Jessica Farnham, LMT
My name is Jessica Farnham. I am from Minneapolis, Minnesota. I am a licensed massage therapist, trained birth doula, and the owner of The Roots of Wellness Massage Therapy & Birth Support located in beautiful Missoula, MT. I moved out west to Missoula, Montana, in 2003 to attend the Montana School of Massage of which I graduated with honors, and with 650 hours of training in July 2004.
I had a strong interest in learning more about Chinese medicine, and it’s unique modalities from my personal experience recovering from a serious health issue the two years before I embarked on my career path as a therapeutic practitioner. In February 2005, I started my training in the art of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) Fire Cupping. I was taught the techniques and contraindications of this ancient treatment by my multi-talented sister Nicole Cullinan, who attended and graduated from the Northwestern School of Acupuncture in Bloomington, MN (2005-2008).
I trained for the next three years, and began looking for the opportunity to get a certification in this modality, when I stumbled upon the Massage Cupping Bodywork Therapy™ website by Anita Shannon based out of Asheville, NC. In October 2008, I attended the Level 1 Massage Cupping class in Bozeman, MT, and earned 22 hrs of training by Beth-ellen Zang, a massage cupping educator, and founder of The Sedona College of Natural Health in Sedona, AZ. I was so inspired by this class, that I attended the Level 2 training one month later at The Sedona College of Natural Health with both founder Anita Shannon and educator Beth-ellen Zang co-teaching the class. I completed the weekend course and earned another 22 hrs of training for a total of 44 hours of training in the art of Massage Cupping Bodywork Therapy™.
My fire of inspiration for education was lit, and one month later in December 2008, I attended the first ever Birth Mama Doula Training here in Missoula, MT. I completed the three day, 24 hr. weekend training taught by Birth Mama’s Charlotte McCarvel (licensed midwife, certified lactation counselor, certified doula) & Colleen Alber (DONA certified doula). I fell in love with the idea of giving support to women, and their families through the most important rite of passage of their lives.
In February of 2011, I had my first child, Mazie Lynn, in the warmth, safety and comfort of our home, with the support of our two midwives, my doula and of course my loving husband. The first days were blissful, but within the first week, along with the painful nursing issues and bouts of intense fussiness, I could tell something wasn’t quite right with our little babe. We had an extremely challenging postpartum experience with months of nursing issues, digestive/colic issues, which turned into a full blown severe food/chemical allergic crisis with extremely painful and itchy, head to toe, weeping eczema rashes from around 2months old until she was 6 months old. After months of logging the foods I ate, and the patterns of reaction to specific food items, I managed to take everything out of my diet that seemed to be causing Mazie serious health issues (all 12+ foods that we now know about!) to continue nursing her, and caring for her through this intense time. After multiple rounds of serious medications, with side effects and a serious drug reaction, we were hitting the end of our rope.
June 2011, I attended a DONA (Doula’s of North America) training which came to Missoula, and with the non-profit project I co-founder at the time called The Lotus Project, where I received another 19 hrs of Doula training, for a grand total of 43 hrs of Doula training!
Also in June 2011, just 10 days after the DONA training, I attended the Level One training for Craniosacral Therapy here in Missoula, MT with my mentor and Teacher Beth-ellen Zang. I had already heard so many great things long before my pregnancy, and again during my pregnancy, and in these doula trainings about the benefits of Craniosacral Therapy and newborns, and ironically I had already been organizing a training right here in Missoula, MT that same month that spring, which is exactly the time when things took a turn for the worst with my daughter’s condition. This training started us on our path to healing through Craniosacral Therapy.
Just one month later, on a last minute visit to be with family in MN that July, Mazie had the opportunity to receive her first Kinesiology treatment with Dr. Warren King or Quantum Chiropractics in MN, and multiple Craniosacral Therapy, and Etheric Balancing treatments from another amazing chiropractor, doula, Craniosacral Therapist in St. Paul, MN named Dr. Channing McKinnely at Channing McKinely Chiropractic.
The results were astounding!! I came back to Missoula from a month long healing reprieve from the stress we had been living through with a drastically different kiddo….in the BEST way possible. We still had many challenges that we were trying to navigate through with her severe food allergies, and in January 2012, we started working with a local Naturopath Dr. Jeffery Freiss at The Golgi Clinic, and have made HUGE strides in understanding her condition, what aggravates it, regulating her environment and her diet along with Homeopathy and Natural remedies.
Almost a year to the date of Mazie’s first Craniosacral treatments in MN, August of 2012, I attended a training for the Gillespie Approach to CranioSacral Fascial Therapy (CFT) and The Baby Brain Score Approach with Dr. Barry Gillespie himself, and his team of educators right here in Missoula, and changed our lives, my massage/doula practice, and the future of the families in our community!
I really love what I do, and my passion for birth work, newborn care, postpartum support and the healing arts just keeps growing deeper into my life, and is unfolding into my life’s purpose. There is always more to learn, and I have no intention of ever slowing down on my education. I look forward to any opportunities to enhance myself, my practice, and my community to make it more of a healthy, well balanced place to thrive. I also look forward to as many collaborations with others in this community to make this amazing town that we live in a solid place to live, grow and prosper.
Thanks for taking the time to visit my website and to get to know a bit more about me. I look forward to any opportunity to meet with you, and work in partnership with you on your individual path to health, wellness, or the exciting journey into parenthood. If there is anything I can do to support you, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
Love & LIGHT from MisSOULa, Montana!