Local Massage Therapist Aims to Spread Health and Healing

Nikki Remic-Bannon is helping people to be empowered by their own wellbeing through holistic health practices and massage at the Pittsburgh Center for Complementary Health and Healing.

“I think oftentimes in traditional medicine, it leaves people feeling like a victim and like they are not in control of what is happening at all and there is nothing they can do,” Remic-Bannon said. “I feel like what we do really shows people how they can take steps in their life towards reaching whatever health goal they have.”

The 30-year-old massage therapist of Brookline opened the business four years ago in Regent Square after training with a local teacher during her studies. After she saw the vacant space on the second floor of the South Braddock Avenue business district, she knew the neighborhood was exactly where she wanted to practice.

Today, the Pittsburgh Center for Complementary Health and Healing offers customized massages, reiki and a myriad of other services aimed at making clients feel relaxed. Hot stone massages and customized massages are just a few of the services offered there.

Remic-Bannon, who has Crohn’s Disease, an inflammatory bowel disease, said massage has helped her to maintain her own health over the years.

“Massage connects me to who I really am,” she said. “In every day life, I get so caught up with ‘doing.’ I am like so many people – I am on the computer, I am on the phone making appointments – and when I get a massage, I remember that I am more than what I do.”

Remic-Bannon has been studying and practicing massage for 11 years. She took her first massage class while in high school at Franklin Regional in the Murrysville area, immediately falling in love with the practice.

As a child, she said she seemed to always be sick. Eleven years ago, when doctors couldn’t diagnose her problem, they suggested Remic-Bannon talk to a psychologist. Shortly after, her colon ruptured and she discovered she had Crohn’s Disease.

“Thankfully, my mom was a nurse at Shadyside Presbyterian and she was trained by them in therapeutic touch,” Remic-Bannon said. “At the time, the nurses were not allowed to offer it to patients, but if patients asked, they were allowed to do it. “

While a morphine drip did not alleviate the pain after surgery, therapeutic touch allowed her to fall asleep and rest.

“I really started to get firsthand experience with alternative medicine and went to massage school six months after that,” she said.

As Remic-Bannon now works with clients to determine the best massage choices for their issues and health, she said she wants to help others improve their daily lives at work and at home.

“I really want to create a ripple effect of joy, relaxation and interconnectedness in the world,” Remic-Bannon said. “People get any sort of session and connect with that deep place of who they really are.”

She also said it refreshes her own belief in the good of people.

“I feel like when people are connected to that place inside, they treat each other better,” she said. “They go home, they treat their spouse better they have a better night and when they go to work, they feel better.”

For information on services and prices, visit http://www.pghhealthandhealing.com/.