Massage therapist puts down roots

What started out as a "whim" for McKenzie Lighty-Wilcox has turned into a calling and a life adventure.

Born and raised in Bend, she moved to Portland in 2008. She had been interested in a career in health since she took a health occupations course in high school. She decided to attend an intensive six-month program in massage therapy in Ashland.

"I kind of went on a whim," she said.

Initially overwhelmed with information on the anatomy and function of the body, McKenzie gradually found her footing - and a realization that she was good at this.

"I can actually get the A," she recalled realizing. "I wasn't that person in high school. That was a special moment. School was the best time of my life... I finally found like-minded people."

The academic knowledge she discovered meshed with a natural desire to connect with people. She had found her path. But that path took a dark turn when she was injured in a 20-foot fall that fractured ribs and vertebrae and punctured a lung.

"That shook my world, obviously," she said. "I spent two days in the hospital."

That was followed by a long recovery in Bend with family. That delayed her licensing. But she was not derailed. She went to work at Oasis Day Spa, then moved back across the mountains to work in Lake Oswego.

"I had a crazy amount of mentors," she said.

Getting pregnant with her daughter Willow brought her back to the east side - and to Sisters, where she worked for a time at Shibui Spa.

Now she's out on her own at Respire, located in the Sisters Art Works building at 204 W. Adams Ave., Suite 103-A.

"The timing was right and I just decided to go for it," she said.

"Respire" is to breath in and out to maintain life. For Lighty-Wilcox, it represents results.

"There's nothing better than someone having that sigh, that respire - that breathe moment," she said.

She helps people reach that moment through a variety of modalities, from Swedish massage to deep-tissue work to Thai massage that includes manipulation and stretching. She also likes to work with the front of the body, which often goes neglected, in order to release the back.

She is committed to her clients and to Sisters. She found housing fortuitously in a notoriously tough market, and enrolled her daughter in a Montessori preschool here in town.

It all feels very right.

"Every time I look out the window, I think, 'I can't believe we live at the foot of these mountains,'" she said.

For more information or to make an appointment, call 541-610-4665.

Author Bio

Jim Cornelius, Editor in Chief

Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.

• Email: editor@nuggetnews.com
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