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St Pete Times Article
Therapists open hands-on business
By
CHRISTINA K. COSDON
Published July 27, 2007
LARGO
- "It doesn't have to hurt to be effective," says Cassandra Haggert of the
Art of Touch healing arts center.
Haggert and two business partners, Alicia Orbea and Lynn Ellen Gaffin, recently
opened the business specializing
in massage therapies and body spa services.
Orbea, 27, and Haggert, 28, have been friends since their middle and
high school
days in Largo. Both had their sights on working in the health field since their
youth. Eventually
they signed up for the course at the Humanities Center, now
Cortiva Institute, in Pinellas Park.
"I'd
been giving my mom back rubs for years," Haggert said. She worked in the
bookkeeping part of the family's Double
Eagle deep sea fishing business in
Clearwater before deciding to become a therapist.
Orbea worked as a veterinarian
technician for a while. "But it got to me, having
to put animals to sleep," she said. "I decided my goals
were in medical science
- in helping people."
Gaffin worked 22 years in information technology and then
in consulting before
she realized her dream of owning a business and becoming a massage therapist.
The three
women graduated at the top of their classes and began meeting and
talking after graduation.
"Over coffee
and tea we started down this path of realizing that our goals and
desire were similar and, gee, why don't we work
together," Gaffin said. "I think
what drew us together was our common purpose and vision and mutual respect
for each other."
The women each put up $13,000 to start the business and leased the
1,650-square-foot
space in the Galleria.
Art of Touch has six treatment rooms and is decorated in soothing earth tones.
Acrylic
paintings by Meghan Hogan and the oils and copper wall hangings of Emily Page are featured throughout the center in the Galleria
Plaza at 12551 Indian Rocks Road. The owners plan to continue exhibiting and selling the work of local artists.
Services
include neuromuscular therapies, deep tissue, myofascial and positional
release, trigger point and muscle energy techniques.
Spa services include herbal
compresses, hot stone massage, salt and sugar scrubs and body wraps. Costs range from $15
to $30 for a hands and/or feet paraffin treatment to $260 for a
four-handed therapeutic massage. Visit the center at
www.the-art-of-touch.com.
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