Coaching with Michael Jaece is a service distinct from massage therapy. Sessions are focused conversations for clients working on specific goals related to their body, pain patterns, movement habits, or wellness practice.
This is not generic life coaching. The scope is specific.
What coaching is for
Most clients book coaching for one of these reasons:
- Chronic pain or tension that bodywork alone hasn’t fully resolved. Sometimes the pattern needs more than hands-on work. Coaching addresses the habits, movements, awareness, and choices around the pattern, not just the muscle.
- Building a sustainable movement practice after injury. Recovery from injury isn’t just about the injury site. It’s about how you move differently afterward, what you avoid, what you compensate for, and how to rebuild without recreating the same problem.
- Developing better awareness of how the body responds to stress. For people whose tension is stress-driven, the body is part of the conversation. Coaching makes that explicit.
- Working through a transition that’s showing up physically. Major life changes often live in the body. Coaching provides a structured space to address that connection.
- Building skills as a practitioner. For massage therapists, bodyworkers, or related professionals who want mentorship from someone with 25+ years of practice and an active teaching role.
What coaching is not
Honesty matters here.
Coaching is not:
- Generic life coaching. If you’re looking for career advice, relationship guidance, or open-ended life planning, this isn’t the right service. There are many excellent life coaches. This isn’t that.
- Therapy or psychological treatment. If you’re working through trauma, depression, anxiety as a primary concern, or anything that needs licensed clinical care, see a therapist. Coaching can complement that work but doesn’t replace it.
- Medical care. If you have a diagnosed condition that needs medical management, your doctor is the primary stop. Coaching isn’t medicine.
- A casual chat. Coaching is structured, goal-oriented, and intentional. It’s a different mode than the conversation that happens during a bodywork session.
How coaching works alongside bodywork
Some clients use coaching purely as a standalone service. Others combine it with regular bodywork sessions, where the conversation and the body inform each other.
The combination is particularly useful for chronic pain patterns where the bodywork is doing real work but the issue keeps returning because something in how the client moves, holds tension, or relates to stress is reinforcing the pattern. Coaching addresses that side. Bodywork addresses the other side. Together, they often shift things more durably than either alone.
What a coaching session looks like
The first session is an intake. We talk about what you’re working on, what you’ve already tried, what you want to be different in three months, six months, a year. We identify what coaching can actually help with, and what would be better served by a different professional.
Subsequent sessions are structured around the specific goals identified in intake. Format adapts. Some clients want regular weekly conversations. Others want occasional deep sessions when they’re in a transition or stuck on something specific. Some integrate it with bodywork; others keep it separate.
Why this practice
Twenty-five-plus years of practice has given Michael an unusual perspective on how bodies and lives intersect. The Psychology and Religious Studies background isn’t decorative; it shapes how she reads what’s happening for clients in their bodies and lives. Her teaching role with Ashiatsu means she’s used to thinking analytically about practice, articulating what works and what doesn’t, and helping practitioners refine their own work.
For clients who need a coach with deep bodywork knowledge, that combination is rare.
Is coaching with Michael the right fit for you?
Likely a fit if you
- Are working on chronic pain or tension that bodywork alone hasn't fully resolved
- Are recovering from injury and want to build a sustainable movement practice
- Have a specific, body-related goal you want structured support for
- Are a practitioner looking for mentorship from someone with deep experience
- Are navigating a transition that's showing up physically
- Want a coach who understands the body, not just the mind
Probably not a fit if you
- Are looking for general life coaching (career, relationships, life direction)
- Need therapy for depression, anxiety, trauma, or other psychological care
- Are dealing with a medical condition that needs primary medical care
- Want a casual conversation space without specific goals
- Aren't ready to engage with the work between sessions, not just during them
- Are looking for someone to tell you what to do rather than a structured collaboration
If coaching with Michael isn’t the right fit for what you’re working on, the framework on how to choose the right practitioner applies to coaching too.