VANESSA ROSE KESEF
owner | she/her
LMT, CLC, CST, AWC
ABOUT ME
I have been in private practice since 2006. My credentials include licensed massage therapist, certified life coach, craniosacral therapist, certified Ayurvedic wellness coach. I am also a self-taught herbalist (with some Ayurvedic training), I’ve taken many years and modalities worth of training in energetic medicine, and some somatic and trauma informed trainings.
I am a 3rd generation immigrant from Greece and descendant of both Sephardi + Ashkenazi Jewish diasporas of multiple Middle Eastern, Mediteranean and European lineages. My personal and professional work is rooted in reclaiming Jewish magic + ritual, and the converging esoteric medicinal traditions of my Greek and Middle Eastern heritage while remaining in right relationship to the Spirits of this land and its Ancestors. Why is this important to share? Because it informs how I locate myself within spiritual practices, how I access and hold space for spiritual healing and my continued effort to ground myself in my own ancestral background.
My journey as healer has taken me from a very western clinical approach into the more spiritual and dynamic realms of the healing arts. My classical training has taught me to assess and then treat according to my diagnosis of the situation. As my skills have deepened, I realize the body is it's own best healer and is vastly more capable of expressing its needs than I am at "fixing" them. Instead, I listen to how your body and energy field unfold into the invitation of space and find the most profound healing often occurs solely in being compassionately witnessed.
Today, the basis of my work explores early and formative wounds that take up space in our bodies and energy fields and uses a multi-modality approach to integrate those wounds so you can live in alignment with what is most true for you.
As my own healing process continues to unfold, I find that self-care is only one aspect of healing and that for true healing to occur, we must look through the broader lens of socio-cultural well-being and ancestral reconnection. An important part of my work is exploring the ways in which my own body remembers cultural trauma, examining my biases, and working towards unsettling settler colonialism in myself and being accountable to the ways it shows up in the healing arts field.
WELLNESS AS AN INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX
I believe that healing is inherently political and that the wellness industrial complex should not exist. I’m not suggesting healers not be paid for their work, rather, I’m inviting an examination of the way we consume wellness.
Self-care, a term originally coined by Audre Lorde, a self-described “black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet”, is defined by her as an act of self-preservation and political warfare. This definition was created as a response to the systemic failure to provide for the needs of Black women in a white supremacist society, rather than the industrialized pursuit of happiness or well-being.
For everyone else, self-care is about tending to one's self as an intentional act of resistance in a system that does not prioritize the real wellness of your body, identity, community, and way of life. It is about seeking methods that allow one to exist; not only to survive but to thrive. Rather than a consumable luxury, which we are often programmed to feel guilt over, self-care is a tool we can use to find sustainability and support in our lives.
MY TRAINING
My journey into the healing arts began when I graduated from massage school in 2006 with a growing passion for education around the science and mystery of healing. I feel very fortunate to have had many talented and intuitive teachers along my way.
Massage Therapy at Everest School of Massage (Formerly Ashmead School of Massage)
Doula Certification with Penny Simkin, PT at Bastyr University
Life Coaching Certification with South West Institute of Healing Arts
Ayurvedic Wellness Counselor Certification with Dr. Jayarajan Kodikannath at Kerala Academy
Panchakarma Technician with Dr. Jayarajan Kodikannath at Kerala Academy
Ayurvedic Bodywork with Nickole Thornton Gonzales, LMT, CAP, CYI at North West Ayurveda
Craniosacral Training with Urusla Popp, M.A.c, C.C, VCST at Natural Health Resources Center
Visceral Massage Training with Marty Ryan, LMT and Love your Guts Seminars
Healing Craft Practitioner Training with Ylva Mara Radziszewski, EAMP, LAc at the Cunning Crow Apothecary
Beyond The Binary with LC Continenza, LMT at Elemental Roots Bodywork
Authentic Allyship Immersive with Tada Hozumi at the Selfish Activist
Re-Centering the Marginalized Experience with Davinah Simmons, CD at Born Rooted
1st Year of Core Energetics Somatic Therapy with Aylee Welch, LICSW at Seattle School of Body Psychology
Core 1 + 2 of Somatic Sexological Body work with the Institute for the Study of Somatic Sexuality Education