After a year of shoulder pain and visits to a handful of physical therapists and massage therapists, I wasn’t expecting too much when I tried Gina Montgomery’s healing work. I certainly didn’t expect that I would begin to feel relief after just two visits.
Gina relocated to Bend and opened Bend Community Healing with her partner Mark Montgomery, a licensed acupuncturist, almost two years ago. In an effort to make acupuncture accessible to a wide range of people, they offer community acupuncture on a sliding scale from $20-50.
“We want people to be able to afford the treatment they need, whether that involves a chronic condition or just a health maintenance program that promotes wellness,” says Gina. Gentle yoga classes, Qigong and meditation are also offered. For more information contact http://www.bendcommunityhealing.com/; 541-322-9642.
Four months ago, she launched her own private practice called Zia Healing Arts.
As a professional dancer and figure skater, she had learned how to take care of her body in order to prolong her career. From the time she was a teenager, she looked for alternative ways to heal, at first physically and later emotionally and spiritually. When she finally had to stop skating and dancing professionally, that knowledge—paired with her innate longing to help people find balance on all levels—would propel her into a career taking care of others the way she had always taken care of herself.
“Why don’t you do massage school?” a friend had asked when Gina’s last show closed in 1994. “You’re always helping to relieve someone’s pain.”
Gina realized she had just found her first step to becoming a healer.
Over the next few years, she learned reflexology, which works on the nerve endings of the hands and feet to balance and heal the body. Subsequent training focused on craniosacral therapy, a gentle form of bodywork that influences the rhythmic movement of the cerebrospinal fluid, promoting healing of many diverse conditions.
Spiritual healing in the Sufi tradition, which is about healing through the heart to promote evolving, clearing and personal development, tied all that Gina had learned together. “That three-year program transformed my life and how I work on people,” says Gina. “It upped the ante and made the work more powerful. Once your heart expands and you let go of the old stuff that’s in the way, everything connects better. You can let in more light, which helps you become more alive.”
Gina does whatever you need to facilitate healing. A session can include everything from trigger point work and myofascial release to reflexology, craniosacral therapy and even somatoemotional release. No wonder she called her new practice Zia Healing Arts. Zia means a source of light and radiance.
Zia Healing Arts
Cloud 9 Healing Arts, 1252 Milwaukee Avenue, Bend
435-773-5535
