Alessandra Rainone

Alessandra’s path toward massage therapy started very young. Her mother worked long hours as an operating room nurse and after a ten hour day would sit by little Alessandra and say: “Can you please just squeeze my shoulders?” After maneuvering her elbows and thumbs around the nooks and crevices of her mother’s neck and shoulders, her mom would always say, “You’re going to be a massage therapist someday.” To which Alessandra would roll her eyes and say “No, I’m not. I’m going to be an artist!”

 

And Alessandra did become an artist, earning a BS in Psychology with a minor in Studio Art from Loyola University Chicago in 2017, where she began exploring the therapeutic benefits of art. Through her personal experiences and academic studies, she came to understand just how complex the mind-body connection is. Specifically, how even the smallest disturbances to one’s emotional and mental health can manifest in unpleasant, chronic, physical symptoms, and vice versa. Inadvertently, Alessandra’s use of her hands in art - to translate what she was seeing in front of her and “manipulate the medium” before her - uniquely informed the way she could help people. She discovered massage therapy is its own art form with the power to heal and help people. 

 

Entering the Cortiva Institute for the Clinical Massage Program, Alessandra was able to layer her studies of human psychology into the pathology and physiology of human anatomy. She took courses specializing in myofascial release and, after learning different massage applications (such as Swedish and Sports Massage), how to integrate them in order to optimize patient application in a clinical setting. In 2019, Alessandra became certified in Clinical Massage Therapy, making her mother’s premonition a reality! But it’s her arts training that informs her approach. Like working with modeling clay, Alessandra’s artistic sensitivities allow her to not only see issues needing care, but adeptly adjust her technique and pressure to reduce pain, release tension, and improve mobility.