About Melinda (they / them)

You might want to know that I love words. And poetry. And the beyond-verbal 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 feel awe for the parts of us ever defying description, that words cannot describe, that we only begin to understand through our bodies.

I am a therapist (LCSWA) proudly trained at local QTBIPOC+ centered Radical Healing. I focus on liberatory somatic approaches and exultant, defiant thriving within oppressive systems. As part of my therapy practice, 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, restoring the nervous system's natural rhythms, and affirming our body's wise survival responses. I partner with clients in seeking aliveness, rest, belonging, and choice, encouraging greater access to wholeness, wisdom, and satisfaction.

I am a massage therapist (NCLMBT #15092) educated at the renowned Body Therapy Institute. I approach the body with reverence and curiosity, expanding on my prior work as an adaptive, somatically focussed yoga instructor. Sensory inquiry and anatomical nerdery are an endless source of wonder for me. 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 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 and provide sessions to SE students at the beginning level. I developed and taught the Self-Care curriculum for Carolina Massage Institute, and served in The Body Therapy Institute’s massage diploma program as a teaching assistant. In my prior professional life I taught and facilitated in corporate settings and developed in person and online educational programs in yoga, teaching, and self-development. As an educator, I am in my element as a constant learner, centering students and subject while deepening my own understanding through direct experience and communal exploration.

I am a mover informed by yoga, unstructured dance, and nature. I’m currently delighted by free-form, feel-good movement including 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 practice or teach yoga in the traditional sense anymore; and after many years, it still informs how I move, support, teach, and live.

I am an organizational steward working in the connected circles of personal and collective liberation. 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.