Gratitude for an Outstanding 1st year

July 15, 2025, was the day I opened the doors to my office on Park Avenue.

I don't think I truly understood how fruitful that decision would become. I just remember feeling excited, exposed, and… absolutely terrified. A one-woman practice in Emeryville, where no one knew me, betting entirely on myself that somehow this would work.

Looking back now, a year later, I can see what that leap actually was. It wasn't just starting a business. It was cultivating a practice where I can truly show up in the way I want to practice healthcare-- holding a space where I have the time to listen, feel, tune into the whole person. Receiving encouragement and support from my clients for my professional growth while being constantly challenged by difficult injury cases. A never-ending positive feedback loop of healing, empowerment, and evolution between client and bodyworker. 

There are so many small things about this space that I don't say thank you for often enough.

Lee Miltier—the fairy glassblower—created the chrysalis-like lamp that became exactly what I imagined for this room. A lamp that offers a feeling of an incubator, fostering softness and levity for the heaviness we can feel from debilitating pain. The screen print from Ravi from Compound Gallery whose message means more than most people probably realize as they walk in carrying years, sometimes decades, of chronic pain after being told it's "all in their head." My plants from Flora Grubb Nursery  that quietly stand in the corner, quietly orchestrating its magic for the whole room while I spend my energy holding space for others.

Thank you to Live Oak Strength, Indiba, and Mother Magazine. Thank you to Tanya, Ann, Pamela, Sandy, Omar, Malachi, Mbaye, Isa, Margaret, Robert, and Todd. Your encouragement, generosity, and belief in my work have shaped this first year more than you know.

This year, transitioning into next year has already been expansive. I will move into a larger space where I can combine Manual therapy with Radiofrequency. Starting Manual Osteopathy school so I can bring back knowledge and approaches that aren't widely practiced in the United States. 

The excitement and terrifying feeling from last year is transforming into conviction and gratitude. This is truly thanks to your faith in your healing through my work.  

Overwhelm of gratitude washes over me in waves everyday. That there are people who believe in the way I care—with my hands, my tools, and my curiosity—to imagine a more thoughtful way of being and sensing in the body, expressed out into the world through your unique vessel.

My fascination with the human body has never been something I could satisfy. I don't think it ever will be, and honestly, that’s my ecstasy. There's always another system to understand, another layer to uncover, another way of listening to what the tissues have been trying to say all along.

I feel deeply fulfilled.

It has reminded me that building a meaningful life isn't about doing more or healing more people—it's about creating the conditions that keep me showing up wholeheartedly for each person.

To everyone who has trusted me to work with you, again and always, thank you.

Thank you for trusting me with your stories. Thank you for allowing me to witness your pain transform into resilience, strength, and possibility. It is an incredible privilege to be invited into those moments. Every person who walks through my door carries an entire landscape within them—their triumphs, tribulations, adaptations, hopes, and the parts of themselves they're still discovering.

Being invited into that landscape is something I will never take for granted.

Being human is unbelievably beautiful.

And somehow, I get to spend my days working for that mission. I am seriously one lucky girl. 

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

I can't wait to keep growing alongside all of you.

With gratitude,

Akari