Hi

My name is Andie Devynck and my business is called Poolesville Healing Arts, and it’s been an evolving venture since I first began my private practice in 1995. I have just opened my doors for clients this past Saturday, and my office is located on the second floor of the Frederick Poole House next to Bassett’s Restaurant. I have a large waiting room, and a comfy, cozy treatment room in back, and I am delighted to have found this charming site in which I could open a bodywork practice. 

My work experience as a massage therapist began during my last semester at the Baltimore School of Massage in the student clinic. On weekends, I traveled out to Berkeley Springs, W.Va., to work at Coolfont, which was a resort in the hills above the town. I began my licensed massage therapist career in the DMV working for all sorts of businesses as an independent contractor. Beginning in 1996, I was the director of massage services for the McLean Racquet and Health Club in McLean, Va., after starting there as a massage therapist on staff. Then, I worked out of various hotels in the D.C. like the Mayflower and the Ritz Carlton doing on-site and on-call work. I also donated time doing chair massage at health fairs and local wellness events at numerous businesses. I taught couples Swedish massage at Valentine’s Day events, and at the Open University in D.C. In 1998, I attended my first major continuing education training at the Omega Institute learning Thai Yoga Massage in a 40-hour, 8-day marathon. It was exhilarating and it completely changed my practice, which had been focused on Swedish and especially deep tissue work, by enabling me to work with clients in loose clothes and give a 2.5-hour session of assisted yoga posture stretches (nicknamed ‘lazy man’s yoga) with acupressure points mixed in.

Also in 1998, I began working at the Tenley Sport and Health Club, and travelling to clients’ homes all around the DMV with my portable table and music. By 2000, I found myself wanting to go even deeper with clients, but given my 5’1”/105 lb. frame, I wasn’t going to be able to do more with my thumbs and elbows then I was already doing. So I bought ropes and eyebolts from Home Depot and braided and strung the former from the latter, and began to walk on my Thai massage clients. It was sort of like tenderizing meat before cooking it. The walking seemed to both loosen up muscles and articulate vertebrae and other joints in a way that made the stretching that followed more effective. When 9/11 occurred, and our professional organization asked for volunteers to work with first responders at the Pentagon, I took my body cushions and floor mat and went to Crystal City to help out. I walked on those big fire fighters and stretched them, and felt terrific that I could lend a hand to people who do work I couldn’t do.

Since I felt emboldened by the success of the work I was calling ‘back walking’, I decided to Google the term to see what I came up with online. What I got was my website…and all the foot fetish porn websites. I panicked and went underground with the work for a few years, hoping not to draw any sort of unwanted attention. For the most part, the clients I had appreciated the work, and continued to ask for it, but I didn’t feel comfortable advertising back walking, given the results of my internet search. So, in late 2003, I dared to Google back walking and massaging with one’s feet again, and this time I found Ashi. Ashi is short for Ashiatsu Oriental Bar Therapy. I watched some videos, and I was drawn to it in the same way I was the Thai massage. In 2004 and 2005, I took the beginning, intermediate and advanced modules of the Ashi, and again, my work was reformulated, this time creating session that began with the Ashi and then ended with the Thai, with some Swedish and classic deep tissue mixed in. To this day, that remains my most popular session.

There have been basically three work/study passions in my life. The first was teaching horseback riding back in the late 80’s and early 90’s. Then massage and bodywork which has sustained me for over two decades. But the last big career love has been long in coming, and I am hoping it will carry me through all my working years as it is the pinnacle of success as I define it. All psychology, and any applied practice of it, usually as some form of psychotherapy, fascinates me. Being a hands-on practitioner, though, made somatic psychology - whose practice is referred to as body psychotherapy – a natural fit for me, and it has been my focus of study for over twenty years as a client and student. Now 55, I have resumed graduate study, looking to earn my master’s in Clinical Mental Health Counseling by the end of 2019, at which time I’ll hang out a shingle as a body psychotherapist.

Poolesville Healing Arts Website