OTHER EXPERIENCES~

I have been working with Toni intensely over the last several months and I can say it has been amazing and transformative. She is very intuitive but also listens and adapts. This is not a transactional massage experience-this is a partnership and that makes all the difference. I get relaxation and mobility but I also learn! She teaches strategies to move but also how to listen to your body. I was nervous at first that as a dancer she might judge other bodies, but she is so accepting and affirming. She is a great match for those with health and body anxiety. She is also shares tools and resources for everyone but also will notice something suited to me and send it. Also, the singing bowl and tuning forks she uses are so grounding. I can not recommend her highly enough. As I told her last session, working with her is like the difference in a meal at a decent restaurant or a meal prepared by a chef. — KMM, Nurse

Prior to becoming a client of Toni Craige’s, my experience with massage was strictly of the “harder-the-better” variety, after which I was usually sick from all the toxins that had been released from overly compelling masseuses. If this is your pleasure, Toni is not for you. Given my ignorance, in my initial appointments, I psychically resisted much of what she was trying to accomplish--I tightened up, held my breath, felt self-conscious (FYI: I am a stress case), and it was only with Toni’s help, when I began to relax, breathe, and collaborate, that I started to fully reap the benefits of her amazing practice. A life-long learner, Toni continually takes classes and workshops to gain more knowledge about anatomy, breathing, and movement. Educated, but also very wise, Toni knows more about the mind and the body than most medical professionals. Movement is her passion, and she is committed to helping others do so painlessly. Toni listens not only to you but to your body, and in the time you invest with her, she moves over and around you like a master composer conducting myriad instruments. While gentle, Toni is also strong and her work is both precise and sweeping. If you are holding pain in certain areas, Toni will target them, and often, you also gain knowledge regarding how to continue the soothing and healing work that she has begun. When I leave my appointments (which I never want to do), I’m inevitably calm, refreshed, renewed and hopeful. Time spent with Toni is one of the kindest things I do for myself, and I sincerely recommend an appointment with her if you seek peace, touch, health or healing--or even if you don’t. — LC, Teacher

I have been working with Toni for a number of years. I find she brings a great deal of kindness as well as all her experience and skills in bodywork, movement, and counseling to bear on my needs and interests at every session. She is present in her senses, listening well to whatever I have to say about my body and feelings and using her eyes and touch/kinesthetic perceptions to gauge what will be helpful for me on any given day. I highly recommend her. SF, Dancer

I have been a client of Toni's for many years now because her level of intuitiveness with the body enables her to guide me into releasing long-held tension with a gentle approach. Rather than trying to force a knot to release, it's almost like she invites it to evaporate. It's amazing. I've also been impressed with Toni's ongoing evolution of her practice. She is always learning new techniques and new things about the body, so she just becomes ever-more skillful. I appreciate that she approaches the body with genuine curiosity and reverence. I highly recommend her work! MS, Marketing Manager

Toni Craige’s “movement and body work” sessions are incredible. The experience combines all the befits of massage, mediation, and movement therapy. I felt great for days after even just my first session, and the work has helped me get in touch with my body in ways I’d never experienced before. Her style is both warm and totally professional, and she’s a total expert at what she does. Whether you’re working on physical pain, psychological trauma, or anxiety, or if you just feel like you’ve been out of touch with yourself, then I can’t recommend her work highly enough. Seriously worth it! — PS, Social Work Student

What you will notice first about Toni is her joyful and open heart, which sets the stage for deep healing. During a session, her intuitive healing hands transmitted deep information, as if my body was being re-educated. It was learning how to move freely with greater ease and grace. I could feel her intelligence as a master dancer moving through her hands into and through my torso, which has been ossified by too many years sitting still at a desk job. Toni works in a layered and integrated way, in other words not just with the belly of the muscle, but through the fascia, and into the tendons and ligaments, as she repositions and re-educates multiple joints across the functional segments of the body that act as a unit. Having practiced the martial arts for 25 years followed by 24 years of Tai chi and Qigong, I can say with some confidence, that Toni is a Master, and like the most advanced martial arts Masters, she transmits information through touch. I enthusiastically give Toni my highest recommendation.— GL, Research Scientist

I came in with significant back and neck pain. Toni took the time to listen to my descriptions of what hurt and help me think beyond the obvious sources of pain/what I'd tried to do to alleviate pain before. She used a variety of techniques and at the end of the session I felt totally realigned. The insight she gave me continues to help. Couldn't recommend more! — AW, Artist

I had my first massage with Toni yesterday ... hopefully the first of many. I am 64 years old and have been getting body work since I was a teenager. I have had some great, healing work in all those years and I place Toni with the best. I've had lots of injuries over the years and limp most of the time without even thinking about it because I am used to chronic pain. I came away from this session feeling tremendous pain relief. It usually takes a few sessions with somebody to feel trust, but Toni's experience and breadth and depth of so many modalities contribute to her having a very high ability to understand my limits on pressure and mobility. She checked in with me throughout the session. Her knowledge of anatomy is excellent. Her space is beautiful with lots of natural light beside a pond. Northern Durham is so fortunate to have Toni here now offering this amazing work. —JM, Teacher