Carolyn Letherland _{CAMTC #24127}

Carolyn believes in the healing power of massage and provides her expertise to assist in the process. Drawing from her extensive training through the National Holistic Institute, her unique style blends various modalities to create each hypnotic and restorative session. As a therapist, her goals are to provide relaxation, decrease pain and support body awareness and self-care for each client.

She brings to her craft a wealth of life experiences including a background in Montessori education and the completion of a yoga teacher training. Outside of her working life, Carolyn enjoys traveling to far away destinations but loves to call California home.

Liz Williams _{CAMTC #37637}

Liz Williams offers clientele both massage and physical therapy services. She brings to the practice an integrated approach that combines manual therapy, mindfulness and exercise to facilitate health & well-being. Her goal: to help clients find their way to a healthy and balanced body.

Liz has worked extensively in orthopedic and neurologic rehabilitation since attaining her master’s degree in Physical Therapy from UCSF/SFSU in 2005. Her work is results oriented and guided by her profound knowledge of anatomy and kinesiology. That being said, she aims to balance her work with a healthy dose of yum – in recognition of the sweetness to be found in human touch. Liz has been a certified massage therapist since 2000 with training in multiple disciplines; she completed her certification with Professional Yoga Therapy Studies in January 2013.

Outside her life as a massage therapist and PT, Liz teaches with the YogaSlacker crew sharing the practices of partner acrobatics and slackline yoga. She enjoys hiking, riding her bikes both on and off the beaten path, and finding balance upside down when and wherever possible.

Julia García-Melan _{CAMTC #67409}

Julia has been a massage therapist for a decade working in the best luxury spas in Los Angeles, with professional athletes, and with survivors of trauma. The massage Julia gives celebrates the body’s natural propensity to heal itself. Her technique is centered on the preferences of each individual while remaining grounded in the profound healing potential of human touch. She calls upon her 850+ hours of training to release myofascial trigger points, improve lymph function, and restore balance to the nervous system. She excels in very deep massage and softer nurturing massage alike and often integrates both.

Called a “muscle whisperer” by clients, Julia understands that even chronic pain can be addressed when working at the right depth and rhythm. She helps her clients find stillness in a busy week or after a trauma by approaching each session with an open mind and a listening heart.

Zoe Burton _{CAMTC #46636}

Zoe loves practicing massage as a way to facilitate well-being. Her work is therapeutic in nature, drawing on advanced techniques including deep tissue, neuromuscular therapy, myofascial release, Swedish, sports, and prenatal massage.

Zoe incorporates specific work within nurturing full body sessions, which allows for deep relaxation. Her daily meditation practice supports clarity, grounding, and intuition in her bodywork.

Her work is informed by over 900 hours of education at the San Francisco School of Massage and Bodywork and at NHI’s Advanced Neuromuscular Therapy Program. A lifelong learner exploring the body, mind, and spirit, Zoe supports clients as a fellow traveler on the path to better self-care, healing, and a thriving body.

Anna Seva _{CAMTC # 14217}

Anna Seva has always loved the life and language of the body. A bodyworker for over a decade, her practice integrates elements from a background in yoga, dance, hospice work and expressive arts therapy. She holds a MA degree in somatic psychology from Santa Barbara Graduate Institute.

She sees the body as a gateway to clarity and wisdom and seeks to affirm its innate healing capacity and ability to re-align and re-organize towards greater health and well-being. She specializes in deep tissue and trigger point work based on listening to the body’s cues and supporting the nervous system in restoring and resourcing.

Anna grew up in Northern Finland and feels most at home in a forest or by the ocean. Movement is her medicine and she loves to dance, do yoga, ride her bicycle and go backpacking whenever possible.”

Kellyn Foxman _{CAMTC # 70723}

Kellyn brings a multitude of skills to the Synapse Crew. A love of practicing bodywork was born out of her passion for yoga, mindfulness, and partner acrobatics. Beginning her massage training in Chiang Mai, Thailand, Kellyn studied the stretching and pressure-point work of Thai massage. She has since spent over 900 hours studying Tui Na, Shiatsu, Swedish, Deep Tissue, acupressure, Chi Nei Sung (belly massage), myofascial therapy, and trigger point therapy. She meets her clients with a therapy that best suits them, and it is often a combination of techniques.

Using breathwork in her sessions, Kellyn believes watching and playing with how we breathe is an essential key to healing. She believes that our bodies are healing themselves all the time, forgiving all the harm we knowingly and unknowingly inflict upon ourselves. Her aim as a bodyworker is to support that process as it unfolds.

Saloni Desai _{CAMTC #69167}

Saloni is a passionate believer in the mind-body connection and its role in our everyday coping strategies.

Drawing from her 1000+ hours of study in a wide variety of Eastern and Western modalities, Saloni customizes her techniques to best align with the needs of each client. With an emphasis on energy, flexibility, and malleability, she strives to release and reorient holding patterns of stress, dis-ease and physical manifestations of trauma within the body from the core outward.

Saloni’s life experiences have given her a passion for health, wellness, and mind-body balance. Having learned to manage her own chronic pain and autoimmune issues over the past decade, she values being able to support and facilitate healing for all who come her way. A fervent proponent of self-care, Saloni recognizes the benefits of setting aside time each day to heal oneself, and is passionate about sharing this knowledge with her clients.

As she continues on this journey, she invites you to explore the inner workings of your self and discover what can be revealed when you unwind and allow yourself the time you need to heal.

Breanna Carroll _{CAMTC #74980}

Breanna’s journey in massage began when she witnessed the positive effects it had on her life. With a background in sports, she was no stranger to the tension, tightness, and stress that can often exist within the body. Since following the intuitive nudge to enroll in massage school, she has completed over 1000 hours studying the relationship between the body and the mind. Breanna views human nature as multi faceted, and believes that proper care of the body can facilitate healing of the internal and external experience.

In addition to massage, Breanna is a certified yoga instructor. Her work combines breath awareness from yoga with the scientific and therapeutic qualities of massage for a unique and integrative experience.

Ximena Arestizabal

(Pronounced “He-men-ah”)

Ximena Arestizabal is a native of El Salvador who grew up in the East Bay. Since graduating from the National Holistic Institute in 2000, she has worked in many settings ranging from physical therapy and chiropractic offices to luxury resort spas. She has recently returned from living in Hawai’i where she studied lomi lomi massage.

Ximena’s work strikes a perfect balance between intuition and skilled therapeutic intervention. As influenced by lomi lomi, each session is soothing, and flowing –leaving her clients with a sense of balance and wellbeing. Ximena is excited to be back in the bay area to continue practicing and learning with each client.

Stan Barrett _{CAMTC #27853}

With two decades expertise as a professional massage therapist, Stan Barrett has dedicated his career to wellness via his entrepreneurial endeavors. He is the Owner of Oakland-based Synapse Massage & Bodywork, with a mandate to ensure that if the body is strong and healthy, then the mind is clear to follow the path of the Spirit.

Stan was raised on the East Coast and received his training at the Stillpoint Center for Healing Arts in Massachusetts. His wish was to work in professional cycling—and he has fulfilled that goal. Over the last 20 years, he has worked as both a massage therapist and as a professional race mechanic for the likes of Mercury, Radio Shack, SRAM Neutral Race Support, SaxoBank, and Lampre.

Now based in Oakland, he first worked with the Claremont Spa, where he discovered the benefits of the 90-minute massage. Stan understands that a typical 50-minute massage doesn’t truly allow clients to ease into a deeper level of relaxation—and thus, 90-minutes has become the standard at Synapse Massage & Bodywork.

Stan attended the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and he remains active in the Pablove Across America charity.