Impact Stories: Massage Therapists & Clients
At Care Through Touch, our volunteers span generations, recent graduates, mid-career therapists, students, and seasoned practitioners who have spent decades in the healing arts. Each person comes to this work for a different reason: a desire to serve, a longing for deeper purpose, or a calling to bring compassionate touch to people who rarely receive it.
What they discover is profound. Touch heals, regulates the nervous system, softens trauma, and reminds people they are human. And the impact flows both ways: clients feel grounded and cared for, while practitioners often describe the work as transformative, spiritual, and deeply meaningful.
We recently spoke with three of our massage therapists about what called them to work with CTI and three clients about the impact of trauma-informed, healing touch.
Listen to their stories in the clips below.
Pamela has been a massage practitioner with Care Through Touch for over 20 years and helped shape CTI's training curriculum. In this clip, she reflects on what keeps her coming back week after week, showing up as a spiritual practice, a way to stay connected to purpose, and a chance to offer compassion through touch. For her, connecting with someone's pain, their sore and wounded places, is a priceless gift. A client, Terilyn, puts it simply: “It makes her feel important and special”.
Megan is one of CTI's newer volunteers, and in this clip she shares what draws her to offer caring touch in community settings. For her, this work is a form of activism, a way to give her time, energy, and presence when she doesn't have much else to give. One of her clients, Stephen, says it feels like a weight has been lifted off his shoulders.
Tobi has worked as a bodyworker with CTI for 5 years, offering compassionate touch in trauma-impacted environments. She says working with CTI clients feels like a calling and that she is drawn to the work as it is rooted in compassion, love, and humanity. Foote, a client of 17 years, describes the impact plainly: going through it is like a beautiful addition to your life.
In Their Own Words: Marley Bronko
Like many people during the pandemic, Marley found themself longing for connection and touch. When a friend put out an open call to kickstart a massage trade within their pod, Marley said yes, and something unexpected began. "Growing up in gymnastics, I avoided touch because I carried so much shame about my rough hands. Learning massage became a kind of unlearning for me. I slowly let go of the idea that my hands were something to hide."
In 2023, a flyer at McKinnon Body Therapy Center led Marley to CTI, and they've volunteered ever since, offering presence to people navigating homelessness, displacement, addiction, and bodies that have often been othered. "There is so much pain to bear witness to. And at the same time, these experiences bring me into contact with the parts of myself that are able to hold even just a sliver of that pain alongside them. It's truly a process of expanding the heart."
Today, Marley runs Befriend Bodywork in Alameda and is working toward licensure as a marriage and family therapist. Their journey is a reminder we see again and again at CTI: the practice of care transforms the person offering it, too.
Join Us: Seeking More Practitioners
CTI is growing our volunteer community to meet the rising demand for trauma-informed massage and healing touch across San Francisco.
Are you a CAMTC-certified massage therapist or student in a CAMTC-approved program? Join us in bringing compassionate care to people in need.
Commitment: One 6-hour workshop, 8–12 hours of training, and a 2-hour shift every other week or monthly for 4–6 months.
A small commitment. A profound impact.