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 container where your body will be helped, not judged.

Two-thirds of my practice 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 using a foam roller and lacrosse ball, 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.

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.

These might surprise you. Better now than later!

You can feel better. If you take care of your body, it will improve. No matter where you're starting from. Don't stop what you enjoy. Don't stop what you must do to earn a living or to take care of others. Instead, we're going to add something: maintenance.

It doesn't hurt a lot. The way I work feels skillful more than painful.

Fifty years ago, practitioners thought they changed the body by pressing really hard. Because this seems like common sense — no pain, no gain, etc. — people came to think that bodywork had to be painful and intense to be effective. That's how you knew it was serious therapy, and not some wimpy spa massage! Turns out this is junk science. Decades of research show that we do not change human tissue by pressing really hard. 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 better attention to your body.

You feel better and perform better, but not because we forced your tissue to obey, or dug some bad stuff out of your muscles. You feel better and perform better because when we thoroughly and precisely unwind you, we refresh and improve the connection between your body and nervous system. Your hardware and your software.

When I explain this, some people get the opposite idea — that the work is delicate. It's not that, either. It's not dainty or artificially gentle. And it's not brutal. It's a middle way.

We treat the whole body, every time. We never spend the entire session working only where it hurts, because — as you may have heard — it's all connected. It may seem like a problem exists in one spot or one muscle, but it's never that simple. 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.

Relaxing and enjoying the session amplifies its benefit. When we rest, we repair ourselves. During our appointment, the downregulation of your nervous system produces a surge of neurochemical and hormonal benefits. I call it burping your brain. The good molecules flourish during relaxation, boosting health and performance.

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 dose of maintenance. We also call this: reality.

There's no buzzy name for it. It's just called bodywork. It's my own method. I combine 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. We loosen your body, settle your nervous system, and tune you up for performance and health.

Cost is approaching what other professional therapies cost in this area. Historically, massage therapy has 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.

I love helping people with what I do. Contact me about appointments.

I am vaccinated.

Appointments are spaced throughout the day and the week with cleaning, and virus decay, in mind.

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

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. Yes, even if you're vaccinated, too. I wear a fresh surgical mask for each appointment. Clients wear either a fresh surgical mask (which I can provide) or, if they prefer, a KN95 "beak" (not provided by me).

I wear nitrile gloves. That might seem unusual, 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.

I welcome your questions. Contact me here.