From Scientists to Shakespeare to Shoulder Blades

I’m the daughter and granddaughter of scientists—my father, Dr. John Brace, and my grandfather, Dr. Neal O. Brace, were both analytical chemists—and as a child I was encouraged to be curious, compassionate, enthusiastic, and openminded above all.

I followed my curiosity to earning a degree in English Literature with minors in French and Religion from Hope College in Holland, Michigan. (I loved school and graduated Magna Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa, etc).

However, my cerebral self eventually needed balance, and instead of pursuing a Ph.D in Literature in the United Kingdom, I scrapped academia and went on a long quest— working on an organic farm, in an art gallery, as a children’s camp cook and wilderness guide in the Adirondack Mountains, as a marketing coordinator, and as a caregiver for a special woman with quadriplegia. The power and vulnerability of the body—not just the mind or heart—broke wide open for me in science, agriculture, art, relationships, food, and nature.

I returned to Ann Arbor to study massage therapy, specializing in the more technical and analytical approaches I practice today, and opened the massage practice that would become Linden in April 2015.

10 years —and much continuing education—later, I daily use my curiosity, analytical mind, quiet intuition, and my love of nourishment and care to help people feel better in their own skin as they pursue what matters to them.