Unique Massage and Training Clinic on Colusa Circle

Business:

Employee: Claudia Moore, Office manager

Age: “I’m just on the eve of my 60th birthday”

How long have you worked here? I’ve been here 23 years with Dr. Hendrickson, working in this clinic. It started out, way back in the day, just with Tom (Hendrickson) and I. We were about 65 feet from where we are now—on Berkeley Park Boulevard. About five years ago, we moved to this new location and we grew. We now have three chiropractors, seven massage therapists, one rehab specialist, and quite a bit of front-desk staff.

Is it physical therapy or chiropractic? We are a chiropractic clinic, but we specialize in the Henrickson method of massage therapy. It’s a very particular type of massage, designed for pain and dysfunction. It’s very different from, say, a feel-good massage at a spa. It’s extremely relaxing, but it’s also participatory and more along the lines of massage therapy, to help people with things not working—injuries, that sort of thing.

Were you in Berkeley, physically before this? No, we were actually in Kensington, but the funny thing is, now that we are in the circle, I’m fond of calling this "the four corners" because even though it’s a circle we’re within 50 feet of four cities. We are in Kensington. Fifty feet from here is the Albany line. Fifty feet from here is the Berkeley line, and fifty feet from here is the El Cerrito line. I feel like I’m at the hub of the wheel.

What has your experience been of Kensington? I haven’t experienced upper Kensington much in terms of working, although I go up there to bank at least once a week. But I love it. It’s wonderful. This is a fantastic area to be in. Both because it’s sort of peaceful, but it’s also quite busy. We’ve got a lot going on—we’ve got the shoe repair guy next door, we have bakery which is like, the draw—we’d all lose ten pounds if they weren’t here. We have the wonderful facial spa—I call it the golden door, she does beautiful work. And we’ve got the who do not just cleaning, but alterations. We have real estate over here, who does portraits, the veterinary hospital and then , which none of us could survive without. I live just around the corner on the Albany side and I’ve been shopping and working here for 25 years.

Are you a Bay Area native? I’m actually a SoCal native, but you couldn’t pay me to live down there.

Where in Southern California? Right in LA. Not for me.

Is there anything else you would want to add? We are a referral-based practice only, which means we don’t do any advertising, and we are as busy as we can be—that’s how good our practitioners are.

We have really gifted practitioners.

Some people come for the chiropractic services, some people come just for massage. Because of the very unique type of massage therapy that we offer, we just help people get better. I see people coming here in pain and I see them leave feeling better—sometimes not completely fixed right away, because often it takes a little bit of time to fix it—but our goal is to get you so that you can make it on your own, take care of yourself, function on your own and call us as a resource. We’re not the kind of chiropractic practice that gets you coming back four times a week for six years. We could never keep up with that; that’s just not our philosophy. We’re about getting you better and self-reliance.

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