Karol Wilkinson gives a massage to a client at the Massage Matters center in Stafford earlier this week. View More Images from this story Visit the Photo Place

Let the healing begin for stressed commuters

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She aims to make life easier in North Stafford

Date published: 11/29/2008

By MICHAEL ZITZ

Interstate 95 is gridlocked. State Route 610 consists of bumper-to-bumper, endless, ugly sprawl. And then there's bailout news on the car radio to make North Stafford residents' commutes all the more fun.

As the poet didn't quite say: Some see North Stafford as it is, feel their necks tighten up, gnash their teeth and ask, "Why?" Linda Osorio dreams of a North Stafford filled with peace and love after it's had a good massage, meditated and gone to a Qi Gong class, and asks, "Why not?"

North Stafford, with its high percentage of Washington commuters schlepping up and down a packed I-95 to and from pressure-cooker jobs, may very well be the most stressed out part of the Fredericksburg area.

The 31-year-old Osorio, along with partners Drew Calhoun of North Stafford and Kathleen McBride of Fairfax, saw a need and recognized an opportunity. So they opened Massage Matters Wellness Center at 418 Garrisonville Road, No. 106, on Aug. 18.

" People are so stressed out right now," Osorio says, "and you know it really affects your kids when your works stresses you out and you go home and you don't let it go. Commuters, both people working for the government and the military, get beat up a lot, physically and mentally."

If that sounds familiar, Massage Matters, which takes walk-ins, offers a variety of types of treatments on heated tables as well as chair massage.

But Osorio emphasizes the whole-person, preventative wellness center aspect of the business, saying "We want to be a resource center," offering free workshops and working with a nutritionist.

"So many people sit around at work and sit around in traffic and these people get depressed," she says. "They have chronic pain. And they spread it around because misery loves company."

Generally, she says, people who are healthy are pretty happy.

"We try to help people overcome negativity. We ask, 'What do you do for exercise? What's your diet like?' We say, 'Listen, if you really want to feel better, you need a lifestyle change. It's going to affect both your body and your mind.'

MASSAGE MATTERS WELLNESS CENTER HOURS: Monday 3 p.m.- 8 p.m.; Tuesday-Saturday 9 a.m.-8 p.m.; Sunday 11 a.m.-4 p.m. INFO: 540/288-0111 or massagemattersllc.com

Date published: 11/29/2008