Offerings

Pine Heart Healing is a sliding scale community practice with rabbit varela, Licensed Massage Therapist (LMT), (she/they) with massages starting at $40. We offer intuitive deep tissue and gentle restorative trauma-informed massage, as well as herbal support and art. Massage offerings include myofascial and cranio-sacral therapy, lymphatic drainage and trigger point work, cupping, Reiki and moxibustion. Custom herbal salves, teas, honeys, vinegars, and herbal workshops on working with plants and local foraging with care are also available. Art offerings include woodburnings of plants and animals, including pet portraits, prints, candles, wooden spoons, and copper and shell jewelry.

Mission and Community Guidelines

Pine Heart Healing is offering a sliding scale, pay-what-you-can, community practice. Somatic healing is a centuries-old healing practice in every part of the world, and should be accessible and affordable for everyone, as a basic support for our bodies’ healing practices. Our bodies are incredibly wise and guide our care. The intention is for these practices to be for everyone in our community, regardless of what different resources you might come with. Together, we can make this work. If you have more to give in money resources, that can help others access this care. Sometimes we have different resources at different times- you decide what you can afford to pay for a visit. Together, we have so much to give and share. Pine Heart Healing is also actively working with other healers in The Meeting Point community to try to create a welcoming, warm, accessible and safe environment for everyone in our community. As a white healing practitioner, it is my responsibility to continue to learn practices to repair and transform harm and ensure access to resources that are for all of us, but that have been systematically taken from BIPOC communities in a comprehensive system of apartheid. The intention is to learn together how to become good kin, and build community spaces that are for all of us <3. We welcome all people here, of all abilities and disabilities, resources, races, cultures, colors, ages, national origins, incomes, genders, sexes, sexual orientations, religions, political beliefs, family and relationship situations, and all bodies of every size and shape and way of being. All our bodies are beloved of this earth, and it is my responsibility to ensure respect, dignity, safety and care in every aspect of treatment.

How does sliding scale and pay-what-you-can work?

Sliding scale offers suggestions for what you pay, based on how much money you have to give. If it is helpful for you to think on a range, here are some guidelines, below. For instance, if you own a home or car and are comfortable eating out some during the week, you might pay $100 for the 75 minute massage, rather than the $40. But we are also pay-what-you-can, so if this scale does not work for you, for instance what you really have is $25, or can barter, you can pay what does make sense for you. The cost for me to use the Bodyworker space each hour is $10, which is factored in. Please also feel free to reach out and we can talk about it! This is a starting point. The idea is, let’s work together to make this work, so everyone is welcome and can get a massage that feels right for them.

Sliding scale

75 minute massage: $40 $70 $100

90 minute massage: $75 $115 $150

2 hour massage: $100 $130 $175

2.5 hour massage: $130 $160 $200

30 minute Tarot reading: by donation

Herbal salve: $10 $15 $20

About Pine Heart Healing

As Leah Penniman of Soul Fire Farms, continuing in the legacy of George Washington Carver and BIPOC organizers through generations, attests, healing our bodies and healing the land are intertwined. We are in this together, as community, and I love offering one piece of this healing through restorative massage and herbs. Just as we have not come to all the stress in our bodies alone, we also have a chance to do this healing work together, with support and reciprocity, from plants we have been co-evolving with for thousands of years, to fellow community members and healing practitioners. These include national organizers like Resmaa Menakem, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Mariame Kaba, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, Pepe Franchini Vasquez, adrienne maree brown, Alice Sparkly Kat, Jessica Lanyadoo and Nicole Sacchs, and local community organizations including the Boston Acupuncture Project, Harm Free Living, CommonWealth Herbs, Maggie Ruth Herbals, City Life Vida Urbana, and the People’s Medicine Project, as well as fellow somatic practitioners at The Meeting Point, including 3R Body Wellness, Mirah Sand - Pelvic Floor Therapy, and Indigo Acupuncture. Following in that spirit, as a local community member in Boston, Massachusetts, on Pawtucket and Massachusett land, is Pine Heart Healing. The Massage School in Boston helped me integrate my Reiki II and herbal practice with a study of our connective tissue, and the amazing ways our bodies continue to grow and heal and connect, even amidst trauma. Our amazing fascial networks link each and every cell of our body with the world around us, communicating through biophotons, sound vibrations and touch. I love this work and the chance it gives to help ourselves and others connect with our bodies, and see ourselves as part of the healing of our communities and the land.

Training

The Massage School, Boston (graduated December 2020, Licensed Massage Therapist in Massachusetts); Cranio-Sacral Therapy Training with Dr. Saskia Coté, D.C.Ed., Ganesha Institute (February 2023); Thai Massage workshop with Hui Ying Chin (June 2023), Trauma Informed Practices for Bodyworkers with Isabella Gitana of the Survivor Arts Collective and People’s Medicine Clinic (March 2021); From the Roots Up Apprenticeship, fall session with Jade Alicandro Mace of Milk & Honey Herbs in Conway, MA (Fall 2018); 1st year Herbal Apprenticeship, 200 hours with Tony Lemos of Blazing Star Herbal School (Fall 2019-Fall 2020); Reiki Jin Kei Do I and II with Christine Radice, Reiki Master and Teacher, Boston (January 2018, July 2019); All-Day Herb Walk with Commonwealth Center for Holistic Herbalism (July 2020), Moxibustion workshop with Ellen Geary, of Moxa Northwest (June 2019).

Some Testimonials

“Amazing massage! Rabbit’s approach is intuitive and holistic. What I mean: I could feel them working with specific knots and with the muscles around the knots to release tension. Their understanding of how the body works together shows up in their massage work! Highly recommend!” -M Catsambas

“After weeks of pain following a back injury, I got a massage with Pine Heart Healing that made a huge difference to the pain, but also how I felt overall. I was just so much better afterward. Rabbit is intuitive and communicative, gentle around my pain points but also really good at working out the kinks, would recommend her to anybody and will definitely be going back.” -L Burton

“Rabbit is a very skilled and effective massage therapist. Thoroughly knowledgeable in and adept at using a variety of massage/healing modalities, Rabbit has a steady, calm focus - listening to your body’s needs and responding appropriately. Her deep tissue work on my hamstrings, neck, and shoulders not only brought relief from pain but significantly assisted me in my efforts to restore range of motion and improve my all around physical well-being. I've seen massage therapists in the Boston area for over 25 years and Rabbit is easily one of the very best LMTs I've met. Also, while I have not used Rabbit's salves, I have purchased and given some to friends with arthritis - and they rave about how much the salves help.” -D Curtis

“My first time here was absolutely wonderful and I cannot wait to book my next appointment! I've been wanting to treat myself to a massage but could not get around to either finding the right place or going through the hassle to schedule one. Rabbit, the masseuse extraordinaire, was a charm at helping me settle both.
Not only is she nice and personable, but the thoroughness of her pre-intake questions makes you feel like you are in very good hands, which is exactly how I felt throughout the session. I felt that she was very responsive to my needs and requests, as a lot of attention was given to the areas I needed "work" in. It was so nice to be able to completely relax but most importantly, to feel relief from my muscle maladies. Suffice to say that I went home a happy camper! Cannot recommend Pine Heart Healing enough (what a cute name!)” -L Chang

-Michael Hurley