HEALTH - Reprinted from Simsbury LIFE Jan 10, 2010
by Natalie K. Pollock
She is a woman of many talents who has dealt with many obstacles to health and happiness she learned to overcome.
Pamela Atwood's tortured journey has taught her to heal herself, a technique she now intends to share with others through her new business called Massage Vibes in Old Avon Village, Avon.
In a small room made comfortable with low lighting, relaxing music and a delicate aroma, Ms. Atwood, Who lives in Canton, offers several forms of massage to soothe people with chronic physical and even emotional problems. Acupressure, lymphatic drainage, Swedish massage, deep tissue massage and sports massage are the techniques she uses most, but she has found other methods of helping people as a result of her own life experiences.
“I have been a competitive athlete in martial arts since I was seven and have broken every bone in my body and had every injury known to man,” said Ms. Atwood.
She still competes locally and nationally with Fitness Universe at the Fitness American Pageant, which honors bodybuilding. The figure competition stresses the development of the body as a balanced muscular physique, rather than focusing on rippling, male-like muscles.
A former personal trainer at Big Sky in Simsbury, Ms. Atwood taught self-defense for children and Women and has attained the second degree in martial arts. She eats clean food, supplementing when she can, and lifts heavy weights in her daily workout.
“I try to have close to 85 percent of my food in its most natural form. I eat no white or processed food of any kind and no butter. A11 of my food is as close as it can be to coming straight from the land,” she said.
“I eat protein, but not excessive amounts, and I have six meals a day. It’s a great feeling to be healthy. The kids don’t like to eat this way all of the time, but they do.”
Ms. Atwood and her husband Tony have two children: Autumn, 14, and Anthony, 11l. Mr. Atwood is the chef at the Village Bistro and Café in Canton, where he cooks breakfast and lunch during the week.
Their children came along after Ms. Atwood had graduated from high school. The family moved from Litchfield to Canton in 2005.
“Autumn is more artistically and musically inclined and writes poetry. She was the Pine Tree poetry contest winner last year when she was in eighth grade. I am the assistant coach for Anthony’s basketball rec team,” said Ms. Atwood.
She is also a professionally trained opera singer who learned music by ear from spending time with her musical grandparents. Her grandfather played the saxophone and grandma was a professional singer.
In addition to singing, Ms. Atwood worked as an interior designer before discovering a passion for massage.
Now 35 and purposeful in her lifestyle and work, she had a pain childhood and injuries to overcome in getting to this point. At age 14 she developed ailments that went misdiagnosed for many years. As a consequence, she was home schooled for part of her high school years.
By the time college appeared on the horizon, she was far behind her classmates and had many years of schooling to make up.
During that time, however, she developed a fascination for the human body and a thirst to know how it Worked. She read anatomy books and thought about becoming a doctor so that she could help people.
“I was soul searching and ill. In high school I had chest pains. A good friend was killed by a drunk driver my freshman year and this troubled me very much,” Ms. Atwood said.
“I had led a protected life, so this was a big jolt. They gave me every heart test they could and then they thought I was depressed, so they prescribed medications."
There were many prescriptions. She had allergies to some of the medications and there were side effects with others.
“At age 18, one doctor said to my parents, 'your daughter is being killed by these medications.' I was having Parkinson-like symptoms. I was hospitalized
and taken off the meds," she said.
Then in her 20s she suffered post traumatic stress disorder when she, her husband and their children lost everything they had and were forced to start their
lives over again.
“It was a long struggle, especially because I did not want to be on meds again. Then I found out that massage also works with PTSD. People with PTSD
hold so much trauma in their bodies. They cannot relax,” Ms. Atwood said.
“She was trying to manage the residual effects of her trauma and did not want to be touched. But after two years of relaxation, healing and massage, Ms. Atwood
began to see progress.
It was then that she started to think about going back to her original goal of helping people with their ailments.
“As an athlete, I was in physical therapy a lot. When I went to massage, it was really an experience. I met someone who told me about the Connecticut Center of Massage Therapy in Newington. It was an incredible school" she said.
"I knew when I walked in that it was what I needed. I could draw from all that I was. I did very well there. I was at the top of the class."
She works with several people who have chronic pain. The type of therapeutic massage she provides depends upon the individual needs of her client.
One client has an arthritic spine and adhesions and did not want surgery. She has been helping him and has him on a maintenance plan of one to two visits a month.
“I have been doing deep tissue massage and myofascial release therapy to break up the adhesions from injuries. The injuries turn into scar tissue and become immobile,” said Ms. Atwood.
Tim Preiser, an arborist living in Simsbury, met Ms. Atwood through their church, Covenant Presbyterian. They became friends and when she mentioned she was about to start her own massage business, he made a point of coming to see her.
He had been to 10 to 12 massage therapists over 20 years for his chronic back pain.
She is the best (I have seen). She is thorough and not limited to the hour of the session. With chronic muscle issues, it takes a while to get through the layers to where it is problematic and she takes the time. She has improved my pain and I have only been going a few months,” said Mr. Preiser.
He often injures his back on the job and usually that means he cannot work for two to three days. But she responds quickly when he calls and has him back with his customers in one day.
“She is also personable and nice, so the experience is comfortable and relaxing. Massage is a very personal thing and it can be awkward, but she is discreet,” he added.
Ms. Atwood has found that her sports massage program is popular with athletes and lymphatic drainage can be helpful to people who are afraid of catching the H1N1 flu or other winter-related illnesses.
“The lymphatic system relies on muscular contraction to move lymph fluids throughout the body. LD massage tries to move lymph fluids toward the lymph nodes so that more toxins are removed from the body,” she said.
“Massage increases circulation and gives a boost to the lymphatic system. During chemotherapy, it can help with the side effects by moving byproducts to the nodes."
Although she agrees with most experts that ice is good for an injury at first, Ms. Atwood believes warmth is better for nurturing and warming muscles with chronic problems. She uses a moist-heat pad so that the warmth can penetrate into the skin and on problem areas so that “the tissues are soft and ready to receive massage.”
She pointed out “massage offers more than relaxation and a luxury. The body is made to heal itself If we take away what prevents healing, then it will do what it should.”
For more information about Massage Vibes in Old Avon Village call Ms. Atwood at 860-462-22233 or e-mail her at massagevibes@gmail.com.
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