How I Got Here

I don’t have a concise origin story. When I’m asked “what made you want to be a doula?” or “what got you interested in massage?” I’ve never had a short answer. Both passions have been in my bones since square one. I received a lot of infant massage as a baby and grew up with a mom who would ask my brother and I to walk on her back. I had bodyworkers who made me feel safe and cared for in my tweens and teens. Birth has been similar – always present, at the edges of my life. My earliest memory is of meeting my baby brother, my favorite middle school books had midwives in them, and I spent a fair amount of time eavesdropping on adult conversations about peri bottles and epidurals. I learned what a doula was sometime in high school, but still thought I’d rather be a midwife.

Stumbling on Massage

Long before I began practicing massage or attending births, I worked in other caring roles. Throughout my teens and early twenties I worked as a nanny, assistant teacher in a Buddhist Sunday school, and as a personal care assistant for young disabled people. In 2016, I took a rudimentary training in massage, and kicked off my career as a massage therapist. I quickly realized that I loved massage – the stability, adaptability and connection. I enrolled at CenterPoint Massage and Shiatsu School in their two year degree program studying EastWest Bodywork. It was an intense season of life, but a gift that has never stopped giving. I was able to study Swedish (relaxation) massage, therapeutic (deep tissue, more specific) massage, and shiatsu (a Japanese technique that is like acupuncture with fingers instead of needles). I also attended my first doula training through DONA which I paired with prenatal massage classes. 

Somewhere along the way I’d also taken over ownership of the little massage practice I’d been working for – Total Solace Massage. The business has gradually transformed over the years. What began as a harried employer (me) and a small crew of massage therapists, evolved into a co-ownership between myself and my longtime friend and colleague, Mischa. We’ve worked together to create a sliding scale program with as much access to our community as possible.

COVID and Community

Then, of course, came 2020. My focus went from my work to my family, friends, neighbors, and then our city – and my understanding of my community changed forever. At Total Solace, some of our projects went to the back burner as we built out our COVID response. In my life outside of work, my attention first turned to organizing and connecting with my neighbors in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, and then, when life began to move more slowly again, to reassessing my own values and priorities. What became clear – especially as restaurants reopened and the vaccine roll-out got underway, was that I wanted to continue exercising COVID precautions over the long term. The impact of long COVID on my friends and loved ones felt too great to put away masks. The second thing that became clear to me was that I needed to step out of the cozy, secluded treatment room and build more solid, real world, lasting relationships in the community. I decided that returning to my dream of a birthwork and bodywork practice was the way to do that.

Calista Carework

In the middle of all that new growth, I decided that I was ready to let the Total Solace project turn a new leaf and become Calista Carework – a merging of my bodywork and birthwork practices. The energy I was putting into building my doula knowledge and capacity gave me renewed vigor for growing my massage skills as well. A rising tide lifts all boats! I have since pursued more expansive continued education and connections with other practitioners. 

That takes my carework story right up to the present day. I am so honored to show up to work every day to support clients who I love. Each of you brings me joy. I feel unbelievably lucky to have a livelihood that I am proud of and that allows me to live out my values. Thank you for making it possible!

The Naming of “Calista Carework”

Calista is my middle name, but it is also my matrilineal name because I share it with my mother and grandmother (and great, great, great grandmother). I love the idea of claiming a matrilineal last name. My normal last name, Krueger, is actually from my mother’s side too, because my parents divvied up their last names between my brother and I (in the name of feminism or egalitarianism). But it wasn’t until a few years ago when it struck me that while I wasn’t named for my father, I was named for my maternal grandfather. 

So I consider Calista to be my matrilineal name. My mother kept her name when she married my father, and she passed her middle name (which she shared with her mother) and last name down to me. I am a third generation Calista.

Carework (or “care work”) is that work which provides services which are essential to human well-being. I’ve come across the term in labor organizing, feminism, and disability justice. As a birthworker and bodyworker, with a background in childcare, housekeeping, and disability support care, the idea of carework ties my skills and my values together.