Today we’d like to introduce you to Caroline Tochtcheva.
Hi Caroline, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Hello! My name is Caroline. One day, after a couple of margaritas and needing a change of scenery, I found myself on a three-day road trip with the remnants of my apartment packed to the ceiling of my neon yellow Honda Civic. Austin was so accepting and open, so I decided to give it a try. I moved to Austin in the summer of 2021. It has been a difficult but joyful change.
I was born and raised in Eastern Europe, the firstborn child in a family of powerful, opinionated women. Some fun facts about me: I moved to the United States at the age of nineteen knowing almost no English. I love to walk barefoot any chance I get! My first fictional character crush was Dean Winchester from Supernatural. I am passionate about learning, and I’m always taking up new hobbies. Some recent forays include sewing and baking macarons.
As a child, I loved to play the healer. The idea of sacred knowledge and the ability to help others to feel better had always called to me. I treated my cat for laziness and my grandmother for nonexistent ailments. As fate would have it, after moving to the United States, I was exposed to massage therapy and fell in love. The prospect of being hands-on with my patients and seeing the results of our work together was just so exciting.
Massage therapy is a discipline with roots going back to antiquity, a truly holistic approach to health and wellbeing. It has been a great inspiration for me and is so in line with my feelings on the world. Starting with a new patient, learning about a new and unique body and soul. I focus my mind like a detective to solve the puzzle of their discomfort or pain. Is it postural? What does their daily routine look like? How can I help? Does it originate from injury or trauma? The physical or the emotional? Whatever it may be, we will work together to bring relief and improved health. The best part – you can begin to see results almost immediately following the first session.
I believe massage therapy has a bright future in healthcare. More and more skilled and passionate massage therapists are striving to bring awareness to the benefits and healing it can bring. Few of us focus on pregnancy and helping women through the difficulties of pregnancy and postpartum or the stresses of infertility. This is why I decided to create Lansomatic and bring this meaningful practice to people in Austin.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Starting your own business has been equally exciting and overwhelming. You go to sleep and wake up with thoughts about how and what to do, new ideas, and a long to-do list. You have to practice discipline to sit down and get to work when all you want is to sit by the pool or watch Netflix. However, the creative process and rewards are worth it. I had to learn things that were so new to me. For example, I had to build a website for Lansomatic from scratch. It seems like it took forever. I cried. I was on the phone with tech support for hours, I moved and changed things constantly, but the joy of seeing the result and the feeling of “I did this… myself!” made me jump around the room like crazy.
I know there are so many challenges ahead, greater ones, but I’m focused on making Lansomatic a part of Austin’s community because I know how important its mission is.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
We are a massage therapy and holistic health-oriented company. Massage therapy is rapidly becoming once again recognized as an essential part of healthcare. Lansomatic strongly believes in combining the best of allopathic and holistic medicine to achieve overall wellbeing. We use extensive knowledge of anatomy and physiology and connect it with eastern medicine philosophy – fixing the root cause of the problem. Our goal is to become a medium for our clients in finding inner balance.
Why are we different from any other massage therapy spa? First of all, we specialize in prenatal and postnatal care, which many places don’t. We’ve been working with women who undergo pregnancy challenges starting from IVF, all trimesters of pregnancy, and ending with postnatal recovery for over seven years.
Second, we believe that responsibility should be taken off from the client. What do I mean by that? The client should not choose whether to get deep tissue, Swedish, or any other massage therapy modality. At Lansomatic, clients pay for the length of the session. Then they consult with their massage therapist to decide which specific modality and style to which their body will react the best. This approach guarantees more therapeutic effects based on your individual needs.
And lastly, as we are just starting in Austin, we offer convenient home visits. We plan to open a location in late summer/fall, but I’m trying to make home visits a permanent service since some of our heavily pregnant clients might find it helpful.
We’re always looking for the lessons that can be learned in any situation, including tragic ones like the Covid-19 crisis. Are there any lessons you’ve learned that you can share?
Covid-19 has been very challenging for all of us. Even if the pandemic didn’t affect your health, it certainly affected your lifestyle, your business, or your community, which affected your health through stress and panic. It was a period of constant adaptation. Our healthcare workers sacrificed their health and time to save people, and my heart ached for them. I know for sure that our healthcare system has to improve and find a way to make and keep our nation healthier, so when something like this happens again, we are more prepared. Massage therapy can be one of those things. Our community of professionals has been fighting to include massage therapy as preventative medicine in primary healthcare because it boosts your immune system and energy, manages stress, and supports your body. In addition to that, I’ve seen other preventative medicine disciplines rise to the challenge. I guess something good came out of the pandemic – we realized that our health should be a priority.
Contact Info:
- Email: health@lansomatic.com
- Website: www.lansomatic.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lansomatic/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lansomatichealth/
