Massage therapist expands to Ritzville

RITZVILLE – Massage therapist Roxanne Potter recently set up shop downtown, adding local clients to her services in Lacrosse and St. John.

Potter, her husband David, and their three daughters moved from upstate New York to Eastern Washington in 1994.

"David changed jobs and we hooked up with Judy Harder in Hooper," she said.

Hooper, located along the southern bank of the Palouse River, is a rural community east of Washtucna in Whitman County.

Her husband was farming and ranching when they moved to Washington, but later started driving charter buses. Since retiring from that job, he's driven periodically for the Colfax School District.

After moving to Hooper, the Potters attended church in Lacrosse, where they became friends with an older couple.

"The wife had dementia and the husband needed help," she said. "That's when I started care-giving. Caring for a person with dementia is a rough job. At that time, I started giving hand and feet massages because it calmed my clients and kept them in one place."

Observing Potter's skill with those clients, a friend recommended she attend massage school.

A stay-at-home mom, her plans didn't include returning to work until her last child was in kindergarten. So, she initially declined.

"But he kept encouraging me, so I looked into a massage school in Moscow, Idaho," she said. "It was a 9-month program, but actually took a year. In the summer, we gained hands-on training at the school."

She drove to Moscow once a week to gain that experience.

"It turned out I liked massage and was good at it," she said. "I started at our home in Lacrosse and a year after I graduated massage school, I began giving massages in St. John."

She's been providing massages for nearly 19 years, and last year added Ritzville clients to her business.

"I came to Dr. Kragt's office and started visiting with Vonnie Messerschmidt who does some local caregiving," she said. "When Vonnie learned I was a massage therapist, she told me about the need in Ritzville and encouraged me to come."

Since then, Messerschmidt has helped with scheduling and finding people who might benefit from Potter's services.

"I now have my own room at Nails by Karin across the street from the post office," Potter said.

She said her emphasis as a massage therapist is "on the medical side, rather than the spa side." "I'm not giving you a nice bathrobe when you walk in, and I'm not trying to put you to sleep with cucumbers on your eyes."

She performs a combination of techniques to help ease pain or stiffness in trouble spots-back, shoulders, knees, etc. "Clients still get to relax, but I don't do 'cookie cutter' techniques. I treat people as individuals with individual needs."

She starts each session by asking, "What can I do for you today?"

"Some clients come to me because they've run out of options with medical doctors," she said. "They don't want to continue taking pills or getting injections. They want to know if I can help manage their issues, including migraines or chronic back pain."

Others may want to postpone a knee replacement. She said massage can help by working with the muscles above and below the knee.

Potter strives to educate people about taking care of their bodies-before more serious issues develop. Using a maintenance analogy, she notes that people who don't routinely maintain their vehicles or farm machinery often have problems later.

"You change the oil, check the spark plugs, change the belts if needed," she said.

She believes people should take similar steps with their bodies. "If you total your car, you can buy a new one," she said. "You can't buy a new body."

Potter's regular days in Ritzville are Tuesdays and Thursdays. Mondays and Wednesdays she works in St. John, but her schedule varies depending on client needs.