Lee Edelberg, Licensed Massage Therapist and Esalen-certified massage practitioner

Lee Edelberg was trained at the Amherst School of Massage Therapy, where he received an education in Swedish, sports and neuromuscular massage in 2002. In 2009, he traveled to the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, Calif., and completed an intensive program in Esalen^® massage and has been practicing this style since.

A licensed massage therapist and Esalen-certified massage practitioner, Lee is a member of the Esalen Massage and Bodywork Association and the Associated Bodywork and Massage Professionals.

Lee grew up in Northampton and graduated from Northampton High School in 1972. He has lived in Vermont, New York City and the San Francisco Bay Area. He returned to Western Massachusetts in 1991 to raise a family and has lived in Leverett since 2003. He has two grown sons. He plays percussion and piano in a local Afro-Cuban drum and dance troupe.

When Lee gives a massage, he is aware of such things as the receiver’s resistance level, the flow of his or her breath and the cardiac pulse or other currents, like cranio-sacral pulses or simple energetic flow. He also senses reactions to the work he is doing, such as changes in breathing or relaxation.
 

“When I let go and let my attention stay connected to what my own body is feeling, I often intuitively know what to do next, even if it's something I've never done before,” Lee says. “Often I'm tracing a physical structure – a certain muscle, a line of tension, the outline of a bone. Other times I'm following a more energetic path, like the connection of the chakras.”