The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

Dayton-­Licensed Massage Therapist Kahla Harrington describes herself as an introvert. She can appear shy, but she's acted on stage before. She's apprehensive about being in front of crowds, but her smile can light up a room. And behind that smile lies a competitive spirit that strives for excellence. She has been an athlete all her life, playing soccer for 15 years and then distance running. In the first year of her work as a massage therapist, she once was told, "You'll never be better at this than you are right now." Wrong thing to say to Kahla Harrington.

She opened Align Massage Therapy in September 2014 after moving to Dayton to build a life with her husband, Daniel, who grew up in Dayton.

Becoming a massage therapist wasn't the first thing on her mind when she graduated high school.

"I actually got kicked out of college because I wasn't doing well in my classes," she said. "I was not into what I was doing."

As it turns out, this was a good thing. One day she spotted a Facebook ad for massage school.

"My parents reminded me I wasn't a touchy-feely person, and I'd have to be touching people all the time," She laughed. "It's totally random, I know. But once I was in school, I realized this was what I was meant to do. I just opened up to it." She attended Seattle's Northwest Academy for the Healing Arts.

In addition to myofascial release techniques, which address body imbalances, chronic pain, and injury, Harrington is a certified advanced cupping therapist and uses techniques to aid healing from temporomandibular joint dysfunction (TMJD) to migraines and allergies.

"I enjoy a challenge. Every client presents a challenge, something for me to figure out," Harrington said, describing herself as compassionate and empathetic. "Just being a part of their whole experience and how they take up space in the world and helping them realize they are more than what they are in their body, is hugely rewarding. I actually have a hard time not crying right now while I'm talking about this," she said. "I just love it so much." 

Her studio is in a remodeled old bunkhouse on the couple's rural property on Johnson Hollow Road, five miles east of Dayton. It is a beautiful, clean, and welcoming space, complete with air purifiers required by COVID-19 regulations.

She takes a maximum of 12-clients per week on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. She and her husband have worked out a schedule that allows both to do their work and care for their two young children, Lucas and Keegan. Daniel is a mechanic and local agent for Snap-On Tools. They seem to have found the perfect arrangement for balancing life and work.

"The pandemic downtime has been a gift," said Harrington.

She has used the opportunity to get a beautiful new website up and running at http://www.alignmassage.care. The downtime has also seen an increase in sales for the business, including topical therapeutic CBD products for muscle, nerve, and joint pain. "I can hardly keep it in stock," she says, of the popularity of these products.

The energetic forward trajectory of Harrington's "introverted" lifestyle continues to drive her. Just before the pandemic hit, she had planned to continue her training of Anatomy Trains Structural Integration at Anatomy Train in Maine. She had to put those plans on hold, for now. This modality recognizes the system of seamless connective tissues that make up the body. It seeks to work on these tissues to release, realign, and rebalance the body for greater flexibility and energy.

Harrington not only provides this wholistic bodywork practice, she also uses this therapy for her own well-being having received an 11-week treatment before moving to Dayton.

"It's a life-changing thing emotionally, physically and mentally," she said.

Meanwhile, weightlifting became the next move for Harrington's personal fitness regimen. She believes weight training keeps her physically strong for her practice, supporting good posture and function. She often records herself stretching and working out with weights on her Facebook business page and Instagram account. Currently, Harrington can deadlift an impressive 195 pounds. She can probably lift more than that, she says, but at the moment that's all the weight she has available to work with. For the moment, that is.