For Susan Laurent, the practice of healing is as natural as breathing. The owner of Natural Healing Therapeutic Massage in Mount Clemens has for the past 16 years restored the quality of life to countless people, relieving pain by solving the root of the problem.
“I want to help people feel alive and be able to live a healthy lifestyle,” Susan says. “It’s who I am; it chose me.”
It’s not only her passion but her purpose as a Board-Certified massage therapist who daily draws from her clinical experience and hundreds of continuing education hours in various methods. The Mount Clemens native creates a comfortable, professional space to discuss what ails her clients. For some, it’s chronic knee or hip pain; for others, it’s injuries from accidents. She even brings comfort to those walking through emotional trauma.
The environment within Natural Healing Therapeutic Massage is itself enough to put you at ease. Tucked along the quaint downtown streets, the business welcomes clients into natural light, rich greenery, soothing colors and Susan’s gentle smile.
During a session, Susan applies proper techniques so the body will relax to heal. Deep tissue massage is one highly effective style for releasing chronic stress areas, and helps restore range of motion, release muscle adhesions, break up scar tissue, increase blood flow and reduce persistent pain. Massage cupping is another approach – essentially the inverse of typical massage therapy – and has been used for centuries. Rather than exert pressure on different points of the body, massage cupping uses suction to tug the skin, tissues and muscles upward. Susan practices lymphatic drainage therapy to gently move the lymph through the body, especially swollen areas, relieving pressure and enhancing the function of the immune system. This is both a preventative and remedial technique and can be used to help speed recovery from injury, reduce swelling and discomfort from pregnancy and strengthen resistance to illness.
“I don’t think anyone should walk around day to day and be in pain. We’re not meant to live like that,” she says. “Instead of masking the problem, we’re fixing the problem.”
Clients turn to Susan when they don’t want to be on medication. They lean on her when they still need help on their road to recovery. Her encouragement to push through and keep going has resulted in remarkable testimonies of restoration.
“There are some days when I walk into a room and cry that I have been blessed to help people in this capacity, to know I’m part of their healing process. It can be overwhelming,” says Susan. “When someone who had a stroke hasn’t moved their arm in three years and now they can brush their hair … it's indescribable. When there was no hope, I brought it back to life.”
It’s no wonder that Susan is also a spiritual healer and empath. Through the quantum touch and energetic therapies of Reiki, she uses a gentle, non-invasive technique to clear, energize and balance the body’s chakras and environmental energy fields. This form of energy healing complements conventional health care and promotes physical, emotional, mental and spiritual health and healing.
It is especially effective on those who suffer from emotional trauma. Susan uses this energy work to help clients recognize trauma and where it originated.
“There have been times when clients have called me, late in the evening, and they’re in a space they can’t get out of. And I’m there, holding space for them, to help them get through it,” she says. “There is that relationship – that people can trust me and I’ll be there when they are in their worst moments.”
Each person who places their pain in Susan’s hands can know her goal is to help them achieve complete well-being, empowerment and transformation in all areas of their life.
“The things I get to do with people are beyond what I could have imagined. I don’t take it for granted,” Susan says. “I don’t work; I do the coolest stuff every day, and no day is the same.”
Susan also uses the healing power of the outdoors. As a trained forest therapy guide, she periodically plans forest therapy, even in winter, leading groups through a Japanese activity that she says reawakens the senses. A two-hour forest bath helps people unplug from technology and slow down, connecting them back to creation. The walk concludes with a cup of tea and gratitude to nature, to connect.
There’s no better time to find remedies to the pain that burdens you than at the start of a new year. You can find out more information about Natural Healing Therapeutic Massage by visiting https://www.nh-tm.com or by calling Susan at (586) 738-4064.
“The things I get to do with people are beyond what I could have imagined.”