Bethany Ingraham
Massage Therapist
Maine
Biography:
Bethany Ingraham is the massage therapist for 9-to-5ers, desk jockeys, retail associates, students, and anime and gaming geeks.
She grew up watching Sailor Moon, Pokemon, and Yu-Gi-Oh, and as a teenager she branched into subbed anime featuring pretty boys. The first video game she ever beat was Final Fantasy IX, later followed by Kingdom Hearts I and II. She attended my first convention back when PortCon was at the Merry Manor Inn in 2004. And then she was hooked and attended PortCon 2005 and 2006.
Bethany graduated from Richmond High School and attended Elmira College in 2006. She went on to get her massage therapy certification from Spa Tech Institute in Westbrook.
After a six year hiatus, she returned to PortCon in 2012 with her massage chair in tow and gave massages to the wonderful attendees, guests, and staff. It must have been good, because when she asked to come back, they essentially said, "YESSSS."
When she's not massaging for a living, Bethany chases small children (notably her three-year-old son), writes a blog, and otherwise spends entirely too much time on the Internet.
You may be wondering, "Why bring massage to an anime and gaming convention?" Because, like many attendees, Bethany has been an artist, a writer, and a gamer. She spent too many hours on World of Warcraft one summer and created a repetitive strain injury in her shoulder. She knows how easy it is to get knotted shoulders, headaches, pain and tingling in your hands and arms, and other symptoms that come along with sitting in front of a screen for too many hours a day. She also knows that most of these symptoms are preventable and even reversible - massage therapy can help.
Remember to take frequent breaks. Move your body. Stretch. These seem like common sense suggestions, but how often do you actually do them?
Think of chair massage as an opportunity to get back into your body - to check in and see what's hurting or stiff. You may be surprised by aches and pains you didn't realize were there. You and Bethany can work together to find solutions to help get rid of them and to keep them from coming back.
If you have any questions, please check out her website or shoot her an e-mail.
Sci-fi Convention Guest Appearances
- PortConMaine 2013 - June 20-23, 2013 in South Portland, ME