Woodstown Massage Boutique owner, Amy Martin
(Staff Photo by Cindy Hepner/South Jersey Times)
South Jersey Times By Kelly Roncace on March 27, 2014 at 8:00 AM, updated March 27, 2014 at 8:14 AM
When Amy Martin was a young girl, she always found herself rubbing people’s necks or popping people’s shoulders.
“My sisters would rub my back and I would rub theirs, and they noticed early on that I knew how to find the spots and work on them,” said Martin, owner of Woodstown Massage Boutique.
Martin, who received her formal massage therapy training in Washington 14 years ago, is originally from the “Los Angeles area of California.”
“My husband is from Pedricktown, but he went out to Washington state to find himself and ended up finding me,” Martin said.
Martin, her husband and now 9-year-old son moved to the area six years ago.
“When I first came here in 2008, I rented a room in someone else’s salon,” she said. “In 2010, I moved here so I could have my own business and have ultimate control of the environment.”
Since opening her own massage therapy boutique, Martin has gained many grateful clients who count on her and her team for pain relief, stress relief or just relaxation.
“I say everyone could be my client,” Martin said. “If you’re under stress, in pain, training for an athletic event, all of these things can be helped with massage therapy.”
Martin’s specialty is neuromuscular, deep tissue massage.
“Neuromuscular deals with the nerves and muscles,” she said. “The nervous system goes from your cranium all the way to the ends of your finger tips and tips of your toes. The nerves travel through the muscles and if there is scar tissue in the muscles, it can hold onto the nerve and cause pain. Most everyone has scar tissue in their muscles. Anything from a strain, sprain or an actual cut can cause scar tissue in the muscle.”
Collagen fibers, what Martin called the “body’s super glue,” binds everything together. When there is an injury, the collagen doesn’t care what it’s conjoining, it just does its job.
Massage therapist and owner, Amy Martin, performs a massage
on a client at the Woodstown Massage Boutique in Woodstown.
(Staff Photo by Cindy Hepner/South Jersey Times)
“It doesn’t care if it’s nerves and muscles or what, it’s just trying to keep everything together,” Martin said. “So I have to go in there and teach the scar tissue to let go.”
Martin said surface scars can also be reduced with massage.
“Once everything gets moving along, the scar area can be reduced,” she said. “Massage therapy helps with circulation and to get oxygen and nutrients coming into the tissues. It also helps remove toxins.”
Deep tissue massage allows the masseuse to loosen up the client’s muscles, through a more vigorous massage than Swedish massage which is just for relaxation.
“With deep tissue massage, you have to tolerate a lot more during a session, but the results are more long lasting,” Martin said. “If you get rid of the pain, it can reduce your stress level even more.”
Quinton resident Ron Roll started seeing Martin once a week after he had spinal fusion surgery.
“It was the recommendation of my surgeon to try deep tissue massage for the muscle spasms I was still having,” Roll said. “Now I can’t see how I can stop going.”
Roll said he was doubtful going into massage therapy.
“I was scared, thinking it was going to hurt me,” he said. “But now I feel much better. It was definitely a life saver.”
And that is what Martin enjoys the most about her job.
“The best part is when someone tells me they are having less pain or their headaches are decreasing or they’ve finally gotten a good night’s sleep,” Martin said. “I had a client who had numbness in his toes and calf, but after massage therapy, he was able to go back to tennis. I have someone right now who is not running, but I would like to get her back so she can run again.”
The Woodstown Massage Boutique has two treatment rooms and an infrared sauna which offers invisible light technique.
Martin also offers Reiki massage therapy which can be done with no touching at all.
“Reiki is an ancient form of energy work from Japan which is passed down from master to student,” Martin said. “It encompasses the whole body — physical, mental and spiritual — to help balance the body, mind and spirit.”
She said a Reiki session can be done totally touch free or with a light touch.
Martin also offers chair massage, mini treatments and hot stone massage.
“In a hot stone massage, you won’t have as much deep work done, but you will still get the penetrating effect from the heat,” she said. “The stone heat affects the fascia, a layer of fibrous tissue, that turns gelatinous when heated. You can fall asleep or feel like jelly when you leave.”
Martin uses basalt stones, which are volcanic rocks that have “tumbled down the river, that’s why they are smooth.”
With all the different choices, Martin said most clients come in for pain relief.
“Yes, I like pampering people, but helping people with their pain makes such a difference for them,” Martin said. “My reward is to help bring people around to a different existence.”
Woodstown Massage Boutique is located at 22 South Main Street in Woodstown.
For more information, call 856-769-1373 or visit www.woodstownmassage.com.
Contact staff writer Kelly Roncace at 856-686-3647 or kroncace@southjerseymedia.com.
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