March 14, 2017

Meet Staci Nicoletti of Massage by Staci in Downtown Long Beach

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Staci Nicoletti.

Staci, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
About 10 years ago, I was working in retail management. I started realizing that I wanted to change careers and transition to something more fulfilling. Helping people has always come quite naturally to me, I decided to enroll myself in Massage Therapy School in Chicago (where I am originally from). After the program, I moved to San Francisco working in various gyms, wellness centers and spas along with renting an office from a chiropractor to get my own practice started along with enrolling in Personal Training School to deepen my kinesiology, anatomy, fitness and nutrition knowledge. Eventually I moved to LA and now Long Beach. I am currently located in a prime location downtown on Pine above a Starbucks. I believe in yoga as a way to help preserve the body so it made sense for me to operate out of a yoga studio.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
For the most part, massage therapy has been a very organic lifestyle and career change for me. Only recently have I been faced with some major road blocks in conducting my business. Long Beach has been the biggest challenge because of the archaic massage regulations in place (which I am currently working to change) where massage therapy is only permitted as an accessory business to a doctor’s office, chiropractor office, fitness center or beauty shop. The city has prevented me from opening my own business independent of another business. Though I am still working on this, I realized I had to get my business going in Long Beach in some capacity. I met with the studio owner at Olive Yoga in downtown Long Beach where we decided to build a healing room. I had to take out a substantial business loan to create a soundproof room that I could work in.

Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Massage by Staci – what should we know?
The modalities I most commonly work in are: deep tissue, cupping, Swedish massage, lymphatic drainage, reiki, cranial sacral, etc. I love and am so grateful that my job in life is to help people to feel better and to further educate them about their bodies. Because of my personal training experience, I am able offer posture/gate observations and/or advice with self-care regimes that my clients can apply in between bodywork sessions to create positive changes in their bodies. I enjoy customizing sessions with clients based on individual needs. No two sessions are alike!

Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
Listening- especially prior to a client’s session has been so instrumental. The more a client can describe what the feeling are, the better I can choose the right modalities/techniques to work in. Communication is key, often times after the first time I see a client, I follow-up with them to see how the work settled in and apply their feedback to the next session with them.

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