By JAMES BELL
Hays Post
Keeping healthy is as vital as ever, and one of Hays' newest businesses, Exhale Bodywork and Massage, 2015 Vine St., hopes to help area residents feel their best by offering massage with a holistic message.
Born and raised, Hays resident Stephanie Calvery, owner, opened her shop in December, offering a myriad of services that can help patients feel better without the need for pharmaceutical intervention through massage and other alternative therapies.
"I think more people are leaning toward wholistic care now, but I would like to see a lot more of that happen, just because that is not always the answer, it's not always the fix-all for everyone," Calvery said. "People that can do more things naturally and not have the side effects of a pharmaceutical regimen, they tend to feel better."
She points to the ongoing opioid crisis as a prime example of how holistic medicine can be a better option for pain management than pharmaceuticals.
"There have been articles published about massage therapy and helping to fight the opioid crisis because you don't need that numbing effect," Calvery said. "What you need is to find what is causing the problem, get to the root of it, and not put a Band-Aid on it.
"At the same time, there have been some great studies done on therapy and hypertension. It helps to lower the blood pressure; it helps with your vascular system to open up more and not have the arteriosclerosis."
With her services, Calvery hopes more people in the area can explore the benefits of her services and natural wellness options in general.
"There are just a lot of great benefits that our community is not fully tapped into," she said. "And I would love to see our community finding these answers that they would otherwise look to in a (prescription medicine) bottle."
At Exhale, Calvery said she sees a full range of clients from ages 5 to 105 looking for various services, but pain relief is her most common request.
"They want to be out of pain," Calvery said.
And now that many are venturing back to the gym as pandemic concerns lessen, pain management is an essential addition to workouts.
"Starting back at the gym, they are going to have what we refer to as DOMS, delayed onset muscle soreness," Calvery said. "So, the day after or two days after you do a hard leg day and you can't sit down, I'll have people come in, and we will work to loosen those muscles and legs, or they will sit in the sauna and just allow that heat to penetrate and loosen those muscles. So, getting back and getting more active, you are going to be more sore, so my job is to help relieve some of that pain."
While the location is new, Calvery has spent the last few years training and working locally and is a familiar face in Hays.
She has worked as a massage therapist since 2017, working at a variety of locations, including the Hays Med Center for Health Improvement.
But after years of work in the field, Calvery decided it was time to expand at the end of last year.
"I just decided it was time to grow," she said. "When you have your own place, you're not constrained by someone else's ideals. So, I can take what I want to grow this into and go on that path instead of what somebody else is wanting."
In 2018 she completed a program at Fort Hays State University and studied Kinesio Taping, Tai Yoga massage and Barefoot massage.
The barefoot massage, she said, is the deepest deep tissue massage available, but since the pressure is broad, it is without the sharpness of an elbow or thumb used in other deep tissue massage styles.
She also utilizes a wide arrange of tools like Gua sha stone scraping, cupping and hot stones.
"All of my sessions are customized to what the client needs," Calvery said.
Along with the traditional cupping practice, she offers sinus cupping, which moves lymphatic fluids out of the sinus cavity, creating relief for those suffering from allergies.
"I've had a lot of clients try that and they will leave here completely open and draining," she said.
But even with a variety of services, Calvery said relieving low back and shoulder pain is her most frequent customer request.
"With people sitting more at desks and they are kind of hunched over, that contributes to the shoulder pain and also the low back pain," she said.
Inside Exhale, Calvery also promotes the use of her state-of-the-art sauna, which can provide numerous health benefits.
"The sauna has different settings on it," she said. "A lot of people are coming in right now to use the weight-loss setting."
Calvery also said it has been popular for pre-massage use.
In the location she has some retail items available, including the essential oils she uses on clients during sessions.
"One is called raindrop therapy," she said. "That's a 45-minute session that is basically just the use of 10 essential oils with light muscle work that helps to relieve pain on the nervous system level."
Overall, has been pleased with the overall positive response since the December opening.
"I have been very blessed with new clients and old clients finding me again," she said. "It's just been really great."
For more information about Exhale Bodywork and Massage visit their facebook page, to see a list of available treatments, including booking information, click here.
