My name is Sam Buckner (he/they). I am a licensed massage therapist offering custom and highly adaptable bodywork, using a blend of modalities that includes Neuromuscular Therapy, Swedish Massage, Tui Na (Chinese medicine massage), and other diverse influences.
My personal bodywork style is sensitive, intuitive, responsive, and subtle. Depending on the day and client, a treatment can be highly communicative and interactive, or deeply soothing and meditative. In each and every case, I do my best to show up, be present, and faithfully feel what is there so that my clients may do the same.
I am particularly interested in working with clients who have a complicated or challenging relationship with their bodies, and who may experience discomfort or pain as a result. I have often struggled to fully inhabit my own body, and have felt firsthand the benefit of mindful touch in countering dissociation and improving awareness. My practice is the way in which I hope to share this benefit with others.
My personal bodywork style is sensitive, intuitive, responsive, and subtle. Depending on the day and client, a treatment can be highly communicative and interactive, or deeply soothing and meditative. In each and every case, I do my best to show up, be present, and faithfully feel what is there so that my clients may do the same.
I am particularly interested in working with clients who have a complicated or challenging relationship with their bodies, and who may experience discomfort or pain as a result. I have often struggled to fully inhabit my own body, and have felt firsthand the benefit of mindful touch in countering dissociation and improving awareness. My practice is the way in which I hope to share this benefit with others.
MORE ABOUT ME, MY JOURNEY, AND MY PHILOSOPHY:
.I love puzzles, games, and stories, and I am deeply and passionately curious about human bodies and how they work. I discovered bodywork in my late twenties, after a lifetime of estrangement from my body and sensations left me in a state of near-perpetual depression and confusion
Beginning with a fortuitous meeting with a Chinese Medicine practitioner, I gradually began to descend into myself, finding along the way the many discomforts and pains I had set aside and ignored in the process of chasing other goals.
Over the years since, I have come to recognize and endlessly be surprised by the lasting relief that can come from applying awareness to the pains I had disregarded, and absorbing the self-knowledge these wounds imparted. This relief and knowledge have driven a dedication and commitment to sharing my discoveries with others
I studied Swedish Massage and Neuromuscular Therapy at the Center for Massage and Natural Health in Asheville, NC; prior to that, I earned a Bachelor of Arts in History at the University of Georgia in Athens, GA.
Using my massage education as a basis for interacting with and understanding bodies, I have also applied insights gained through study, contemplation, meditation, and mindful self-cultivation to develop a unique bodywork style that is subtle, precise, adaptable, and effective.
My influences include, but are not limited to, Chinese medicine, martial arts, and internal cultivation practices; the fields of somatics and trauma studies; the biopsychosocial model of health and wellness; and the ongoing work for social justice among marginalized and oppressed communities
I believe bodywork can be a powerful tool for growth, healing, and liberation, and I deeply respect the wealth of experience and embodied sensation that each client brings to the table. In my practice, I seek to affirm the reality of those experiences while helping clients to better understand their impact on the body. By grounding it all in slow, mindful, and sensitive caring touch, I help clients not just to know but to deeply feel that growth is possible, and that pain can be overcome or prevented with sufficient awareness.
Beginning with a fortuitous meeting with a Chinese Medicine practitioner, I gradually began to descend into myself, finding along the way the many discomforts and pains I had set aside and ignored in the process of chasing other goals.
Over the years since, I have come to recognize and endlessly be surprised by the lasting relief that can come from applying awareness to the pains I had disregarded, and absorbing the self-knowledge these wounds imparted. This relief and knowledge have driven a dedication and commitment to sharing my discoveries with others
I studied Swedish Massage and Neuromuscular Therapy at the Center for Massage and Natural Health in Asheville, NC; prior to that, I earned a Bachelor of Arts in History at the University of Georgia in Athens, GA.
Using my massage education as a basis for interacting with and understanding bodies, I have also applied insights gained through study, contemplation, meditation, and mindful self-cultivation to develop a unique bodywork style that is subtle, precise, adaptable, and effective.
My influences include, but are not limited to, Chinese medicine, martial arts, and internal cultivation practices; the fields of somatics and trauma studies; the biopsychosocial model of health and wellness; and the ongoing work for social justice among marginalized and oppressed communities
I believe bodywork can be a powerful tool for growth, healing, and liberation, and I deeply respect the wealth of experience and embodied sensation that each client brings to the table. In my practice, I seek to affirm the reality of those experiences while helping clients to better understand their impact on the body. By grounding it all in slow, mindful, and sensitive caring touch, I help clients not just to know but to deeply feel that growth is possible, and that pain can be overcome or prevented with sufficient awareness.