By Laura Latzko
Self-care is a multifaceted idea that includes mental, physical, emotional and spiritual health.
Center 4 Self-Care in Tucson addresses these areas through individual sessions and group classes and workshops.
Owned by four women—Katie Phill, Stacy Wright, Adrienne Asta and Trish Nichols—the collective of practitioners is focused on massage therapy. Also offered are yoga, acupuncture, energy healing, continuing education for massage therapists and locally source healing products.
Phill says self-care is often misunderstood.
“Self-care doesn’t just mean taking bubble baths,” Phill says.
“Really, it is all the parts of us that need to be cared for, our bodies, our mind, our emotions, nutrition and taking bubble baths. I feel like COVID has made people slow down because they’ve had to stay home. So, they recognize that they want to tend to their stress or tension…I think people are reaching for self-care more than ever, and they are craving touch, community and inspiration.”
Although clients visit for massages for various problem areas, many people have recently had issues with their backs, necks and shoulders. Phill says massages can also help with circulation, calming of the nervous system and digestion.
Each quarter, the collective puts on free Wellness Wednesday events in which experts come in and give talks on topics such as mindfulness and meditation practices, forms of movement therapy, nutrition or creative writing.
This quarter, Wellness Wednesday featured a workshop on understanding trauma.
The public is welcome to attend group classes as well. The next one is Wednesday, May 18, and it focuses on Yomassage, a combination of focused breathing, meditation and yoga positions with massages.
“There’s always some kind of educational component and hopefully some resources for the people who attend to understand how to take it to the next level, whatever the topic was,” Phill says.
Center 4 Self Care was founded in January 2020, but quickly had to close due to the pandemic. The practitioners offered one-on-one sessions for about a year, but group classes and workshops didn’t restart until last summer.
Along with the founders, there are also five other practitioners, all of whom set their own prices and have their own specialties.
“Each person runs their own scheduling and payments…That’s what makes it a collective,” Phill says.
The practitioners’ resumes include massages along with reiki energy healing, craniosacral or acupuncture techniques.
The center also has a retail space with self-care and healing items, such as journals, crystals, bath products and skincare product with locally sourced ingredients. Its signature product is Pain Potion, which is applied to the skin to help with pain, inflammation, tension and injury.
Phill says the collective plans to keep expanding on its healing cream line and offer self-care tools that patients can use in their own time.
“Things you would use at home to massage the knots that you get between your shoulders and different types of self-massage tools that you would use at home, we are looking to branch into that too,” Phill says.
Center 4 Self Care extends its education efforts to its social media pages, where practitioners will demonstrate stretching techniques or tips on working at home.
As part of a contract with the nonprofit organization COPE Community Services Inc., the center provides group meditation classes at residential rehabilitation centers.
Center 4 Self-Care
3501 E. Kleindale Road
344-2529
center4self-care.com
