Mission
At Carolina Massage institute, we believe massage therapy is both an art and a science. The art lies in the therapist’s ability to create a conversation with the client, both verbally and nonverbally. Our program develops therapists’ ability to create a treatment plan to help clients feel balanced, centered, and deeply heard.
To support this intuitive conversation, we ground therapists in the best practices, using research-backed Western and Eastern approaches. Because any good conversation includes a lot of questions and careful attention to the answers, we teach our therapists to stay critically aware and up-to-date on the latest medical approaches to manual therapy. Our students graduate with a balanced sense of creativity and rationality to serve each unique client for the benefit of the individual and the greater community.
Program director Sara Owens is always available at info@carolinamassageinstitute.com. We encourage you to make an appointment to visit, ask all your questions, tour the space, and get to know us!
Administration
Sara Owens
As our program director, Sara Owens is the primary point person for all your questions about our school and our programs. Reach out to her anytime at info@carolinamassageinstitute.com. When you do, you’ll love her welcoming energy and deep, enthusiastic care for our students. Be sure to ask Sara about her diverse background in service industries, including owning several coffee and ice cream shops, ongoing police department crime analysis work, and teaching yoga!
Theresa Warren
Theresa Warren, our director of education, became licensed as a North Carolina massage and bodywork therapist in 2009 after a career in public relations and marketing. A graduate of Body Therapy Institute, Theresa was also a member of the faculty there from 2011 to 2016. Originally from St. Louis, MO, where she graduated from Fontbonne University, Theresa has proudly called North Carolina home for the past 20 years.
While operating a private practice in Durham since 2011, she refers to herself as a “massage missionary,” providing bodywork in numerous other massage therapy environments, including Hillsborough Spa and Day Retreat and Durham Bodywork. Mindfulness of proper body mechanics and dutiful attention to work/home balance allow for a long life in a beloved profession while also spending time outdoors hiking or at the beach with family.
Lies Sapp and Sage Rountree
CMI’s owners, Lies Sapp, JD, and Sage Rountree, PhD, also own Carolina Yoga Company and Hillsborough Spa and Day Retreat, where CMI’s student clinic is held. As yoga teachers and spa aficionadas, they place a premium on body awareness and self-care, and they are honored to hold the space for your learning to help others through massage.
Faculty
Kelly Bowers
Kelly Bowers, LMBT, our business teacher, has been practicing massage since 2000. She has been providing basic business education to massage therapists since 2003. As the CEO of the Healing Core, she teaches basic business courses around the country. Kelly is also a professional writer and has published three books on business for the healing arts community. She writes a blog on the business of massage (Have Hands, Will Travel) and is an NCBTMB-approved continuing education provider for massage therapists.
Kelly is motivated to help massage therapists be competent business owners because she’s seen too many gifted practitioners leave the field because they can’t make the business side of the house work for them. She uses her skills from her previous profession (technical writer, aka “professional explainer”) to make business topics accessible and nonthreatening. She works at the Medical Massage Clinic of Durham.
Kelly Cox
Kelly Cox, LMBT, is our myofascial release instructor. He graduated from Pacific College of Oriental Medicine with a Bachelors of Health Science focused on Asian Holistic Health & Massage. This program, based heavily in Traditional Chinese Medicine, goes hand-in-hand with his background in martial arts. Martial arts serves as his practical and unique foundation in biomechanics as well as cultivating the mind-body connection. Accompanying his eastern endeavors, Kelly continues to be a lover of science. His background also includes psychology and zoology, which provides him insight to behavior, motivation, and the physical processes of being human. He continually updates his understanding of how massage and movement work.
His specialization is Sport Massage. He started Randori Bodywork, a massage business based heavily on athletic optimization. He works routinely with collegiate athletic programs and serves on the medical staff for a U.S. National Team. He has provided massage around the United States and the world, including at the 2016 Summer Olympic Games.
Munsie Davis
Munsie Davis, LMBT, is our ethics teacher. She has been a self-professed workshop junkie since her graduation from Hampshire College with a degree in what is now called somatics. She credits her parents’ holistic lifestyle with her interest in healthy living and the power of touch. As a holistic manual therapist, Munsie blends a variety of skills, using touch as a medium for accessing the homeostasis mechanisms in the body.
Munsie was licensed by the North Carolina Board of Massage and Bodywork Therapy (NCLMBT #112) in 2000 when the license first became available. In her decades of work, she served on the faculty of the Carolina School of Massage therapy and participated in a major revision of the curriculum. She has also spoken at numerous local organizations including the Chapel Hill Senior Center, Duke Center for Living, and Bridges to Health.
Brianne Godwin
Brianne Godwin, LMBT, is our Anatomy, Physiology, Pathology, and Kinesiology teacher. Since graduating in 2009 from Natural Touch School of Massage, she has operated a private practice in Carrboro and Mebane. She finds that when given with skill and supportive intent, massage speaks for itself as one of the primary components of a health regimen.
During her collegiate years as a varsity swimmer at Northwestern University, she received biweekly massage as a preventative measure and attributed this practice to staying injury-free all four years. Now she finds great joy and purpose in leading others to the therapeutic effects of massage. Brianne is delighted to be part of the Carolina Massage Institute, educating future massage therapists to meet the growing demand of this therapeutic profession.
Stacy Hewitt
Stacy Hewitt, L.Ac, LMBT, is our Eastern energetics instructor. Stacy’s journey to become an alternative healthcare provider started in 1997 when he graduated from the Carolina School of Massage Therapy and furthered his postgraduate education with advanced certifications in geriatric, orthopedic, and structural bodywork. He also pursued training in Jin Shin Do acupressure and Reiki. With his training as a massage therapist, Stacy volunteered at a Community Holistic HIV clinic. While volunteering, Stacy witnessed the healing power of Chinese medicine through the use of acupressure alone, and that sparked his interest to pursue advanced studies in Chinese medicine.
Graduating at the top of his class, Stacy received his four-year graduate degree in acupuncture at the Jung Tao School of Classical Chinese Medicine in Sugar Grove, North Carolina. While at Jung Tao he was fortunate to have studied in the lineage of one of the world’s great masters of classical Chinese medicine, Nguyen Van Nghi. Stacy currently practices acupuncture full time in addition to teaching acupuncture clinical skills at his alma mater.
Stacy’s expertise in acupuncture and acupressure combined with his enthusiasm for teaching and real-world clinical experience makes him an excellent resource for his students. Incorporating real-life experience and hands-on practice, Stacy’s classes not only provide an understanding of Chinese medicine and energy work, but more importantly provide valuable bodywork techniques that can easily be incorporated with any massage modality.
Angie Dix
Angie Dix teaches anatomy, physiology, pathology, and kinesiology (APPK).
Melinda Hunt
Melinda Hunt, NCLMBT, E-RYT 200, is our Self-Care instructor for the night class. In 2011 she began building curriculum to support yoga practitioners in nurturing the self through personal practice and community study groups. She carried this love of self-study into her time at the Body Therapy Institute as a massage student, and the Spirit of Learning embodied teacher education program first as student and now as a member of the faculty. Melinda’s private practice is in Durham, and she leads Durham Bodywork, broadening access to massage therapy and increasing support for massage therapists through innovative community massage clinics and a collaborative treatment space.
Facilitating connection to self, other, and the earth through the body is the foundation of Melinda’s work. Her deepest desire for new massage therapists is that they graduate with an abiding curiosity about their unique value, their individual needs, and their fellow humans, in order to support a fulfilling and sustainable professional practice.
Tonya Mason
Tonya Mason is the teaching assistant for APPK in our evening program.
Ren Pollen-Browning
Ren Pollen-Browning teaches Swedish Massage in our evening program. Ren is a Licensed Massage and Bodywork Therapist, Certified Integrative Reflexologist, and graduate of Body Therapy Institute. She has been offering massage at Hillsborough Spa and Day Retreat since day one.
Lydia Whitley
Lydia Rentz Whitley is our Clinical Communication teacher. A graduate of Body Therapy Institute’s Massage Program as well as the Spirit of Learning Teacher Training Program, Lydia brings 25 years of business, sales, and training experience to her practice. In 2009, she founded Life in Touch Massage Studio & Learning Center, a massage therapist co-operative and educational studio, comprised of seven individual business owners working together to offer clients and companies the benefits of massage.
Jobs
We are always on the lookout for caring LMBTs with more than five years’ experience and a North Carolina license to staff our school as subs and teachers. To start a conversation, send your résumé and a cover letter to info@carolinamassageinstitute.com.
Location
Carolina Massage Institute is located at 1812 Beckett’s Ridge Drive in Hillsborough, North Carolina, between Interstate 85 and Interstate 40 and very convenient to both. We are under 15 minutes’ drive from Chapel Hill and Durham, 40 minutes from Raleigh, and 45 minutes from Greensboro. You’ll find us just underneath the Hillsborough Spa and Day Retreat.
Our serene, bright institute has ample space for both classroom instruction and practical time on the table, and a lounge and kitchenette available to students. During your enrollment, you’ll receive a special student rate at our neighbor, Hillsborough Yoga Company, to facilitate your own self-care as you learn to care for others.
Convenient to All of Central NC
