Local Magazine (Spring 2013)

ISSUE TWENTY FOUR
EARLY SPRING 2013
GREEN ISSUE.
STORY: SARAH DANN

It only took Su Willson fifteen minutes on her massage table to completely transform my mind and body.  A tease and a taste of the depth of service she and her team have been delivering to her devoted client base for over ten years.

She immediately discovered every knot in my shoulders and expertly dissolved them.  My spine was firmly cradled between her forearms releasing all the tension a week of deadlines had delivered.  A special treat was a complete rub down of each arm, and each finger.  I was in heaven.

Su sees the “mind body and emotions as a continuum.”  She works closely with her extremely loyal and varied client base to determine what each of them is going through be it pain, or training, or disease, or transformation, or just a busy day, and delivers a massage based on her many ears of experience and training.  Su has studied all avenues of massage including Shiatsu, Reiki and Thai.  She studied at the California School of Herbal Studies and is skilled in the art of Aromatherapy.

Su has always been fascinated by physiology and anatomy.  Her training includes courses in Psycho Drama which deals with the relationship between the physical and emotional states and Body Oriented Psychotherapy which (in a nutshell) draws connections between what a person is feeling and what muscles are experiencing.  As a patient on her table, you can literally feel the range of experience she delivers through her hands as a result of all her body works exploits.  It is no wonder she was voted Toronto’s Best Massage Therapist back in 1997 by Now Magazine.

Su sees everyone from kids, to pregnant women, to athletes, to seniors in her practice.  She talks about meeting a child in-utero and then meeting him or her in person and treating the child as he grows up.  She’s been working long enough to have these long-standing relationships with her clients and this is a big part of the joy for her in what she does.  “I love working with people.  It is a life goal for me to be helpful.  People leave her feeling fabulous so it is very rewarding.”

Su doesn’t just treat me clients, she also gives back to the community and supports local schools and charities with gift certificates, and her team has expanded to include like-minded therapists.  Before becoming a massage therapist, Su was a professional classical musician but she says she was called to practice massage.  “It is something I really love.”

And her clients love her.  She tells me about one marathon runner who sent her a photo of him on the podium after his race.  He told her as far as he was concerned she was up there with him since her treatments allowed him to make it though his training and the event itself.  It’s a special relationship Su has with her clients.  “I watch people’s lives unfold,” she says.

This article was originally published in Issue #24 “The Green Issue” of Local Magazine in Spring 2013