Supporting women through all stages of motherhood
Hi, I’m Shawna! I’m a holistic health practitioner. From fertility and pregnancy to postpartum, I deliver a traditional medicine approach to massage therapy, helping women in all stages of motherhood feel more at ease and comfortable in their bodies. After experiencing severe pain from Pubic Symphysis and Sciatica during my pregnancies, I was frustrated by the lack of quality bodywork methods in my industry that did little to alleviate my pain. I decided to study various pregnancy massage techniques and began creating therapeutic pregnancy massage services specifically designed to address common ailments and discomforts of pregnancy. Determined to help new and expectant moms experience a more supportive, empowering pregnancy, I opened Mama Bear Massage KC in 2017. Over the years, I’ve continued working with my clients in postpartum and beyond, adjusting my therapeutic massage techniques to address their changing physical and emotional needs.
When I’m not caring for my clients, I love spending time with my two children, our friends, and our two cats, Pumpkin and Moonlight. I’m an avid reader and especially gravitate toward books on personal development and spirituality. I’m inspired by bringing the magical into the mundane through simple self-care practices that integrate mindfulness and presence into daily life. From curling up with an early morning coffee before my kids wake up to drawing boundaries around technology, I intentionally acknowledge what my body and spirit need in the moment, and I encourage my clients to do the same.
Mama Bear Massage is a space for compassionate, personalized care where you can slow down, reconnect with your body and receive treatment tailored to your individual needs.
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Prenatal Massage is a specialized, whole-body approach to pregnancy care that goes beyond traditional prenatal massage. Sessions consider how the body is adapting throughout pregnancy and how patterns of tension, alignment, soft tissue restriction, and changes within the abdomen and pelvis may be contributing to discomfort.
Care is individualized to what your body needs that day and may include therapeutic massage, gentle abdominal and pelvic-focused work, scar tissue work when appropriate, and support for areas experiencing increased strain as pregnancy progresses.
The goal is not simply relaxation or temporary relief, but to create more space, ease, balance, and comfort within the body while supporting the natural changes of pregnancy. Your health history, current symptoms, stage of pregnancy, and any changes in your prenatal care are considered when determining what is appropriate for each session.
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The postpartum body deserves care of its own. After months of pregnancy followed by birth, recovery, feeding, carrying, and caring for a baby, it is common for the body to feel unfamiliar, depleted, tense, or simply different than it did before.
Postpartum Massage provides space to reconnect with and support your body through this transition. Sessions may address common postpartum patterns involving the abdomen, pelvis, hips, back, shoulders, and breath, while also considering the effects of vaginal or cesarean birth, scar tissue, abdominal restriction, and the physical demands of early parenthood.
Care may include therapeutic massage, abdominal and pelvic-focused bodywork, and gentle scar tissue work when appropriate. There is no expectation that your body should have “bounced back” or reached a particular stage of recovery. Treatment is guided by where your body is now, with the goal of helping you feel more comfortable, supported, mobile, and at home in your body again.
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Fertility Enhancement Massage is a specialized, whole body approach designed to support reproductive wellness. Sessions focus on improving mobility and circulation through the abdomen and pelvis, addressing scar tissue and soft tissue restrictions, and supporting nervous-system regulation.
Chronic stress and patterns of tension can influence the nervous and endocrine systems, including the hormonal feedback loops involved in reproductive function. This work aims to create a more supportive environment for those systems while helping the body find greater ease, balance, and connection.
Sessions are individualized to your menstrual and reproductive history, current symptoms, and fertility journey, including fertility treatments when applicable. Fertility Enhancement Massage is complementary care and does not replace medical fertility treatment.
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Medical Massage is a focused, individualized approach for clients experiencing persistent pain, injury, restricted movement, scar tissue, or other musculoskeletal concerns. Rather than following a routine, each session is guided by your health history, current symptoms, movement patterns, and what your body is presenting that day.
Sessions may incorporate advanced soft tissue techniques, fascial work, scar tissue work, and other therapeutic approaches to address restriction, improve mobility, and support more comfortable movement. Medical Massage is complementary care and does not replace evaluation or treatment from your healthcare provider.
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AIH - Awareness is Healing® Method is a modality based in the Traditional Maya Medicine belief that trauma, repeated stress, and unresolved emotions cause an undue increasing pressure within the body - resulting in many chronic physical health conditions such as digestive disorders, reproductive issues, pelvic pain, anxiety and more. Because the abdomen is where all vital organs are located including the respiratory and pelvic diaphragms; one of the main components of the Awareness is Healing® Method utilizes Maya Abdominal Massage to facilitate simultaneous awareness of physical and emotional restrictions, this allows the nervous system to release, reset and restore - thus providing lasting and empowering solutions to chronic, acute and everyday health conditions.
Maya Abdominal Massage - is a Traditional Maya Medicine technique that works deeply into abdominal fascia -- releasing physical and emotional congestion, thus improving whole body circulation, enhancing organ function, stabilizing the nervous system, and optimizing overall health and well-being. It combines up to date knowledge of anatomy and physiology to address current medical conditions and provide a wholistic and intuitive approach for the select needs of each individual.
These sessions are booked in sets of 3 over the span of 3 weeks. The first session is 2hours to include a comprehensive intake and overview of your health needs.