About Me

Wendy Fox received her initial massage certification from the Institute for Psycho-Structural Balancing in San Diego in 1987. Since then, she has completed extensive continuing education in multiple massage modalities from Tuina, to Thai massage, Seitai Shiatsu, Trager, Myofascial work, Pre-Natal massage, Chi Nei Tsang (Taoist abdominal massage) and Palliative and End of Life Care. She travels regularly to Seattle, Portland, and Salt Lake City for further education and to continually evolve her practice of bodywork. She has also trained in Beijing, China, where she studied Tuina at the Training Center of the China Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Tuina, a form new to many Americans, is the ancient healing bodywork of China whose origins date back 4000 years. In this form, 13 different Taoist hand techniques are used to remove obstructions to the flow of Qi and Blood along the energy lines, or meridians, in the body.

 

Recently, she participated in The Somatic Doors of Perception, a workshop with with Jack Blackburn and Deane Juhan (author of Job's Body). Her sessions often incorporate essential oils, drawing on her experiences in "Clinical Aromatherapy" with Cynthia Loving. She has participated in Blackburn's innovative work building a bridge between bodywork and Dr. Eugene Gendlin's technique of "Focusing." Wendy has also studied Craniosacral therapy with Dr. Nick Soloway and Carol Gray of the Carol Gray Center for CST Studies.

 

Previously, Wendy taught a variety of dance forms in the U.S. and Russia, including ballet, modern, and Contact Improvisation, and a class she created called "The Writing Body." She holds degrees in English (with a concentration in Creative Writing) and Russian, both with highest honors.  As a massage therapist, dancer, and a published writer, she strives to assist her clients toward greater somatic awareness, and to help them move through space with greater ease and more expansive self expression. In the Independent Record's Best of Helena series, she was voted Best Massage Therapist by the community of Helena in both 2011 and 2017.

 

She and Rolfer Lisa Fairman recently created and taught a class entitled "Moving From Grief," to support individuals through their unique grieving processes using somato-emotional techniques, writing, and partnered movement. In 2015, she collaborated with Lisa Fairman and Amy Budke, Acupuncturist/Massage Therapist, offering a seasonal sampling which used an integrative approach drawing on Tuina and Thai massage, Qi Gong, Clinical Aromatherapy, Rolfing and Rolfing Movement Integration, and Five-Element Acupuncture to assist in balancing and harmonizing the individual according to the season and the corresponding organs and qualities articulated in Traditional Chinese Medicine.

 

In 2017 Wendy completed her Qi Gong Teacher Training with internationally known Qi Gong Teacher and acupuncturist, Lee Holden in Santa Cruz, California. In 2018 she was privileged to study with Master Liu He and Dr. Liu Dong, both of whom come from a family of five generations of Qi Gong teachers in China. With Dr. Liu Dong, she learned Pearl of the Moon Qi Gong and a Tuina massage protcol for eye health. In 2019 she was invited to teach at the annual "Prevent Child Abuse and Neglect Conference" in Helena, Montana. She is a certified Holden Qi Gong Teacher and enjoys teaching to individuals and groups in a wide variety of settings. From April to October, classes are held outside next to a beautiful garden on the upper westside of Helena! During the winter months, classes meet at Helena Community Yoga.

 

During the time of the pandemic, she continued to grow and deepen her practice by taking advantage of the many inspiring on-line resources made available to massage therapists and Qi Gong teachers, including several human dissections conducted by Tom Myers (Anatomy Trains) and Todd Garcia (Laboratories of Anatomical Enlightenment), and the Qi Gong series "Awaken Your Inner Power With Qi Gong and Xi Breathing" and Yin/Yang Qi Gong with Master Robert Peng. In May of 2022 she concluded an  8 month study offered by Josephine Spilka, L. Ac.entitled "Weaving the World: Exploring Medicine and Magic with the I Ching and Essential Oils."  She was lucky to participate in Claire Marie Miller's last Montana teaching trip where she studied Integrative Reflexology. In 2024 she completed a course with Brian Siddhartha Ingle entitled "The Embodied Osteopathic Way of Self-Healing" with a special focus on the eyes.