Therapist Bio - Alexandra Hamer, Therapeutic Massage & Bodywork, Durham & Cary, NC

Alex specializes in relieving discomfort caused by occupational stress, repetitive motion strain and postural dysfunction. Her work includes treatment of minor muscular injuries, rehabilitation support (including post-surgical, with physician's approval), muscle-specific stretching, preventive education and Structural Integration. She blends various techniques to suit the individual and to facilitate healing and relaxation. It doesn’t hurt and it feels wonderful!

Alexandra Hamer, LMBT, is Licensed in North Carolina as a Massage and Bodywork Therapist (NC #83), is Nationally Certified in Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork, and is an active professional member of the American Massage Therapy Association and the International Association of Structural Integrators. She is a graduate of the Carolina School of Massage Therapy, and developed the Sports Massage program and was the lead Sports Massage instructor for the Medical Arts Massage School in Raleigh, NC from 1996 through 1999. She has been on staff as a Massage Therapist at SAS Institute, Cary, NC since 1996, working primarily with employees referred for massage by prescription from their physicians. She worked in the PATHOS (Pain and Alternative Therapy Healing On-Site) chronic pain program for SAS employees in '98 and '99. She was assistant instructor for the Orthopedic Massage Education and Research Institute (OMERI) national Orthopedic Massage Certification program from 1999 through 2003.

Alex has been practicing Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork in Durham, NC since 1995 and expanded her practice in 2005 to a studio in Cary to help SAS employees who couldn't get in to see her at SAS. For appointment contact and location information, click here. She has advanced training in clinical Sports Massage for the treatment of pain and soft-tissue complaints, and is certified in Orthopedic Massage by OMERI. She has trained in the Travell and Simons' method of Trigger Point Therapy, completing the Advanced Myofascial Pain courses with Dr. Robert Gerwin and Dr. Jan Dommerholt at the Pain and Rehabilitation Medicine Clinic in Bethesda, MD. She has also trained in NMT (neuromuscular therapy) with Judith Walker Delaney; CORE myofascial therapy with George Kousaleos; Myofascial Release with John Barnes; Esoteric Healing with Dr. Tom Shaver, DO; Reflexology with Claire Marie Miller; CranioSacral Therapy with the Upledger Institute; Reiki with Ann Ehringhaus; Anatomy Trains with Tom Myers; and in January 2008 she completed a 550-hour certification training in KMI Structural Integration with Tom Myers and is now offering Structural Integration sessions to her clients.

Alex has edited publications for OMERI, including the Orthopedic & Sports Massage Reviews and Whitney Lowe's most recent book, Orthopedic Assessment in Massage Therapy. She was editorial assistant for Lowe's previous book, Orthopedic Massage Theory and Technique. She designed curricula and wrote comprehensive Sports Massage manuals for students and instructors in the Sports Massage program at the Medical Arts Massage School. She has provided specialized editorial reviews for the American Massage Therapy Association's continuing education courses both online and in Massage Therapy Journal. She also edited Deep: Massage Therapy Review for Bob King, former owner of the Chicago School of Massage Therapy, at the Cortiva Institute; provided consulting on articles for Massage Magazine; and has reviewed manuscript proposals on the subject of massage and bodywork for Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins and Elsevier publishers.

Alex has an MA in Social Anthropology from Cambridge University, England. She is fascinated with anatomy and loves to draw, paint and study human beings. After graduation she worked in the Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology and then as a motorcycle mechanic in Cambridge, helping a friend who raced Norton Commandos, and spent a few years riding Triumphs and Ducatis around the English countryside. She did a foundation year at art school in south Wales and then came stateside and ran her own sign-painting business for eight years in Durham, NC in the 80s. She worked for a year at SAS Institute doing set design for the video department, and was then employed for five years in Research Triangle Park, NC and Los Gatos, CA as a computer graphics artist to develop real-time, high-end 3-D graphics for flight simulation training with applications in the defense industry. She then returned to North Carolina to train as a bodyworker in 1994. She has studied martial arts since 1980 and currently practices Aikido and Tai Chi, both of which enhance and inform her bodywork practice. Her dojo is Open Sky Aikikai in Hillsborough, NC.