My virus precautions are listed at the bottom of this page.

I provide modern, evidence-informed bodywork to all kinds of people, for all kinds of reasons.

I treat comprehensively. Each session is a complete re-set. We unwind your entire musculature, and we settle your nervous system. Here's what you get:

1. You get more comfort and less pain in your everyday life.
2. You get suppleness and recovery for your sport or performing art.
3. You get a concentrated dose of restorative downtime that measurably boosts many healing processes in your body, including brain function, immune competence, and tissue repair.
4. You get a safe, friendly container where your body will be helped, not judged.
5. You get expert, nondogmatic info about how your body really works.

Many of my clients are regulars who have a monthly appointment with me as a kind of ongoing healthcare and performance tuning. These are people who understand that maintenance is the way — that staying healthy makes life less stressful, more productive, and more fun.

Regular appointments are not required. You can also come see me occasionally, or just once. 

My message to you: helping your body helps everything.

— Mike Papciak

In-office appointments are two hours. Cost is $350, no gratuity. A first appointment is usually forty minutes assessment and consultation, and an hour-twenty on the table. Subsequent sessions are usually ten minutes checking in, and an hour-fifty on the table.

I also offer 50-minute video/zoom sessions. Cost is $175, no gratuity. Working virtually, I provide assessment, consultation, self-treatment instruction, and practical ways to deal with pain, rehab injuries, and feel good in the body you have right now.

I take checks, cash, Visa/MC, PayPal, and employer-sponsored FSA and HSA cards. There's a $15 transaction fee with cards or PayPal, no fee for check or cash payment.

I don't take insurance. I can provide you with a receipt.

I don't have a sliding scale for in-office appointments.

I sometimes discount video/zoom sessions — inquire.

Our nervous systems don’t like surprises! Here are some ways I'm different:

Surprise #1) Cost is approaching what other professional therapies cost in this area. Historically, bodywork and massage therapy have cost much less than other private-practice healthcare. This is changing, as science validates what your inner animal has always known: bodywork is big medicine for human beings.

Surprise #2) It doesn't hurt a lot. It feels skillful more than painful.

Fifty years ago, practitioners thought they changed the body by pressing really hard on it. This seems like common sense — unfortunately! So people came to think that bodywork had to be painful and intense to be effective. That's how you know you're getting serious therapy, and not some wimpy spa massage.

Turns out this is junk science. Decades of better research show that we do not change human tissue by pressing really hard on it. In fact, pressure is placebo.

Your muscles don't have minds or wills of their own. Your brain is in charge of them. Tension and pain are controlled by the nervous system, not by the muscles themselves. Bodywork works by working with your body to cue your brain to pay closer attention to your body.

You feel better and perform better, but not because we forced your tissue to obey. Not because we dug some bad stuff out of your muscles. You feel better and perform better because your nervous system, reassured and guided by touch, feels safe enough to unclench. That's how it works, folks — one of those pesky science things, true whether we like the sound of it, or not.

When I explain this, some people assume the work will be delicate. It's not that, either. It's not dainty or artificially gentle. And it's not brutal. It's a middle way.

Surprise #3) We never spend the entire session working only where it hurts. We treat your whole body, every time, because — as you may have heard — it's all connected. It may seem like a problem exists in one spot or one muscle, but the reality of the body is not like that. Your body is a complex system, where everything affects everything, in ways that are not always predictable or controllable. So we treat broadly. We address specific complaints like headaches or knee pain by working with the entirety of your musculature and your nervous system. That's not a mystical approach. It's structural.

Surprise #4) Relaxing and enjoying the session amplifies its benefit. Did you think it had to be grim? In fact, bodywork has to feel safe and inviting to your limbic system, so your body can switch over to its repair mode. When you relax and enjoy the session, the downregulation of your nervous system produces a surge of neurochemical and hormonal benefits. I call this burping your brain. The good molecules flourish, boosting health and performance.

Surprise #5) A permanent fix never arrives. This is because you are a living organism. Your body cannot be permanently fixed. Your body is maintained. One appointment is one big dose of maintenance. More of that annoying reality.

Surprise #6) There's no fancy name for it. It's my own method, derived from many methods and teachers and more than a decade in full-time professional practice. I just call it bodywork. I use myofascial and deep-tissue techniques, trigger point therapy, craniosacral therapy, relational therapy, structural integration from the Rolfing/Hellerwork tradition, some ideas and tools from the Chinese instrument-assisted and manual therapies gua sha and tui na, and some ideas from Zen practice, like gently staying with reality instead of what sounds appealing but isn't true. With hand skill, expertise, and kindness, I loosen your body, settle your nervous system, and tune you up for performance and health. Contact me about appointments.

See more about my practice on Instagram: @mikepapciak.bodywork

Virus precautions:

I'm vaccinated.

Appointments are spaced.

There's no waiting room. I meet you at the building entrance and we go directly to my office.

My treatment room has two HEPA filters, an exhaust fan in the ceiling, and another fan at floor level for additional air movement.

No sharing of linens between clients. All linens are dried in a hot dryer before use. 

We wear masks, regardless of vaccination status. Any face covering of your choice is suitable during our intake conversation. While you're on the treatment table, we both wear surgical masks, as a general cold/flu/virus/droplet precaution. (Watch for this as an emerging best-practice in the profession.) I can provide you with a fresh surgical mask. If you prefer a KN95 "beak," please bring your own.

I wear nitrile gloves, which might seem unusual in a massage therapy setting, but my method is about unwinding the deeper structures of the body, instead of gliding over its surface. Gloves are no impediment.

Payment is touchless.