A new type of massage has come to Maplewood. It’s called Ashiatsu, or Deep Feet Bar Therapy. Sara Newberry is the owner of Sole Shine Barefoot Massage Therapy, at 3104 Sutton Boulevard.
Holding onto bars on the ceiling, Newberry uses “soft clean feet” to “deliver the deepest most luxurious massage on the planet.” She said that’s the company tagline.
She said the advantage over a regular massage is that the pressure is absorbed across her entire foot, not just an elbow or fingers. Also with the bars above the client, she can use her entire body weight.
“My philosophy on massage in general is that massage should never hurt. You can come right up to that level of pain, but that’s a sweet therapeutic spot — you don’t want to actually cross that threshold,” she said.
She said some activities build up tissue and muscle tone in a specific area, and using her feet, she can smooth that out.
“If you think about people that weight lift, they’re shortening their muscle, it builds that way,” she said. “When I come along with my feet I lengthen and stretch out that muscle to give it time to heal from the work that it’s been doing and give it time to relax.”
She said it works for emotional as well as physical stress, and she can feel the difference through her feet.
“The body is like a book ready to be read by someone,” she said. “There are thousands of nerve endings in your feet. It’s just a matter of training your feet to feel what your hands feel.”
Newberry is moving her business from Frontenac, where she shared an office with a chiropractor. She said it’s like starting over, but with a good clientele base. She has practiced massage since 2008 and Deep Feet Bar Therapy since 2011.
“A lot of our clients are super-excited we’re in Maplewood because it’s very centrally located and a lot of our clientele are people who are kind of hungry for that, ‘How do I live better? — How do I live more healthy, more happy?’ that kind of thing,” she said. “So I feel like we jive really well with this whole feel of Maplewood — progressive and unique.”
Full disclosure: 40 South News editor has scheduled an hour appointment.