The Brooklyn Papers / Greg Mango

Healing hands: Sage Healing Arts owner Susan Stratton gives a massage to a pregnant client.

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After more than 15 years of working the aches, pains and stress out of her clients as a freelance massage therapist, Susan Stratton finally opened the doors to Sage Healing Arts in June 2004.

Her new, spacious center on Fifth Avenue at Seventh Street has two treatment rooms for massage therapy and reflexology sessions as well as a large room for classes on everything from "bodywork for dogs" to "the art of baby massage" to reflexology classes for professionals.

The elegant classroom, which doubles as a waiting room, has pale-green walls, large molded cane chairs and blond wood floors. Stratton named her center for both meanings of the word "sage."

"It’s a healing herb, sometimes used in massage oil, and it means a wise person," said Stratton.

And Stratton, 56, has the calming, reassuring demeanor of a guru, important for a woman who helps ease other women through pregnancy.

In addition to being a massage therapist trained in prenatal massage, Stratton is a doula (who helps women through delivery and after birth); she estimates that about 30 to 40 percent of her business is from women looking for relief from pregnancy’s aching lower back and swollen legs and ankles.

Because pregnancy is nine long months, Sage offers discounts for a series of five massages.

"As always it depends on the person, but a pregnant woman may want to come every two weeks after she starts feeling really pregnant - about six weeks along," explained Stratton. "Sometimes, they’ll give one of their massages to their husbands."

Stratton was born in New Orleans and grew up in Florida, but she’s been a Park Sloper since 1983.

"Now of course, Brooklyn’s the coolest place in the world," she said. And an informal survey of the neighborhood would seem to reveal that Park Slope is experiencing a baby boom - a perfect time to open Sage. But Stratton and Sage’s other therapists offer massage to everyone, not just mommies-to-be.

Sage is refreshingly down-to-earth, but the downside is that there isn’t a receptionist to greet you at the door and when customers ring the buzzer to be let into the building, it can break the otherwise tranquil mood in the treatment room.

The upside is that Stratton eschews forms and questionnaires, instead asking her client, "How can I help you today?" She offers them several massage oils to choose from, each with it’s own special blend of healing scents.

"They choose whatever suits their mood for that day," said Stratton, who took a yearlong course in aromatherapy at the Open Center in Manhattan.

"Smell doesn’t go to the rational mind first, it goes to the unconscious," said Stratton, explaining that she can get clues about how a person is feeling that day or what’s ailing them depending on the scent they choose.

Occasionally, clients shy away from a scent - like eucalyptus - because of a deeply hidden memory.

"For some, that smell reminds them of medicine their mothers put on them when they were sick, so it reminds them of being sick - although they might not remember that right away."

While the treatment room I was in was a bit chilly, as soon as I mentioned it, Stratton immediately turned up the heat on the massage table. She set to work giving me a stress-relieving massage, paying particular attention to where I complained of an ache - my lower back (although I am not pregnant). Using gliding, pulling and kneading strokes and fingertip pressure she eased my aches and even released tension from areas where I didn’t think I could have it, such as my face and fingertips.

While it seems impossible that the petite, smiling Stratton, with her sweet southern accent, could possibly give you a vigorous head to toe massage, you’ll be pleasantly surprised. The former dancer and University of Florida cheerleader has enthusiasm and strength to spare.

"This is a beautiful and peaceful place with dedicated therapists," said Stratton. "We do what it takes to help people."


See Spa Directory for more information about Sage Healing Arts.

©2005 The Brooklyn Paper