Portland, Oregon · Licensed Massage Therapist
Recover.
Downshift.
Reset.
Purposeful work for bodies in motion.
Space for your
nervous system to slow down.
Portland, Oregon · Licensed Massage Therapist
Purposeful work for bodies in motion.
Space for your
nervous system to slow down.
Location
Portland, OR
Sessions
60 & 90 min
Approach
Nervous System First
About
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I'm Chris Sturm, a licensed massage therapist based in Portland. My path here wasn't a career pivot — it was a homecoming. Decades of yoga, movement practice, Buddhist meditation, athletic training, and receiving skilled bodywork planted the seeds long before I ever trained to give it.
A profound life transition brought everything into focus: what it means to be held, to be met where you are, to feel the nervous system finally let go. That experience — and the desire to offer it to others navigating their own crossroads — is what brought me to this work.
I trained at East West College of the Healing Arts in Portland. Every session I offer is shaped by that lived history — attentive, adaptive, and grounded in the belief that the body knows how to heal when it's given the right conditions.
Services
All sessions begin with a brief intake conversation. Techniques are adapted in real time to what your body needs that day.
60 minutes
Focused, adaptive bodywork targeting your primary areas of tension, restriction, or holding. Good for maintenance and targeted relief.
$130
90 minutes
Time and space to work through the whole system — not just the loud places. Integrative, unhurried, and attentive to the nervous system throughout.
$185
Ongoing
For people navigating repetitive strain, post-injury rehab, or chronic holding patterns. Clinical where needed, nervous-system-aware throughout.
Session rates apply
My Approach
Most of us live in a state of chronic low-grade activation — nervous systems running hot, bodies braced against the next thing. Therapeutic massage isn't just about muscle tension. It's about helping your system remember how to downshift.
I work with presence and precision, adapting to real-time feedback rather than following a fixed sequence. Sessions can be quiet and deeply restorative, or targeted and clinical — often both within the same session.
If there's an injury or structural issue involved, I bring that into the frame too. But I don't let the clinical part override the relational one. The nervous system is always part of the picture.
"Purposeful work for bodies in motion. Space for your nervous system to slow down."
A range of modalities, brought in as your body calls for them — not a fixed menu.
Slow, deliberate pressure into chronic holding patterns and restriction. Not about force — about giving tissue enough time and attention to actually release.
Sustained, low-load pressure that works with the fascial system rather than against it. Especially useful where tension has become structural, not just muscular.
Classic full-body technique, adapted here to fit the session rather than run as a fixed routine. Often the base layer a session builds from before going more targeted.
Assisted soft-tissue scraping to address restriction, adhesion, and stagnant tissue. Can look intense; the sensation is more specific than painful, and it often reaches what hands alone can't.
Suction-based work that lifts and decompresses tissue rather than compressing it — a different direction of pressure that complements deep tissue and myofascial work.
Internal work addressing jaw tension, TMJ dysfunction, and holding patterns in the masseter and pterygoid muscles. Not standard at most practices, and often addresses tension that external work alone can't reach.
Who This Is For
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