Water and Bone

A place to soften, to let go what’s been carried too long, and remember what’s been lost or forgotten.

The Practice of Lomi Lomi

A therapeutic massage that originated in the Hawaiian islands. Long, fluid, rhythmic strokes invoke the element of water, encouraging the wisdom of our body to awaken. Lomi Lomi works from the belief that memories are not just stored in the mind, but in every cell of the body. The continuous rhythmic strokes are designed to help let go of old patterns of holding, which contribute to the stresses and strains of muscle tension. The massage techniques are applied with the forearms, hands, and elbows, and a breathing technique called the Ha breath is encouraged for the receiver as a method of letting go and bringing in Mana (power or life force energy).

Lomi Lomi is considered to be a ceremony of the body, with the understanding that everything is related and interconnected. As the movements start to penetrate deeper into the cells it makes way for the potential to release blocks that keep us from understanding our true nature of wholeness and connection with the cosmos (also known as our family or Ohana) and the earth. This practice has the potential to imbue healing throughout our being. The ceremonial honoring and loving nature of Lomi Lomi inspires compassion toward our bodies and empowers our innate ability to heal ourselves. It is an invitation to remember who we are.

As a practitioner I work from a trauma-informed lens, welcoming of all bodies. I am guided by pule (prayer), and often begin each session with an invocation or prayer calling upon elemental forces, unseen helpers, and ancestors. My aim is to create a space where the nervous system can soften, where there’s safety to return to oneself, and where the body is met with presence and care.

With consent, I may ask to incorporate cleansing smoke which is often traditionally used in this practice.

Lomi Lomi is not simply a massage, it is prayer in motion. Through the principles of Aloha (love and presence), Ho’oponopono (making things right), and Mana (the animate spiritual force in all things), I offer a space for healing, for remembering and for returning to the sacred intelligence of the body.

About Me

My name is Emelia, and since I was young I found myself exploring the qualities of touch, guided by a quiet listening and a sense that working with the body held the potential for deep healing. Throughout my life I have continuously been drawn to the soma as a place of wisdom, and transformation.

I offer this practice with reverence for the Kānaka Maoli people, who first birthed this healing art, and continue to carry its living wisdom today. My teacher, Sheah Fiaklow, studied within the lineage of Aunty Margaret Machado and Uncle Abraham Kawai’i, both of whom were instrumental in sharing Lomi Lomi beyond Hawai’i to the western world, and encouraged these healing practices to be shared. I received my training in 2022, and I carry these teachings forward with humility and kuleana (responsibility), doing my best to practice in alignment with their spiritual and cultural foundations.

My practice continues to be shaped by kinship/indigenous worldviews, harm-reduction values, trauma-informed care, grief literacy, and continuous studies in Relational Somatic Therapy.

I am informed by the Ancestors that speak through the greater than human world and of my own people, whose earth-based teachings and healing ways were largely lost along the path of migration, assimilation, and survival. My bloodlines trail throughout the North and Western parts of Europe, and many of my ancestors were settlers and colonizers in the midwest of The United States of America, the prairies of Canada, and Indonesia. I carry the responsibility of both the privilege and the wound of these histories. Today I have found myself as a settler on the traditional territories of the Lək̓ʷəŋən (Songhees and Xʷsepsəm/Esquimalt) and W̱SÁNEĆ people in so-called Victoria, British Columbia. Their histories, their knowledge and their deep roots of connection to this land continue to inform my way of being in this place.

Along my path I have been graced with teachings from many indigenous knowledge keepers. My heart wells with gratitude for the guidance and the holding, as this life and this work continues to be a slow remembering of the forgotten, by returning to the language of the body, the breath, the land and the cycles within and without.

At the root I walk my path knowing that we are not individual, but porous by nature and infinitely guided by the interwoven relations of our larger body- the living, breathing earth. In this way, the call of ceremonial and somatic pathways has been pulling me thread by thread, and Lomi Lomi has been another path along the way.

I also welcome trade, if this is something you’re interested in reach out and we can talk about what that might look like.

A minimum of 10% of each session is donated to the Ka Lāhui Hawai’i Indigenous Grassroots organization https://www.kalahuihawaii.net/

Water and Bone

Ceremonial Bodywork

The Practice of Lomi Lomi

About Me