When you’re carrying stress in your body—tension that settles in your shoulders, pain that radiates through your back, the physical weight of anxiety and depression—massage therapy offers more than temporary relief. It’s a pathway to reconnection with your body, reduction of chronic pain, and support for your overall mental and physical wellness.
At WHOA Wellness, massage therapy is part of our integrated approach to healing. Whether you’re managing the physical symptoms of stress and anxiety, recovering from injury, or simply investing in preventive self-care, our licensed massage therapists provide personalized treatment in a calm, restorative environment.
Your mental health and physical body aren’t separate—they’re deeply interconnected. Stress, anxiety, and depression don’t just live in your mind; they manifest physically as muscle tension, chronic pain, disrupted sleep, and a dysregulated nervous system.
Therapeutic massage addresses these physical manifestations while supporting your mental health in several ways:
Stress Reduction
Massage activates your parasympathetic nervous system—the part of your body responsible for rest, digestion, and recovery. When you’re chronically stressed or anxious, your sympathetic nervous system (fight-or-flight response) stays activated, keeping your body in a constant state of tension. Massage helps shift your nervous system back into a calmer state, allowing your body to release the physical grip of stress.
Pain Relief
Chronic pain and mental health conditions often coexist and reinforce each other. Pain increases stress and depression; stress and depression lower your pain threshold and make existing pain worse. Massage can help break this cycle by reducing muscle tension, improving circulation, and releasing endorphins—your body’s natural pain relievers.
Improved Sleep
Many people struggling with anxiety and depression also struggle with sleep. Massage therapy has been shown to improve sleep quality by reducing physical tension, lowering cortisol levels, and promoting relaxation. Better sleep, in turn, supports mental health recovery and emotional regulation.
Emotional Release
The body holds emotional tension in physical form. Massage can facilitate the release of emotions that have been stored as muscle tension or physical discomfort. Many people report feeling emotionally lighter after a session—not just physically relaxed, but genuinely unburdened.
Massage therapy at WHOA Wellness can help with a wide range of physical and stress-related conditions:
Stress and Anxiety
Physical tension from chronic stress, shallow breathing patterns, racing heart rate, difficulty relaxing, and the constant sense of being “wound up” that accompanies anxiety disorders.
Depression-Related Physical Symptoms
Body aches, fatigue, heaviness in the limbs, poor circulation, and the physical lethargy that often accompanies depressive episodes.
Chronic Pain
Ongoing neck and shoulder tension, lower back pain, headaches and migraines, joint stiffness, and pain from old injuries that never fully resolved.
Sleep Disturbances
Difficulty falling asleep due to physical restlessness, waking with tension, and poor sleep quality from an overactive nervous system.
Recovery and Self-Care
Supporting your body during mental health treatment, maintaining wellness during high-stress periods, and investing in preventive care to avoid burnout.
Every massage at WHOA Wellness is tailored to your specific needs. Rather than offering rigid, predetermined treatments, we create a custom approach based on your symptoms, preferences, and wellness goals.
Session Lengths:
Reiki healing massage is a gentle energy therapy that promotes relaxation, balance, and healing by channeling universal life energy through the practitioner’s hands. At WHOA Wellness, we integrate traditional Reiki energy work with therapeutic massage to create a deeply restorative experience for mind, body, and spirit. Our sessions combine the gentle power of energy healing with the physical benefits of massage, enhanced by singing bowls, crystals, intuitive energy reading, and hot stones. Whether you’re managing stress, seeking emotional balance, or exploring holistic wellness approaches, Reiki offers a non-invasive path to restoration. Sessions are available for all ages, with options ranging from focused 30-minute sessions to comprehensive 90-minute experiences that address both physical tension and energetic imbalances.
Your massage begins with a conversation about your current symptoms, areas of tension or pain, any injuries or medical conditions, and what you hope to achieve through treatment. You’ll discuss which session length is right for you, whether reflexology might be beneficial, and if you’d like to enhance your experience with salt stones or aromatherapy.
This personalized approach ensures your session addresses your specific needs rather than following a one-size-fits-all protocol.
Massage sessions take place in a private, comfortable treatment room designed to help you relax completely. Soft lighting, calming music, and a warm, quiet environment all contribute to a therapeutic experience.
Your comfort and safety are priorities. You’ll be appropriately draped throughout the session, and you can communicate at any time if you need the pressure adjusted, want to focus on a different area, or simply need to pause.
It’s common to feel deeply relaxed after massage—sometimes almost sleepy. This is your nervous system downshifting into rest mode, which is exactly what should happen. You might also notice increased thirst as your body processes the session, mild soreness in areas that held significant tension, or an improved range of motion in previously restricted areas.
Many people report sleeping exceptionally well the night after a massage and feeling more emotionally balanced in the days that follow.
Massage therapy can support virtually anyone, but it’s particularly beneficial for:
People Managing Stress and Anxiety
If you’re carrying physical tension from chronic stress, experiencing anxiety-related muscle tightness, or struggling to relax even when you try, massage provides a structured opportunity for your nervous system to reset.
Those in Mental Health Treatment
Massage complements therapy, and treatments like TMS by addressing the physical component of mental health conditions. As your mind heals, supporting your body’s healing enhances overall recovery.
Individuals with Chronic Pain
Long-term pain conditions often improve with regular massage therapy. While massage isn’t a cure for chronic pain, it can reduce symptom severity, improve mobility, and help you reconnect with your body in a positive way.
Anyone Seeking Preventive Care
You don’t have to wait until you’re in crisis to benefit from massage. Regular sessions can prevent stress from accumulating in your body, maintain flexibility and comfort, and support overall wellness.
People Experiencing Life Transitions
Major life changes—whether positive or negative—create stress that lives in your body. Massage during these times can help you stay grounded and physically balanced while navigating emotional challenges.
At WHOA Wellness, massage therapy isn’t isolated from the rest of your care—it’s integrated into your wellness journey.
Complementing TMS Therapy
If you’re receiving TMS treatment for depression or anxiety, massage can support your recovery by addressing the physical symptoms that often accompany these conditions. As your brain heals, helping your body release stored tension enhances the overall therapeutic effect.
Enhancing Therapy Work
When you’re less physically tense, you often have greater access to your emotions and thoughts. Massage can make talk therapy sessions more productive by helping you feel more present and embodied.
Standalone Wellness
You don’t need to be receiving other treatments to benefit from massage at WHOA Wellness. Many people use regular massage sessions as a cornerstone of their self-care and stress management practice.
In 2024 she received Reiki Level l & ll training and attunements and in February 2025 she received her Master level training and attunements, from Alex Phillips at IndigoWellness VA. Receiving this training was life changing for her. Hannah allows Reiki and her intuitive skills to help inform every massage session. She uses her intuitive gifts to empower others to tap into their own spirituality and intuition.
Hannah has extensive personal experience with trauma healing as she has spent all of her adult life exploring and utilizing modalities available to her, to facilitate her own trauma recovery. Reiki has been the most holistically healing for her and she has a passion for sharing it with others and allowing herself to be a channel of this energy for the greatest good.
Since restarting her career, Hannah’s massage is now centered around therapeutic relaxation, meaning even when performing deep tissue the intention is for the session to work with the bodies tissues in a way that allows them to respond and relax naturally, rather than overwhelming the body with intense unnecessary pressure to force a result. Her intention is to provide consistent, reliable experiences to create safety in the mind and body. The goal is for relaxation, grounding, clarity, and safety to become the new habit and the new normal for the client over time.
In addition to Massage and Reiki centered around trauma healing, she has also outlined a wholistic trauma healing program for women who are survivors of Coercive Control and intimate partner abusive relationships. The program: SORCHA attempts to bring as many resources as possible under one roof, partnering with local resources wherever possible and utilizing the healing arts and the performing arts as tools for trauma healing. The goal of this program is to help women leave their abusive situation by filling in the gaps in resources that they need as soon as they leave and to empower them in their holistic healing journey. The hope is that the healing arts and performing arts will help women discovering their own gifts and explore different aspects of their personalities in a safe, supportive environment, and that this will help build a strong foundational sense of self: worth, confidence, love, and compassion
Services
6010 W Broad St #103, Richmond, VA 23230