All the women of Ohana Wellness are unique healers. Gloria Quezada is in a league of her own. I had the pleasure of working with her recently and it was truly an emotional and in-depth healing experience.
Gloria told me that her and Saya (meet Saya HERE) have known each other upwards of 15 years. It’s no surprise that they go way back – they are cut from the same cloth that makes the environment of Ohana Wellness what it is today.
Gloria radiates warmth, she will speak to you as if you’ve known her your whole life. She has this uncanny ability to make you feel at ease quickly, authentically, where suddenly you feel comfortable revealing your vulnerabilities as if you’ve been talking to her for hours as opposed to just a few short minutes. She’s unique not only because of the way she presents herself to anyone she meets but because her experience is about as versatile and integrative as it gets. She’s brings to the table a combination of many types of healing including but not limited to: sports injury management, ayurvedic medicine, reiki, craniosacral, massage, deep tissue, trigger point therapy, and even becoming a doula. All of these allows for powerful sessions that are as holistic and integrative as they are therapeutic.
We began our session checking in how I was feeling physically, emotionally, and mentally. This is a standard practice with every single practitioner you meet with at Ohana and it’s one of my favorite parts of the session. I mentioned my struggle with anxiety and panic in the past week particularly, and that my tension physically was showing up in my stomach and up in my collarbone / shoulder areas (any of my other anxiety warriors like to curl their shoulders forward and up?!)
As she began to work on me, she used a deep yet sensitive pressure, the intensity in her kindness and the way she manipulates your body permeating through her capable hands. Gloria’s fingertips act like little droplets of sunshine infusing their way into your skin – lifting, brightening, and caring. She acts as conduit for your body to relax, heal, and sink deep into the table. Her pressure varied from light as a feather to intense trigger point and deep tissue for the areas that needed it the most.
She picks up on what your mind-body needs so intuitively. Never judging, never commenting, never allowing you to be any more than just accepting of the state of you in this moment on her table. Gloria has one of the strongest grounding energies that I’ve had the privilege of being around. For those of that struggle with floating or tornado-ing through days without a moment to pause and take a breath, Gloria is a god-send.
As a highly perceptive therapist, she encourages open communication with her client on the table. Throughout our 90 minutes together, she asked me regularly “let me know if this is too sensitive,” “let me know if that’s too much for you,” etc. She encouraged me to be aware of my body on the table, asking me to work in tandem with her to create space in my body. Moving my shoulder down, allowing space between my collarbone and head. She listens actively to your body, and knows when to ask for validation or invalidation.
She ended the session with what she refers to as a sacral rock—a gentle rocking motion applied to the abdomen (read more about another abdominal massage HERE.). As kids, we always asked our loved ones to rub our tummies when we weren’t feeling well. Remember how nurtured, loved, soothed we felt when someone rubbed our bellies? Guess what – at 33 years old, that still feels good, and we should be asking for as many belly rubs as we can!
My emotional experience with Gloria was not because I was in pain, but because I felt such gratitude that I was in an environment and with a person who embodies judgment-free, acceptance, wholehearted living, and where I could truly let go.
For a deeply healing experience that will stay with you long after you move off the table, schedule time with Gloria HERE.
