I'm Laura.
Licensed Massage Therapist · Reiki Master · Herbalist · Educator · Very Curious Human
I'm interested in the body, people, herbs, energy, behavior, ritual, science, intuition, and all the strange little ways they overlap. Gaja Bohème grew out of that curiosity and a whole lot of my own life experience.
I've always been curious about what people carry, what the body is trying to say, and what changes when we actually pay attention.
I was very good at functioning.
For over a decade, I worked in corporate marketing.
I was good at the work. I could get things done, manage a lot, hit deadlines, keep moving, and look completely fine while doing it.
I was also really good at pushing through. There were stretches where I was so exhausted I'd literally fall asleep under my desk. I didn't have language for what was happening back then. I just knew how to keep functioning.
And the more people I worked around, the more I realized I wasn't the only one. A lot of us were carrying way more than anyone could see and still getting the work done.
I don't believe there's one right way.
My approach is holistic in the most literal sense of the word. Whole.
I've gone through my own periods of depression, exhaustion, disconnection, and trying to figure out what actually helped me. Some things helped at certain points. Some things didn't.
That experience made me way less interested in telling anyone there's one correct path.
If medication is part of your care, I'm here for you. If therapy is part of your care, I'm here for you. Massage, movement, Reiki, herbs, creativity, spirituality, rest, community, medical care, boundaries, changing your life. There can be room for all of it.
I care about the whole person in front of me and what actually supports them.
I started creating again.
A lot of that happened during some of my darkest periods.
I started making candles, jewelry, sprays, working with herbs, creating little rituals. I wasn't sitting there thinking, “I'm doing alchemy.” I was just making things and finding little pieces of myself again.
That's probably why alchemy makes so much sense to me now. Life hands us material. Beautiful material. Messy material. Grief, joy, anger, exhaustion, curiosity, endings, beginnings. We keep working with what's here.
Sometimes what comes out the other side is something you couldn't have imagined while you were still in the middle of it.
A lot of it felt like remembering.
Reiki came into my life. Then massage. And then the rabbit hole got very deep.
Sound, somatics, lymphatic work, anatomy, herbalism, ritual, coaching, nervous-system education. I kept following whatever made me more curious.
Herbs were funny. When I started learning them more formally, I remembered how natural plants had always felt to me. When I was little, I'd go outside with my little basket and collect random plants. I had no idea what I was doing. I just loved them.
As an adult, I started working with herbs intuitively first, then learning what they actually do, their traditions, their safety, and how to work with them responsibly.
There have been a lot of moments in this work where learning something new somehow also felt really familiar.
I feel a lot.
I notice people.
I tend to feel it when the energy in a room shifts, when someone's holding something back, when the words and the body don't quite seem to be saying the same thing.
I don't treat that like an answer key. Sometimes I'm right. Sometimes I need to ask another question.
The intuition matters, and so does anatomy. So does training. So does what you tell me, and what your body actually responds to.
I like having all of that in the room together.
I still struggle with the word healer.
Because I don't want a hierarchy where I'm the healer and you're the person being healed.
I really believe we're all our own healers. I'm not the authority over your body or your life.
What I can do is listen. Notice. Ask questions. Pay attention. Bring the tools I've learned into the room and offer them when they make sense.
I can tell you what I'm noticing without pretending I know you better than you know yourself.
Sometimes what you need is massage. Sometimes it's Reiki or sound. Sometimes it's a plant, a ritual, a conversation, a boundary, some movement, a really good cry, or twenty quiet minutes where nobody needs anything from you.
And sometimes a tight shoulder is literally just a tight shoulder.
We can stay curious without making everything mean something.
I want you involved in your own care.
I don't want you lying there wondering what I'm doing, or feeling like you have to go along with something because I'm the practitioner.
I ask questions. I explain options. You can change your mind anytime. Ask for more pressure, less pressure, silence, conversation, no Reiki, more sound, no emotional processing, or whatever makes the session feel right for you.
You never have to tell me your trauma story to get bodywork. A session doesn't need some giant emotional release to “work.” Intensity isn't the same thing as effectiveness.
My job is to pay attention and work with you, not perform a process on you.
Gaja Bohème offers holistic wellness, massage therapy, somatic, energetic, spiritual, and educational support. This work doesn't replace medical care, psychotherapy, diagnosis, or treatment.
And then there's Venus.
Venus is my Blue “Healer,” and she's decided working at Gaja is part of her job.
She loves the healing room, quietly checking on people, and acting like she owns the place. Which, to be fair, she kind of does.
She's never automatically part of your session. If dogs aren't your thing, that's completely fine. If you want to meet her, just ask.
Curiosity turned into a lot of studying.
I don't think life experience replaces education, and I don't think education replaces life experience either.
I'm a licensed massage therapist (MA101095) and a Reiki Master. My work keeps expanding through therapeutic bodywork, fascia and lymphatic work, abdominal care, sound, somatics, herbalism, energetic practices, ritual, coaching, and ongoing study of the nervous system and the body.
I also teach. Gaja eventually grew into Sacred Alchemist Academy and the Vortex Somatic Compass™, because apparently my curiosity doesn't know when to stop.
I keep learning because I never want one framework to become the answer to everything. People are way more interesting than that.
“Healing isn't a straight line. I think we keep meeting ourselves again, just with a little more information each time.”
I'd love to meet you.
Reserve a session at the sanctuary, look around at the different ways we can work together, or just text me and tell me what's been going on.