Candace Henry says she finds healing for herself while helping bring her clients’ bodies into balance. “I genuinely enjoy what it is that I do,” she says.
Henry is the owner of Exhale Massage and Wellness, which opened at 207 2nd St. W. in downtown Park Rapids late March-early April 2023.
“I got my key on Valentine’s Day last year,” she says, adding that she had to put a lot of work in before it was ready to open.
Currently open Sunday through Friday, Henry provides massage therapy by appointment and as well as private yoga sessions. During the winter, she also leads Tuesday morning restorative yoga and Thursday morning gentle Vinyasa yoga classes at Bretz Taekwondo & Fitness, filling in for snowbird instructor Karen Spillman-Herborn.
During the summer, Henry provides day retreats and yoga classes in the park, mainly catering to retired people – “older bodies that are trying to continue with their range of motion and balance.”
Henry’s schedule varies seasonally, as well as around her calling as a single mom with three daughters aged 8, 10 and 13.
“My practice was in Detroit Lakes for a long period of time,” she says. “When I got the opportunity for this building, I moved my practice from DL.”
Henry grew up in Akeley and went to school in Nevis, but moved to Kansas City, Mo. before graduating high school.
Henry recognizes that most people don’t have the economic privilege to invest $100 a month in a yoga session, let alone at 9:30 a.m. on a Tuesday, when most people are working.
“And so, I also do yoga with community ed,” she says, “because I feel like, if I can make the opportunity available to at least help people regulate their nervous system and find their breath, I think from there a shift will happen. If we can just catch our breath, everything else domino-effects off there.”
Henry studied massage therapy at the WellSpring School of Allied Health in Kansas City. “Missouri has some of the highest standards for massage therapy,” she says.
Later, after starting her family and moving back to Minnesota, her personal struggles led her to seek out “yoga for PTSD” on YouTube. “It became a lifeline for my own healing,” she says.
She took yoga teacher training in 2020 with Boreal Bliss.
In her massage studio, Henry applies relaxation, Swedish, deep-tissue, trigger-point, myofascial, lymphatic drainage and hot stone techniques. She says her signature method is holistic healing – a “somatic journey, where it is still massage, but I’m able to work also on an energetic level. … I’m giving you feedback of what’s being held, or what I sense throughout the body, and I’m journeying with you, partnering with the breath.”
Trauma is stored in our bodies, says Henry. “We have a lot of unprocessed emotions that get trapped in our bodies. I use my body-work technique to help people express that, so that it’s not in their bodies anymore.”
Robin Fish is a staff reporter at the Park Rapids Enterprise. Contact him at rfish@parkrapidsenterprise.com or 218-252-3053.
