Spa Staff
IO CERTIFIED MASSAGE THERAPISTS
Kim Anderson has been practicing massage since 2003. She was trained in Granite Bay, CA and has built her style with training and workshops at the World School of Massage and the SF School of Massage. Kim believes that awareness of our bodies is the first step in our healing process. She specializes in deep tissue and sports massage and has been working on the issues caused by computer use in the shoulders, arms and hands. She is currently in school studying art and design. Through these studies, she also comes to massage as a creative process that is inspired by each individual client. She believes every client is unique, even if their issues are in common areas of tension, and will create a space for you to unwind and relax. Kim was recently profiled in Allure magazine for her stress-relieving techniques and ability to pinpoint spots of tension.
Jennifer Bautista has been practicing massage therapy since 1998. As a child her grandmother practiced reflexology and aromatherapy on her and other family members and the power of touch was instilled in her. Ultimately, she was lead to the healing art of massage therapy after caring for her grandfather and finding how comforting touch was during his last months. Jennifer specializes in neuromuscular, reiki, swedish, deep tissue, reflexology, acupressure, end of life care and aromatherapy. Jennifer’s massage aims to be transformative on all levels of a being, relieving physical discomfort, calming the mind and nuturing the spirit. Jennifer has also been a licensed acupuncturist in the State of Florida since 2005 and is working towards becoming California State licensed. Jennifer believes in the power of touch to communicate non-verbally with the body to achieve profound levels of healing and comfort.
Arjuna Bressack began his healing journey at a tender age. He was inspired by the family interest in Ayurvedic and Western holistic practices. His true passion for healing was ignited by his first level Reiki and has now culminated in the Reiki master attunements. Arjuna began his massage career in Gainesville, Fl at the amazing Florida school of massage which has an extensive and well rounded training program. The foundation of Arjuna’s work is energy flow, compassion, trust, intuition, core release, and a healing touch. He is always a work in progress and has learned some valuable tools along the way such as Swedish, deep tissue, neuromuscular, trigger point, Reiki, polarity, and a loving touch. Arjuna’s life goal is to heal others using music, vibration, and touch, thereby, allowing his own healing to continue onward.
Ana Claudia started her encounter with therapeutic work in 1999 with a Reiki session she received as a gift. She became fascinated with energy work, and the body as an incorporation of mind, body and spirit. Ana has pursued bodywork, and Reiki (reaching the level of Reiki Master). With her education at National Holistic Institute, she has been trained in various modalities including Swedish, Shiatsu, Acupressure, Reflexology, Pregnancy Massage, and Deep Tissue work. She is currently pursuing her Masters in Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture. With Ana, you can rest assured that you will be in good hands, that your massage therapy session will be approached with the utmost respect of you, and catered to your specific needs.
Maureen Dooley has been playing massage since a young girl, and practicing professionally since 2005. She was trained at the McKinnon Institue in Oakland, CA and the Vancouver School of Bodywork and Massage in Vancouver, BC. Maureen believes in deep but gentle work, and intends to bring profound relaxation to her clients. Her bodywork is infused with her past and present studies of yoga, dance, mindfulness and anatomy and physiology. While not practicing massage at IO she is studying to be a nurse, running around in the great outdoors, cooking and crafting away, and dreaming up means and manners of global adventures. Her belief is that the creation of sanctuary is incredibly and powerfully healing.
Courtney Downey was first initiated into the world of alternative healing as a young child after both she and her mother became ill. She has been fortunate enough to be shown the way of the Shaman, and has achieved her Holistic Healthcare Practitioner degree from Mueller College of Holistic Studies, as well as a BFA in theatre/psychology from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Courtney is also Level II Reiki Certified. She is very passionate about bringing together Body, Mind & Spirit through healthy eating, Meditation, energy work, and massage. Courtney’s aim is to listen to each client’s body and give a massage that will leave a blissful state of relaxation and awareness. She combines a blend of energy from the Universe along with shiatsu, tui-na, reflexology, Lomi-Lomi, acupressure, deep tissue, Swedish, and Ayurvedic techniques in her Massage.
Maria Gallegos is a powerfully compassionate guide for self discovery and healing transformation. She facilitates personal growth on multiple levels as a spiritual coach, Kundalini yoga instructor, and LMT since 2005. Her gifts as an empathic teacher, psychic, dancer, and master level Reiki practitioner are a rich part of her spiritual-somatic bodywork. She loves to pull from various healing techniques including Shiatsu, Acupressure, deep tissue, Swedish, stretching, sound healing and breath work in each of her sessions. You might often hear her say, “I am not healing you, I am just reminding you of the truth of who you are…which is whole, complete, and full of light!”
Heather Hughes began her wellness career at IO while gaining her BA at SFSU. During her time on the front desk she was exposed to, and inspired by, all we had to offer including skilled staff, our beautiful aesthetic and top-of-line products. After moving to get married, start a family and find a career, she decided that massage was her true calling. After gaining certification at San Francisco School of Massage, she returned to IO and began working on the massage team. Heather embraces all forms of healing and lives a holistic and natural way of life. She has practiced with world-renowned deep tissue expert Art Riggs and continues to practice and learn from her amazing coworkers. Her strongest attributes are her natural way of nurturing clients and being very approachable. These, combined with our signature IO massage, will have your body slip into deep relaxation.
Michelle Lyn is a Massage Therapist and Holistic Coach practicing in San Francisco and Marin. She provides an integrated approach to massage, drawing from her varied background to allow each session to unfold on its own. Her fluid style incorporates focused techniques that access and release trigger points and deep muscle fibers. She sees each client as an individual, clearing the layers of discomfort or dis-ease (including the physical, emotional and mental) to help them become more aligned with their true being and experience more ease and freedom. For some, it may be pure relaxation they’re seeking. For others, it could be a connection between a life event and a physical sensation. Her blending of modalities includes Advanced Deep Tissue, Swedish, Vibrational Healing Massage®, Lymphatic Massage, Reflexology, Cranial Sacral Balancing, Shiatsu and Sports Massage.
Sean Lyon specializes in theraputic massage to help you relieve pain, rehabilitate old and new injuries, reduce stress and increase your energy for the demands of life and family. With over ten years of experience in high-end spas and injury rehabilitation centers, extensive training in the States and in Thailand, Sean understands the importance of a massage that is effective, appropriately deep, focused, patient and also relaxing. Deep massage does not have to leave you feeling beat up! In fact, a great deep massage should address your issues with a degree of mastery that ingvigorates your tissues, bringing a sense of joy and vitality to your whole being.
Chloe Poulter first discovered her love for bodywork and helping others while traveling in South America in 2001. Finding a way to travel and help people in need of therapeutic touch, led her to a career in bodywork. Since then, she has traveled and worked in many beautiful locations while studying and working as a massage therapist. Recently relocating from Big Sur, California, Chloe was originally trained as a massage therapist in Vermont in 2003, but her continuing training and education has led her across the country and to the Esalen institute where she has studied the Esalen technique on and off for 4 years. Continuing education is important to Chloe, she has studied anatomy and physiology, deep tissue, prenatal, and many other modalities which has helped her become a well rounded, well trained therapist. Chloe’s massage technique is intuitive and relaxing with focused work incorporating the whole body and bringing it back to its original calm, less stressed state of being.
Lisa Souza has dedicated her life to facilitate others in their health and wellbeing. Helping people as a whole; Body, Mind, and Spirit. She has chosen Massage Therapy as a tool in hopes to reach out to all who need assistance in healing. Lisa has been energetically drawn to alternative therapies since she was a child, though her massage journey began in 2002. Since then it has blossomed into a full time passion, leading her to study other avenues of holistic health care such as healing through nutrition, aromatherapy, yoga, and herbal and homeopathic remedies. Lisa tends to her own garden of medicinal herbs, and seasonal vegetables, where she makes a variety herbal tinctures, salves, and flower essences. Lisa combines Reiki, Deep Tissue, Acupressure, and Stretching into her sessions and she is also trained in Bowen Pain Relief Therapy, and BodyTalk Therapy.
Christy Swenson was born and raised in beautiful Alaska. She has been blessed to learn Thai massage, Hot Stone Massage, Reflexology, Raindrop Therapy, Swedish, Deep Tissue, Aromatherapy, Hydrotherapy, Pre-Natal and an Ayurvedic philosophy that incorporates using your body type. Christy believes we can live in harmony with our bodies, we just have to listen. Her sessions are invigorating and thorough leaving you completely revived. She recently went to Yoga teacher training at New York’s Laughing Lotus and designs hand drawn and hand painted cards.
Liz Walton has been a Massage Therapist and Yoga Instructor since 1997. She signed up for massage school in Austin, Texas after receiving her first massage. Liz tailors each session to the person and their physical concerns on that day and tries make each experience unique. Her forte is providing massage therapy for people in unconventional settings such as at music venues and festivals, on site movie locations and tattoo shops. She has worked with Riverdance, at Lollapalooza, and toured with many of the best known modern performers in the world. Liz is also teacher in training at Mckinnon Massage School in Oakland. In her free time Liz enjoys riding bicycles, painting, playing guitar and meditation. She is working on developing a series of yoga for cyclists.
Monk Wellington started his bodywork journey after 10 years studying and practicing dance. His goal became to combine physical, philosophical and energetic focus to his practice of both dance and bodywork as he studied at the National Holistic Institute. Energy work is always a part of his massage as a Reiki Level 1 practitioner. Monk’s bodywork includes several modalities working in combination to give the body what it needs. These modalities include, Thai massage, shiatsu, deep tissue, myofascial and Swedish . Monk’s treatments are deeply relaxing in the spiritual sense yet powerfully effective in the physical sense. Intention, intuition and great communication guide clients through his sessions.
Rachael Wilson came to massage after a transformative personal experience with bodywork. In that experience, she found her purpose in exploring and sharing somatic focused techniques to heal trauma and develop empowerment. The foundation of her work is a belief that we are each the expert on our own body and that the therapist’s role is to provide compassionate, informed support on the client’s journey to develop a deeper relationship with their body. She is grateful to work together with her clients in order to create a safe space where intuitive and nurturing bodywork can be effective. In addition to extensive training at the Baltimore School of Massage, her work is informed by many years of playing sports, strength training and crisis counseling. She has been practicing integrated bodywork full time since 2008 utilizing Swedish, deep tissue, myofacial release, sports and prenatal massage techniques.
Kala Wright has been practicing massage therapy since completing her certification in 2003 from The World School of Massage and Advanced Healing in San Francisco, CA. On the healing path for over a decade, she began her studies in earnest after receiving bodywork while in treatment for cancer, where she witnessed firsthand the powerful combination of healing touch and full presence to re-align, heal, and deeply transform mind, body and spirit. Deeply committed to offering to others what she herself received, she began both her career as a Massage Therapist and a life-long study in the myriad ways in which we can create balance, wholeness, flow, and vibrant health in our bodies and on every level of our being. Kala combines a wealth of modalities (among them firm Swedish, Vibrational Healing (VHMT), Reiki level II, elements of Shiatsu, Thai, Acupressure and Reflexology) along with somatic and multidimensional awareness, in order to fully address each client’s unique needs as the session unfolds. Her fluid, rhythmic bodywork style has been described as intuitive, nurturing, effective for pain and stress-relief, integrative, and deeply relaxing. A firm believer in the saying “the body never lies”, Kala treats each session as an opportunity to listen to the truth your body has to share.
Ilya Yacobson has been on the quest for vibrant spiritual and physical health since 1992. His dream was to become a mystical shaman awakening the potential of each soul to thrive and celebrate their lives in harmony with their world, loved ones, and their path. Ilya has been strongly influenced by native healing modalities in the US and Russia. Meditation, healthy food and prayer are his foundations for balanced living. After finishing his pre-med Bachelors in Molecular and Cell biology at UC Berkeley, he proceeded to earn his Masters in Chinese Medicine and is practicing Acupuncture and Herbal Therapy at IO as well as massage. His passionate and playful yet deeply attentive and thorough style draws from his training in Acupressure, Shiatsu, Tui Na, Deep Tissue, Swedish, Breathwork, Cranial Sacral, and Chi Nei Tsang (visceral massage). His outgoing yet serene personality and penchant for the balanced structure and fluid movement of the body create relaxed yet invigorating massage with joint mobilizations, and yogic stretches, along with deep muscular relaxation.
IO LICENSED ESTHETICIANS
Eleanor Bagley grew up in the rural holistic environment of West Marin, where health and natural beauty are a central part of the community. From her influential upbringing Eleanor has become a passionate advocate of skin care and a healthy lifestyle. Growing up in the restaurant business and finding the relation between food and the benefits of bio-dynamically farmed ingredients for skincare products has always been an interest. Eleanor began her journey to becoming a master esthetician and a CIDESCO trained diplomat certified by Zurich Switzerland. Trained in the latest beauty regimes, ingredients and alternative practices, such as manual lymphatic drainage. With her true beliefs in the science behind skin care, gaining knowledge and continuing a certified education in cosmetic ingredients and aromatherapy has become a huge part of her practice. Eleanor educates her clients on proper skin regimes for skin issues as well as maintaining a beautiful long lasting complexion from the inside out. With a true intuitive and nurturing nature Eleanor provides just the right amount of care, relaxation and technicalities into every treatment for every clients needs. Providing a balance between nature and science Eleanor is bound to put you on the right track to achieving your skincare goals.
Anna Crowley is passionate about esthetics, practicing with intuition, passion, and a strongly educated knowledge base. Coming from the Aveda Institute, she believes in a holistically minded approach towards skin care and has pursued her passion for esthetics with integrity and excitement since 2005. After gaining knowledge and experience through various spas and forms of practice, including Medical Esthetics, Anna is happily returning to her original passion and belief of a more organic, hands-on, result oriented approach. She believes in the efficacy of products and their active ingredients and aims to share her knowledge with her clients. Her goal is to not just work on clients, but to work with them to encourage their skin to be as healthy and radiant as it can. Allow Anna to pamper you while awakening your skin’s amazing potential.
Jennifer Gallegos is a perceptive and skilled Esthetician offering thorough skin treatment with a warm and relaxing style. She enjoys providing in depth information about client’s skin and home care recommendations to help keep it looking its best. Jennifer also includes an extensive, tension-relieving massage in her facials to help her clients feel their best. Jennifer’s well-known waxing technique is gentle and meticulous. Many happy clients of Jennifer’s recommend ending any facial treatment with a brow shaping for the perfect brows. Trained and licensed in Esthetics in San Francisco, and continuing to update her education with advanced courses, Jennifer has been providing excellent skin care in San Francisco since 2001.
Lindsay Keene is a nurturing and intuitive esthetician whose objective is to help her clients reach their skincare goals, while stepping into a little piece of paradise. She started her career by attending holistic massage therapy classes at the World School of Massage. She also holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Foundations of Holistic Healing from San Francisco State University. She is a nine-year veteran of the spa industry who is deeply committed to the health and happiness of her clients. She approaches all of her facials with attentive and intelligent skincare, while offering a fully relaxing and decadent experience. She believes that the foundation of beauty is health, and that health is a personal, dynamic, and ongoing evolution. Whether you are looking for education on your skincare choices, or an ultimate spa experience you are sure to be in good hands.
Yolanda Porrata creates an unforgettable spa experience with passion, creativity and a love for all things beautiful. She is an experienced esthetician with an exceptional gift for cultivating genuine relationships with her clients. Listening carefully to their needs and concerns, she is able to make well-informed recommendations and provide outstanding service. Yolanda thrives on providing the appropriate atmosphere, from the quiet and grounded facial to the great sense of humor and confidence during waxing. She’ll make you feel safe and at ease even while receiving her highly reputed Brazilian bikini wax. Growing up in the beautiful wilds of West Marin, Yolanda’s appreciation for the natural world has given her a holistic approach to skin care. She believes that the health of this planet depends on each and every one of us. These core beliefs and her commitment to educating her clients on their best choices in skincare are evident from the beginning and keep loyal client’s coming back for more.
Ashley Smith grew up in Utah where in her teens she began struggling with acne. Although the skin disease proved troubling, it began a lifelong interest and passion for understanding health and skincare. Ashley began her career in the medical spa setting working for prominent dermatologists in Northern and Southern California. She brings a results oriented approach to her work at International Orange. Ashley loves listening to her client’s stories, struggles and successes while in the room. She is a warm and intuitive esthetician who strives to make the spa treatment an opportunity for her clients to fully relax while achieving beautiful skin.
Rahnie Smith is dedicated to helping clients maximize their potential for beautiful, radiant skin and is thrilled to have found her home here at IO. After four years of freelancing as a makeup artist in New York City, she returned to San Francisco in 2009. She is delighted to be back to her roots in the Bay Area and back to her passion for skin. Working with the belief that skin health directly relates to one’s overall state and well-being, Rahnie loves to design whole regimens for her clients and to assist them in fine tuning their current skin care routines. She delivers a relaxing and rejuvenating experience, helping clients feel comfortable and confident with the skin they’re in!
Karen Waage began practicing esthetics in 2005. Growing up in the Santa Cruz area she developed her driving passion for organic and holistic beauty and lifestyle practices, making it a natural fit for her to find a home at International Orange. Her second passion is for travel. Karen is constantly growing her knowledge base and enriching her treatments by incorporating the beauty rituals she has experienced around the world. Karen believes in customizing and tailoring each session to treat your individual and changing skin concerns and needs, along with designing a specific home care ritual to keep your skin looking its best!
