The primary mission of Balsamroot Massage is to provide relief from the emotional and physical stress associated with grief and/or with assuming the role of caregiver for a loved one.  As time allows, therapeutic massage services are offered to general clients also.

Susan Swetnam, the founder and therapist for Balsamroot Massage understands those stresses--and the comfort that massage can provide in times of despair and grief--first-hand.   After she lost her husband, ISU English professor and poet Ford Swetnam, to cancer in 2002, Susan experienced deep depression,  severe physical pain, and crippling muscular tightness.  She credits the massage therapy she received in the first eighteen months of grief with helping to save her life.  When Susan retired from her career as an ISU professor in 2013, she entered the massage therapy certificate program at Idaho State University with the aim of offering the same comfort and relief to others facing their own losses.

Susan anticipates receiving her Idaho State Massage Therapy License in late June, 2014, after she completes her clinical internship, the last educational requirement for her certificate.  During the four-week period from May 19-June 13, 2014, ALL MASSAGES OFFERED BY BALSAMROOT MASSAGE WILL BE COMPLIMENTARY, because Susan will be receiving university program credit for her work and thus not permitted to charge a fee.  After June 13, Balsamroot Massage will be charging $45 for a one-hour massage. 

Balsamroot Massage is dedicated to providing always-customized massages that address clients' physical and emotional circumstances on a given day.  Modalities that might be incorporated range from very gentle Healing and Comfort Touch; through Relaxation Massage, Hot Stone Massage, Swedish Massage and Myofascial Release; to clinical modalities including Deep Tissue and Trigger Point techniques.