Massage is mission, message for new West Salem business

Carla Kiesau, owner of Ministry Massage, believes strongly in empowering people — including herself — to take better care of their bodies.

“I get one massage a week myself,” Kiesau said. “For the past five years I’ve been living simply and eating healthy and I feel great!”

Kiesau said the name of her business does not have any particular religious significance —it’s more about how her career fits in with the sense of mission she has about her work.

“It’s just that I feel like I’m a minister,” she said. “To me it means caring for people and helping them to take care of themselves.”

The new business — only about a month old — is in the same building on Leonard Street as the Northwoods Martial Arts studio.

“I do deep tissue work, Swedish massage and trigger point therapy,” Kiesau said. She’s lived in West Salem for about a year and the opportunity to establish her own business came about after a conversation with George Baldwin, owner of Northwoods Martial Arts.

“She asked me whether I’d ever thought of offering massage here,” recalled Baldwin. “In ancient times, martial arts masters were also involved in things like healing and meditation, so I thought it would be a good fit.”

Kiesau, who also teaches yoga three days a week at the nearby Joy Works Dance Studio, is renting a room with a massage table from Baldwin and so far, things are going well.

“A lot of clients come in by word of mouth, plus others have followed me from my other jobs,” Kiesau said.

She’s also worked out an arrangement with chiropractor Denise Jones who owns Jones Chiropractic just across the street.

“She’ll be referring patients who need massage to me,” Kiesau said.

Although Ministry Massage hasn’t had its grand opening yet, Kiesau said she will likely hold one next month. In the meantime, massages are available every day by appointment, with walk-ins accepted on Fridays from 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m and on Saturdays from 10:30 a.m. until 3:30 p.m.

A 1995 Onalaska High School graduate, Kiesau earned a degree in hospitality management from Western Technical College in 1997. Since then, she’s had plenty of management experience in Texas — where she lived for five years — as well as in Wisconsin and Minnesota.

After moving back to Wisconsin, Kiesau worked as the manager of the Panera restaurant in Onalaska and was subsequently sent to Rochester to open a new Panera branch there.

It was while she was in Rochester that Kiesau began studying massage, first with the Sister Rosalind Gefre School of Professional Massage and then with Globe University because it allowed more flexibility in her schedule.

What does she like most about being a massage therapist? “I guess it’s that I get to show clients how to take care of themselves,” Kiesau said. “Our lives are stressful enough as it is, so just knowing I helped someone is a huge reward for me.”

In order to increase her exposure to the community, Kiesau has been doing chair massages at La Scher’s Bistro just down the street, and she has been scouting for other places to do chair massages.

“Our customers have been raving about her,” said Eric Jansky of La Scher’s, “and I’ve gotten massages from her, too. She’s good — I feel the effects for days afterward.”