Energy Rising Offers Healing, TherapyBy Nichole Dupont
iBerkshires Staff
09:08PM / Wednesday, January 26, 2011
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Amidst the bustle of North Street, Todd Fiorentino's office is a sanctuary. Just over a month ago, Fiorentino, who has been a massage therapy teacher at the Mildred Ellie School for the last three years, took the plunge and opened his own practice.
But make no mistake, Energy Rising, which offers Swedish, sports, pre-natal and Thai massages as well as bodywork and reflexology, is not a spa.
"I don't have flowing waterfalls and fountains," said Fiorentino, a licensed massage therapist. "At a spa they're not going to really chart your progress. My niche is therapeutic work. Most of what I do is on the prevention end. Of the last three clients I saw, one had lingering symptoms of a back surgery, one had whiplash from a car accident and one was a post-stroke victim."
And the list keeps getting longer. With 15 clients and counting, Fiorentino said he gets calls every day, many of them referrals for treatment from area doctors.
"You'd be surprised but many of the doctors here are strong proponents of massage therapy," he said. "Some of my clients are washed out from physical therapy because it isn't working or it's too intense, and they come here. LMT education has changed dramatically over the years. It's gone from teaching people how to give a good backrub to studying kinesthesiology, myofaschial therapy, understanding musculo-skeletal systems and the nervous system."
This in-depth study of the body, which Fiorentino knows inside and out, is what produces the best results for his clients. Although he said he is not diagnosing clients, he said he is able to work with them to get to the root of their pain and then literally massage it out one visit at a time.
"There are other things that could be causing pain; it's not always structural," he said. "It could be breathing pattern disorders where people hold their breath, it could be insomnia or anxiety disorders or depression, which translates into neck and back pain. Massage allows people the opportunity to reconnect and it gives them a safe space for professional touch."
According to Fiorentino, soft tissue physically changes when it is worked often by a licensed therapist. Of course, he said, it is up to the client to enact necessary lifestyle changes in order to feel the maximum benefit of massage therapy: a life without chronic pain.
"Clients who come in are usually committed to making some kinds of changes," he said. "Massage therapy creates the opportunity for change within the client. Even a once-a-month wellness massage can save a lot of people from having to use narcotics and from having surgeries. Consumers should be able to choose what is good for them."
In fact, Fiorentino's business motto is "It changes you," and he is confident his work will continue to do just that for his clients.
"Your body remembers, your nervous system remembers traumatic events. It's so important to have early interventions when there is damage," he said. "The premise is very simple; it's the body that is complex."
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