Physical Illness” (catchy, right?!). The aim of this review was to explore the contribution of massage and massage therapy to the mental health and well-being of individuals living with a serious and potentially life-limiting illness. It's been published in the latest issue of the International Journal of Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork.

A Qualitative Scoping Review of Massage and Massage Therapy on the Mental Health and Well-being of Individuals Living with a Serious and Potentially Life-limiting Physical Illness Sarah Fogarty Western Sydney University https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6358-5873 Ronna Moore La Trobe University Cal Cates....

09/16/2025

This is what holding space and providing massage can do during times people are experiencing serious illness...

09/11/2025

Shifting our language about our work is an important way to highlight and then shift our perspective about what we're doing, why we’re doing it, and how we're doing it.

Partnership Over Hierarchy in Bodywork

Address

2300 Wilson Boulevard, Ste 700
Arlington, VA
22201

Telephone

+17036621603

Website

http://www.healwell.org/

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