About Melinda (they / them)

You might want to know that I love words. And poetry. And the poetry of the body. The body as in the incredibility of all bodies in their singular physical expressions - and the unifying physiological threads of blood and bone and tissue and synapses that allow us to experience life. I also love that there is some part of each of us ever defying description, something words can’t conceive, something we only begin to understand through our bodies.

I am a massage therapist (NCLMBT #15092) educated at the renowned Body Therapy Institute. I approach the body with reverence and curiosity, informed by my prior work as an adaptive, somatics based yoga instructor. Sensory inquiry and anatomical nerdery are an endless source of wonder. I delight in collaborating with clients to support their physical comfort, ease, and connection, and build greater access to their innate, embodied wisdom. Touch is food for our nervous systems and it’s an honor to provide space to experience platonic, pleasurable, therapeutic contact.

I am a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner offering support for the embodiment journey, including re-integrating from trauma, gently making space for shifts in cyclical response patterns, and restoring the nervous system's natural rhythms. Somatic Experiencing is deeply affirming of our body's wise survival responses. I partner with clients in seeking aliveness, rest, and choice, encouraging greater access to innate ways of sensing, feeling, imagining, moving, and meaning-making.

I am an educator on the faculty of the Spirit of Learning Teacher Education program with the Center for Embodied Education. I also assist in Somatic Experiencing trainings. I served on the faculty of the Carolina Massage Institute as the lead instructor for Self-Care, and The Body Therapy Institute’s massage diploma program as a teaching assistant. As a teacher I get to be in my element as a constant learner, centering the subject and students while deepening my own understanding through direct experience, community exploration, and practice.

I am a mover informed by yoga, unstructured dance, and nature. I’m currently delighted by free-form, feel-good movement in the vein of ecstatic dance, authentic movement, and gentle metaphor-guided play. With respect and gratitude for the tradition and my place in it as a white person of European descent, I don’t call what I do “yoga” anymore; and after many years of practice and teaching, it still informs the way I approach movement and presence.

I am an organizational steward working in the connected circles of personal and collective healing. Durham Community Bodywork is the integration of the many parts of my work, a visionary team expanding access to massage therapy and creating sustainable opportunities for healing professionals. Our organization is an embodiment of the belief that we are all connected. We believe working in the realm of health and healing by definition means working for liberation and equity.

The core values supporting my work are connection, integrity, respect, curiosity, humor, and love.

Image by allie mullin photography.