Essential Massage & Wellness, LLC.

06/03/2025

Happy Summer, sorry it's so hot! Come in, chill out and enjoy $10 off June sessions

Click to book:
https://www.massagebook.com/Glendale~Massage~LoribethOxford?src=external

01/26/2025

I think something worth noting here is: you have complete control over your character & the choices that build it. You have ZERO control over what people think or feel about you - what builds your reputation...

01/24/2025

Time for a beautiful weekend 💚

01/21/2025

The holidays and closing of the year bring great stress for most of us. We go from celebrations to manifestations and visions of this coming new year, so quickly. Many are likely already busy busting out goals, tasks and to do's. Serving as your reminder that YOU are the most important factor for your success and happiness this year. Massage can be many things. An escape that offers holistic nurturing and rejuvenation. Healing time for regeneration. Centering time for recalibration. Quiet time for imagination. Restful time for gratification. Healing time for self preservation. Offering $15 off January sessions. Come in, detach & reset - let's get you mentally grounded and physically ready for 2025.

01/14/2025

I appreciate the energy of my workspace. I often times forget about the stress that work can cause because well, we don't have that here 😂 Kind of the opposite 🤷🏼‍♀️ I know Murphy appreciates it too 😂

12/11/2024

Happy holidays y'all! Making your shopping easy this year with a gift no one will want to give back! Gift certificates are available for any length of session, contact me directly to purchase 🎁

11/17/2024

Testing is complete! 🙌🏼Time to shower & cut some aloe 😂

11/17/2024

Did 3 hours of vinyasa yoga, forced hyperventilation and inversion to attempt triggering a grand mal so we could capture it during this testing. No grand mal but did capture a fall with brief loss of consciousness which was right there, so damn close! Another fall with a partial seizure (one hemisphere versus both) and a waking seizure. Murphy is trained to come to me when he can tell there's distress within my body or mind. He was right there with me the whole time. He was really confused at the beginning as to why I wasn't listening to his cues. He eventually hunkered down a few feet away jumping up each time I found the floor 💚 The entire rest of the day this dog was GLUED to me & I wouldn't have it any other way. Murphy, you are my handsome hero!

11/16/2024

When I entered the field of massage and body work I knew from day one I wanted to be a therapeutic therapist specializing in injury, rehabilitation and pain management. I thought this meant that I would not take part in the hokey pokey, spa flowey, fufu type of massage stuff... Well that was my inexperience and ignorance speaking. I have long since, even prior to beginning a career in body work, believed that the body and mind cannot be separated. The term somato emotional release or commonly referred to as an SER is an emotional release that begins and comes from within the body. I still remember my first SER and the first SER that a client experienced on my table and honestly, likely every one since. I am wrapping up my 8th year as a therapeutic massage therapist. In these 8 years I have seen & felt how emotions, thoughts, feelings, traumas & memories are stored within and affect our bodies. An SER describes those things being released and leaving the body. This can be uncomfortable, intense and liberating. Personally, it is hands down one of the most beautiful aspects of my profession. The relationship between a therapist of bodywork and client is an extremely special one. There's a level of connection that is difficult to articulate. I'll do my best though... As a therapist prior to you even arriving, I prepare a space for you. That goes far past clean linen, a full bottle of lotion and an empty trash can. I'm clearing the space, clearing myself and preparing a space of safety, trust and protection for us both. When your massage and that physical connection of the hands meeting the body begins, I listen to your body as it guides me to what it needs help with. I listen with compassion and without judgment. When I listen in this way, your body and subconscious mind experiences trust and with that trust present, your body in turn listens as I guide it towards the healing it is seeking. This becomes a partnership and this conversation is continuous throughout your session. What happens next is where a lot of that fufu or magic, for lack of a better term, comes in. I have not once been caught off guard by a client's SER. I know when we're approaching one. How? I feel it. I feel you. I feel the pain, the fear, the anger, the sadness. I see it. I see you. I see your physical and emotional injury, I see you hurting. Client and therapist are now connected as one, feeling as one.

Having experienced this connection hundreds of times has allowed me to fall in love with human beings again. It's been humbling & eye opening. Being in this profession has given me the opportunity to create a new relationship with love. That word used to hurt. Now, I see it as the answer to hurt. Mine and yours.

11/15/2024

Started a 3 day EEG, all hooked up and ready for some answers! I am working with a seizure specialist to get a more in depth look at what's going on inside of my brain. I was diagnosed with a complex partial seizure disorder in December of 2020. It's onset was a traumatic injury at the age of 2. Subsequent head injuries have increased, intensified or created new symptoms. In the last 4 years I have tried every available pharmaceutical medication, off label and combined pharma therapies. None have provided adequate relief, all cause a chemically induced depression and I am still having 1-2 grand mals each year.

My story is super common to those diagnosed with complex, partial or 'waking' seizure disorders. I was told only about 30% of patients see success with pharmaceutical medications. I have never been one to rely on pharma alone so I have also been experimenting with alternative methods of care as well and to no surprise, I have found more relief there. Past prescribing medications doctors are left with very little to offer their patients. "Lifestyle modifications" is what we're told next: eat healthy, exercise regularly and reduce your stress... Well those changes would likely improve the health of every human being. I have not found one therapy, modality or treatment effective enough as a stand alone however I have built an extensive tool bag full of things that when combined and practiced regularly DO make a substantial difference. I have stopped seizure and ADHD meds and got the go ahead from my doctor to show him what I can do on my own. He's asked me to do what I can to trigger a grand mal so he can capture those brain waves. We are both INSANELY excited to see the data.

10/01/2024

Celebrating 4 years working at my office today!! I left the corporate world and began working full time for myself as a private practitioner. Essential Massage & Wellness found its first brick and mortar location and I found a place where I could offer my full array of skills and certifications. I want to express my gratitude for all of my clients who hunted, searched and tracked me down after leaving that spa. I was bound by a contract to not disclose where I would be practicing & chose to honor that. You guys were the foundation to my business, my career and my passion. Thank you so much! I also want to extend thanks to everyone who has booked, even if it was just once!

Murphy joined the practice this year as he began public service with me. This was a really hard decision that I put off for a while out of fear that my clients wouldn't continue to book if there was a dog. Man was I wrong! I have not lost a single client due to Murphy being at the office. I can not adequately put into words all the ways in which he helps me. Thank you everyone for receiving him with love and being so understanding as I adapt 💚

10/01/2024