Today we’d like to introduce you to Kristen Lumsden.
Hi Kristen, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
At 18, I was doing nursing pre reqs and working at a nursing home. Unfortunately, the level of abuse I witnessed was overwhelming, and I quickly realized it wasn’t the environment I wanted to be in. I knew I still wanted to help people, but in a more positive and direct way. So in 2009, I decided to enroll in a local massage therapy program.
After graduating, life took me on a bit of a detour—I had about a five-year break from massage. By 2015, I was stepping back into the field as a brand new therapist, but I was also dealing with the aftermath of two rear-end car accidents that happened just eight months apart. I was working at a local massage studio when I started experiencing severe pain in my arm, hand, and neck from doing traditional table massage.
That’s when my first mentor, Tim McCoy, suggested I meet Robert Gardner—also known as “The Pain Guy.” When I met Robert, I was about three years post-accident and in constant pain. I genuinely didn’t know how much longer I could keep going like that. Robert was a massage instructor, and I ended up being the body for his Phase 2 instructional DVD. Luckily for me, his videographer kept losing the footage—we recorded three days, it got lost, re-recorded another three days, and lost a day again. Thanks to those mishaps, I ended up receiving seven full days of bodywork. For the first time in three years, my relentless pain actually subsided.
That experience changed everything. I knew I could never go back to traditional table massage—I had found something that worked, something that made real change. I drank the Kool-Aid, as they say. I realized I wanted to be the kind of therapist who could help people like me—people living in pain who felt like they had no options left.
Robert took me under his wing as his first apprentice, and we’ve been training together for the past seven years. Today, I teach Robert’s work across the United States and have also taken on my own apprentices, continuing the work that changed my life.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
For me, there was nothing easy or sustainable about doing traditional Western table massage. It took a physical toll on my body, I constantly dealt with inappropriate client behavior, and I felt like my clients were stuck in a cycle—“slaves to the table.” The typical 60-minute deep tissue sessions barely scratched the surface of their issues, let alone resolved them in a single visit.
The biggest challenge I faced transitioning from table to mat work was mental. I had to break free from the narrow mindset that massage school had conditioned me into. But once I made the switch, I felt empowered. On the mat, I was able to work smarter, not harder—offering longer, more impactful sessions, lasting two to four hours, and seeing clients experience real relief in just one visit.
Thai massage wasn’t widely known in Central Texas when I started training in it, so we had to get creative—using video content and social media to educate people about the work. Now, seven years later, I’ve seen a huge shift. People are much more open and curious. I often hear, “I saw your video and knew that’s exactly what I’ve been looking for,” or, “I didn’t even know this existed, but it’s what I’ve needed all along.”
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Massage By Kristen?
My mentor, Robert Gardner, is the creator of NLPR (Next Level Pain Relief), drawing from a wide range of influences including traditional Thai massage instructors, yoga therapy, and modern bodywork approaches. Through years of study and hands-on practice, he developed a no-nonsense, science-informed system for pain relief that goes far beyond the limitations of conventional massage. The work is rooted in Thai massage principles, yoga-based movement, and innovative manual therapy techniques—blending movement, awareness, and practical application to achieve lasting results.
After experiencing life-changing relief through my own training and sessions with Robert, I’ve been offering NLPR sessions for the past seven years, and teaching the method for the last four. My sessions are fully clothed and take place on a comfortable mat on the floor, which allows for slow, deep compression, passive stretching, and therapeutic movement—giving the body space to release tension and reset.
I also incorporate a suspension system above the mat, allowing me to use double-footed compressions when appropriate, making the work even more effective and versatile.
In addition to working with clients, I teach continuing education (CE) classes for licensed therapists, offer one-on-one and group apprenticeships, and lead workshops for the general public to learn how to work on one another with ease. Robert Gardner continues to offer his own in-person and online trainings and apprenticeships as well, for anyone interested in learning directly from the source.
What I’m most proud of is the real-world impact of this work: helping massage therapists extend their careers with smarter, more sustainable techniques—and helping clients finally find relief from chronic pain, often faster than they ever expected.
Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
Something surprising people don’t know about me is how much I love adventure and the outdoors. I’m a big fan of comedy shows, scuba diving, kayaking, hiking, and traveling. But my true obsession is snowboarding—I make it a priority to get at least 20 days on the mountain each season. One day, I secretly hope to make the Rocky Mountains my home base.
Pricing:
- 4 hours – $400
- 3.5 hours – $350
- 3 hours – $300 (shortest session I suggest)
- 2.5 hours – $250
- 2 hours – $200
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Www.MassageByKristen.com
- Instagram: https://Www.instagram.com/massagebykristenatx
- Facebook: https://Www.Facebook.com/MassagesByKristen
- Youtube: https://Www.youtube.com/c/kristenlumsden
- Other: https://pocketsuite.io/link/kristen-lumsden.
Image Credits
Photo credits: @lanamaren.photography
