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.
Emily Chaffee
Emily Chaffee, LMBT, is our perinatal massage instructor for the day and night class. After graduating from Body Therapy Institute in 2011, she worked in spas for many years. She eventually left to open her own private practice, where she is able to combine her love of massage therapy and passion for maternal health by working as a fertility and birth doula, childbirth educator, and perinatal massage therapist. Through her business, Carolina Birth and Wellness, she is able to be a strong advocate for maternal health and the role that massage therapy can play in optimizing health from preconception through the postpartum period.
Emily is excited to teach future massage therapists about the benefits of massage in the perinatal stage and how to help birthing individuals across North Carolina to feel empowered in their birth experience through the power of touch.
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.
Diana DenBeste
Diana DenBeste, LMBT, our mindfulness instructor, has been practicing massage since 1999 after receiving her training at Universal College of Healing Arts in Omaha, Nebraska. Before moving to North Carolina in 2017, she had been a faculty member at UCHA teaching myofascial massage, clinical anatomy, and continuing education to licensed massage therapists while maintaining a private practice specializing in chronic pain. Her background previous to massage was in the field of medicine as a Physician Assistant and psychology as a Licensed Mental Health Therapist. She currently practices massage at an acupuncture clinic in Durham.
Diana has done meditation and yoga for 20 years, finding them very helpful in her maintenance of mental, emotional, and physical vitality. The process of personal growth has been a personal and professional study for over 30 years. Her goal as an educator is to facilitate body awareness as the pathway toward skill enhancement in massage and being a high functioning human being.
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.
Melinda Hunt

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.
Anthony Tomlinson
Anthony Tomlinson, LMBT, MMP, is our Swedish Massage instructor for our day class. A native of Raleigh, he graduated from East Carolina University in 2005 with a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Elementary Education (K–6). Still feeling the desire to work in the medical field, he graduated from ECPI University in 2010. He started his private practice, Raleigh Massage & Wellness, in 2016. As an educator, Anthony understands the importance of ongoing education and continues to his training in various modalities. He is a certified medical massage therapist and undergoing certification in Thai massage.
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.