A V I N T A G E N A P A V A L L E Y

PARTNERSHIPHere’s how one couple fermented a thriving

practice in California’s beautiful wine country.

By Theodore Berland

This massage practice is based on international love.It was born when Servaas C.M. Mes and Beverly Davies became not only soul mates, but businesspartners in their joint enterprise: Somatic Health Center.

Servaas, 38, originally from the Netherlands, had been living and working for a decade as aphysical therapist in Smithers, a town in central British Columbia, Canada.

Beverly, 43, originally from New Jersey, had been practicing massage therapy for a decade inNapa Valley, California.

They met in March 2000 at the annual Hanna Somatics Conference, held near the north end ofCalifornia’s Golden Gate Bridge. “We were immediately drawn to each other,” Servaas explains.“We both felt a special bond and agreed to keep in touch after the conference, when we eachwent our separate ways.”

116 Massage Therapy Journal • Spring 2005

They didn’t see other again until 2002, after Servaas flewdown from teaching at the annual conference of theAssociation for Massage Therapists and WholisticPractitioners (AMTWP) in Canada. They both attended a sensory awareness workshop taught by the late CharlotteSelver in Santa Barbara, California. “It was obvious then thatwe should be together. We were in love and shared manycommon interests.After the workshop, I visited her in Napa,and at Christmas she visited me in Smithers,” Servaas recalls.

They were committed to each other. Servaas moved toSt. Helena, California, in January 2003, and they weremarried exactly three years after they first met.

Today, they agree that each assists the other in both thepersonal and business aspects of their lives.

“We are now best friends who happen to be married,”Beverly explains. “We are very compatible.We balance; wedon’t compete. Servaas has helped me to run the business.I help him to run the workshops. He is better speaking infront of people; I am better in hands-on instruction.”

Servaas adds, “We are a team. We are complementary.We have different talents. She is more intuitive; I am more practical. I am in the background when she is on and vice versa.”

Servaas Mes (left) and Beverly Davies-Mes (above) use

somantic movements to balance the sacrum and pelvis of

their respective clients. Opposite page: A reiki student

receives a session from Beverly.

Growing The PracticeAfter they got married, Servaas had to receive permissionto work in the United States from the Department ofHomeland Security. Once that was granted, theybecame official partners. At that point, the ambitiousMeses decided to expand their joint practice. Theyidentified three major markets, which were:• Local Clients

This is the strong base of repeat clients who live in thearea year-round. Most of these people work in the wineindustry, or adjunct local businesses and professions.These clients are generally older and financially com-fortable.They also are a rich source of tourist referrals.

• Tourists Visitors from all over the United States and from overseascome to the wine country year-round.The area has mildweather and many attractions.Tourists who appreciateexcellent food and wine are from the upscale segmentof the population and tend to have disposable funds.While those who stay at local resorts usually receivemassages there, the majority of massage-savvy touristswho drive up the main road—California Highway29—seek referrals to independent therapists.

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Successful Practice

118 Massage Therapy Journal • Spring 2005

• Practicing Or Part-time Student Bodyworkers Many local bodyworkers, even competitors, seek toacquire, upgrade and/or expand their knowledgeand skills.

Clients in the first two markets are offered both indi-vidual therapy, in such modalities as massage andsomatics. They also can participate in group workshopsfor overcoming such problems as low-back pain. “Weoffer experiences, not just massage. We evaluate ourclients as soon as they arrive by the way they walk andmove their bodies,” Servaas says.

Beverly adds, “We see this as a lovely service to pro-vide to another human being. We are not just giving rubdowns. We offer life-transforming bodywork. We arehelping people live more fully on this earth.”

Bodywork students and professionals in the thirdmarket are offered beginner and continuing educationin the variety of modalities in which Beverly andServaas are certified as instructors. These include massage therapy, reiki and somatics. To bolster hisinternational reputation as an instructor, Servaas pre-sented a four-hour workshop on somatic rehabilitationat the World Congress on low back and pelvic pain inMelbourne, Australia, in November 2004.

These highly profitable workshop activities are beingexpanded. Beverly became certified as a teacher by thestate and approved by a local massage school to teach asa member of its staff. Servaas said this fits in with theirlong-range plan to start a massage and somatic body-work school of their own.

They hold most of their educational workshops infunction rooms at popular St. Helena and Calistogaresorts. Some of the workshops are group therapysessions given for clients. A larger proportion of theirworkshops are given for the bodywork staff whowork in the spas at these resorts and require furthertraining of the kinds the Meses can provide.Ironically, the Meses, who in a sense are competitorsto the spas are in another sense, supporters of body-work at the spas.

Servaas says that giving 10 workshops a year brings in$30,000 annually. He plans to expand this area of thepractice so it brings in $60,000 a year. The individualtherapy sessions given by Beverly and Servaas bring in$80 an hour for massage, and $120 for an hour and 15minutes of somatic rehabilitation. These sessions pro-duce $6,000 to $8,000 a month, a figure that shouldincrease as their new quarters enable them to employother bodyworkers. They are reaching to exceed a$200,000 annual gross.

Instruction is a major part of the

couple’s practice. At left, Servaas

teaches Somatic Conditioning™ to

facilitate natural movement and

balance. Beverly demonstrates the

quality of healing touch through the use

of reiki (below), and teaches a somatics

class to improve the mind/body

connection (bottom left). More than 200

wineries (middle left) are located within

30 miles of St. Helena, so the Meses

(bottom right) benefit from of a

constant stream of visitors.

Spr ing 2005 • www.amtamassage.org 119

Born one of five children in New Jersey, Beverly remembers

massaging baby powder on her father’s feet when she was 5

years old. According to her, “This was my first cognitive aware-

ness that massage gives a person a connection with another.”

She is the mother of two adult children who have been

strongly influenced by frequent bodywork. Her daughter, who

occasionally helps out at the office, also is a massage

therapist; she is preparing to go to nursing school. Her son

works locally as a carpenter, and helped with the construction

of the practice’s new office.

Beverly came to northern California in 1985, attended

Napa Community College and obtained a state certificate of

early childhood education. She soon owned a day care cen-

ter for “difficult” children, which she ran for seven years. “It

was there that I found that massage was a way to comfort

children who came from challenging family circumstances,”

she explains. Day care was so gratifying that she soon decid-

ed “it was time to work with adults. I went from serving little

people to serving big people.”

Beverly took classes in massage and Watsu® (water-based

shiatsu) and became locally licensed. (As of this writing,

California does not have statewide licensing for massage

therapists.) In 1993, she joined the massage staff of a local

five-star resort spa as an independent contractor, and within

a year was acting as the resort’s massage coordinator. She

not only gave massages, but also assisted in the hiring of

other bodyworkers.

“I learned a great deal about what works in a successful

business and what does not, so in 1996, I left the spa to start

my own practice at home,” Beverly explains. “I took out ads in

the women-in-business section of the local newspaper, in the

Yellow Pages and on pharmacy bags, distributed my pam-

phlets, offered gift certificates for every local fundraiser that

asked me, and told everyone I knew that I was looking for

clients. The ads worked and word-of-mouth brought in more

clients. Before long I had a thriving practice.”

In 1996, she moved her practice out of her house and into

the walk-up quarters in downtown St. Helena. The space was

just big enough to incorporate a small waiting area and a

massage table.

“I took continuing education courses, read massage books

and took as many massages from other therapists as I could in

order to experience new techniques that I could use,” she says.

Her two years of courses at Psychic Horizons in San

Francisco helped her to expand her own physic energies and

to become more sensitive to the emotional needs of her

clients. She even learned, she believes, “to see and sense

other people’s energy.”

During her years of solo practice, she expanded her

services to also include a wide range of therapies, such as

reiki and somatics.

Beverly Davies-Mes’s Background

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Spr ing 2005 • www.amtamassage.org 121120 Massage Therapy Journal • Spring 2005

Planning The FutureIn 2004, Servaas and Beverly moved out of their walk-up quarters and into a refurbished and larger downtownstore front, using environmentally “green” concepts.Now their practice is ideally located just off the mainstreet and in the foot-traffic pattern of the upscale townof St. Helena.This town is located in a part of Napa Valleythat produces much of California’s premium wines.

Wineries, gourmet restaurants, high-end resorts,beautiful scenery and the natural springs at nearbyCalistoga—at the northern tip of the valley—make it amecca for wine lovers, gourmands and other tourists.Somehow the valley remains isolated from the economicwoes of the rest of the country.Visitors come here to enjoythemselves, which means that they come ready to spendmoney for luxuries, such as bodywork (although manyneed, rather than desire, bodywork). They come year-round, but especially in the fall, when the grapes arecrushed as part of the wine-making process.

In this environment, the Meses have big plans for thefuture. The extra space will enable them, as well as newlyhired employees, to work simultaneously on separate clients.

Born in the Netherlands, Servaas graduated as a physical ther-

apist in 1988 from the University of Nijmegen. “It did not take

me long to realize that there were just too many physical thera-

pists in Holland,” he says.

A friend of his, living in Canada, called Servaas and told him

there was a job opening for a physical therapist at the local

hospital. Servaas took up the offer, and left his old life in the

lowlands of Europe for a new life at the base of the Hudson Bay

Mountain in the Canadian Coastal Range. Smithers, with its

permanent population of 6,000, is about 100 miles south of the

southern point of Alaska. It succeeds as a northern outpost for

hikers, hunters, fishers, adventurers and wilderness-loving

tourists who marvel at the splendor of the mountainous scenery.

After arriving, he was employed by Bulkley Valley District

Hospital to work with adult clients as well as developmentally

delayed children. Due to cutbacks in the Canadian health-care

system, Servaas got laid off and opened up his own private clinic

with the help of two other physical therapists. The practice was

very successful, and provided employment for four full-time thera-

pists. “This is where I gained my initial business experience—run-

ning the Smithers practice,” Servaas says.

In 1992, Servaas’ life took a sudden turn when, during a recre-

ational soccer game, he broke the arch of his foot and stretched the

sciatic nerve. Painkillers helped little. The same could be said for a

succession of doctors—in Canada and Holland—who ordered and

studied his X-ray films, CT scans and MRIs. They pinpointed the

cause of the exquisite pain as tarsal tunnel syndrome, a condition of

the foot that is akin to carpal tunnel syndrome in the hand. None of

the medical treatments brought relief.

“When exploratory surgery was suggested, I backed off,”

Servaas says. “Then I discovered somatics.” He took a few ses-

sions with a graduate of the Novato Institute for Somatic

Research and Training. “My whole body was treated, not just

my foot. It turned out that I was standing crooked. With this

treatment, the nerve disengaged. For the first time in years, my

foot felt fine.”

Back in Smithers, Servaas decided to add somatics to the

practice. He sold his interest in the physical therapy practice,

went to Novato, took the training and went out on his own. In

1999, he was invited to work at the well-respected Spine &

Joint Centre in The Netherlands, where he specialized in

low-back pain and postpartum pelvic problems. At his return

to his practice in Canada, he learned that his father was in a

late stage of cancer, upon which he took half a year off from

his practice to help care for him in The Netherlands. He

currently is working on a book explaining his model of somatic

rehabilitation (Mobilizing AwarenessTM) and somatic fitness

(Somatic ConditioningTM).

Servaas Mes’s s Background

Servaas releases the upper neck

muscles of his wife, Beverly, during a

session (left). Beverly massages a client’s

trapezius muscles (middle right). The

attractive downtown area of St. Helena, the

couple’s base, brings in many walk-in clients

throughout the year (middle left). Using fluid

movement patterns, a major element of

somatic conditioning, Servaas is showing a

client how to open the hamstrings (bottom).

Beverly demonstrates a key part of somat-

ics: reeducating the body to be free of hold-

ing patterns (opposite page).

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122 Massage Therapy Journal • Spring 2005

tect, Daniel Burnham, said, “Make no little plans; theyhave no magic to stir men’s blood.”

Theodore Berland, contributing editor, is based in Chicago

and can be reached at: writer@ted-berland.us.

Beverly and Servaas Mes can be reached at:

info@somatichealthcenter.com, or at: 707-967-9567.

“Massage therapists have already applied to work for us,even before we put the word out,” Servaas comments. “Butour first employee was a receptionist/office manager.”

The Meses financed the renovation and furnishing ofthe new quarters with an equity loan on their home.“This is a huge investment in the future for us. We knowwe have to spend money to make money,” Beverly says.

“We have designed an indoor environment that ishealthy, comforting and calming, essentially like a day spa.We want our clients to feel and be relaxed,” Servaas adds.

A new marketing effort is to sell some wineries ontheir already posh establishments. “It’s a natural combi-nation,” Servaas says. “People who are relaxed and cen-tered are more likely to want to buy some fine winesthan anxious people.”

The Meses are also planning to open additional sites inthe United States as well as Canada.With the rapidly grow-ing interest in somatic bodywork, their plate is full. It isonly a matter of time to see this couple grow and evolvetheir successful business.

This couple provides a model for bodyworkers whowant to plan their future. As the great American archi-

In a playful manner, local therapists and body workers benefit

from Servaas’ instruction regarding habituated postural patterns

that can lead to low back pain (above). To free the body from

patterns of contraction, Servaas guides his client toward improved

neuro-muscular control (right). After five years together, the Meses are

prospering both professionally and personally (bottom right).

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