- (574) 584-5902
- touchmattersbodywork@gmail.com
About Touch Matters Bodyworks
I want to work with people who want bodywork. I hope to work in a way that works for the people I am working with. I love the work of massage therapy, on either side of the table.
John Stoltzfus
John Stoltzfus started Touch Matters Bodywork in 2009 after getting licensed in Massage Therapy. John owns and runs Touch Matters on his own and brings his services to multiple locations throughout Elkhart and beyond.
License #21003639
Massage
I became deeply interested in massage when studying counseling in Seattle. A colleague introduced me to a student in massage school needing individuals to practice on. Over the course of receiving massage therapy, I became aware what a huge asset it was to me. After that experience, I continued receiving massage therapy from multiple different professionals with differing practices. It was after realizing how much massage helped me in my own journey that I decided to pursue being a massage therapist myself.
Massage therapy is a professional space which allows me to walk along others’ growth while also growing in my own life. I am passionate about massage therapy because it works for me. It has acted as an invitation back to myself. Having had this experience first hand, I want the experience for everybody. I hope to bring people I work with to a helpful space. I hope to offer a grounding presence and guide to the human soul to reconnect. It is important to me that the person I am working with is in charge, while I simply work with them where they wish the session to go.
Poetry
I love poetry and finding ways to integrate it into other practices. I find that poetry allows for a sort of access to one’s lived experience. Just as massage helps reintegrate us to ourselves, poetry has the ability to do much of the same thing. Poetry is a modality that holds me. Sometimes through conversations with others in their lives, poetry is a way maker. It opens a clear path forward and offers a friendly structure. Poetry is like a walking path and when one walks on that ground, is able to see things from that particular perspective that you couldn’t see otherwise in the same way.
Poetry seems to be a part of me, in part because I grew up around it. My late mother, Naomi, would remember poetry from her own childhood and would often recite them often. The poems she read had a great impression on me in my early years. As I was again introduced to poetry in the classroom I found in my own lived experience poetry is a privileged way of moving around in a space. When we worry about getting things figured out, poetry allows for mystery. It allows us to celebrate what’s not understood. I love poetry and want to bring it with me to all the people I meet. I want to offer poetry to all who might want it.