Alumni Spotlight: Cody-Brianna Pope
Cody-Brianna Pope has built a multifaceted career that combines massage therapy, entrepreneurship, wellness education, and teaching. Through private practice, contract work, mobile bodywork, and mentoring other practitioners, she has continued to expand the role massage therapy plays in her professional life. Her approach has evolved to focus on the mind-body connection, creating sessions that blend therapeutic techniques with relaxation, awareness, and individualized client care.
What massage therapy specialties, continuing education classes, or advanced training have helped you grow your skills and build your career?
My growth as a massage therapist has come from a combination of continuing education, hands-on experience, and learning in the different environments where I’ve had the opportunity to work. Contracting with other businesses while also owning my own practice has taught me so much, not only about massage therapy, but also about client care, professionalism, business administration, and what it takes to create a sustainable career in this field.
Over the years, I’ve become especially interested in the relationship between the mind and the body. I’ve taken courses exploring energy work, stress and its physical effects on the body, ethics, coaching, and other approaches that have helped me view wellness from a more holistic perspective.
Those experiences have allowed me to develop my own approach to bodywork, which I call the Mind-Body Balance Session. It combines therapeutic massage techniques with relaxation, energetic work, and greater awareness of the connection between our mental and emotional experiences and the ways we hold tension in the body.
For me, continuing education has been less about collecting certifications and more about evolving as a practitioner and finding meaningful ways to integrate what I learn into the care I provide.
How did your education at Irene’s Myomassology Institute influence your massage therapy style, specialty, or approach to client care?
When I first thought about massage therapy, I viewed it much more traditionally. I understood massage primarily as physical touch used to help the body relax or address muscular tension. My education at Irene’s opened my eyes to how much deeper the relationship is between touch, the nervous system, the muscles, and the overall human experience.
One of my biggest takeaways was learning to really listen to the body. As I continued working with clients and becoming more aware of my own body, I began to understand that not every source of tension is simply the result of physical activity or repetitive use. Stress and other life experiences can also influence how the body feels and responds. That understanding has become a major part of how I practice today.
When I first opened my spa in Garden City, my sessions were much more technique-forward. I relied heavily on active range of motion, muscle mechanics, body mechanics, trigger point therapy, and other therapeutic techniques. I still use many of those techniques today, but my overall approach has evolved tremendously.
Now, I focus much more on ease, flow, relaxation, and creating an environment where the client feels comfortable enough to let go of tension. I’ve learned that I don’t necessarily have to work aggressively or go deep immediately to get results. Sometimes allowing the body to relax first actually gives me greater access to the areas that need attention.
That shift, from trying to force the body to release to learning how to work with the body, is probably one of the biggest ways my education and experience have shaped the therapist I am today.
What type of massage therapy career path have you chosen—private practice, spa, wellness center, medical or chiropractic setting, sports massage, mobile massage, teaching, or another path?
I’ve chosen a career path that allows me to combine private practice, entrepreneurship, wellness education, and teaching. I’ve always enjoyed creating my own path, so owning my own practice has given me the freedom to develop an environment and approach to wellness that reflect my values.
At the same time, contracting with other businesses has allowed me to experience different professional environments and learn from other practitioners and business models. I also provide mobile bodywork at retreats and wellness events, which has allowed me to bring massage and holistic care into spaces beyond the traditional treatment room.
Teaching has also become an important part of my career. I enjoy helping other practitioners expand their skills, and I currently teach and mentor within my own business. I developed a three-day, 15-hour Mind Body Balance Bodywork course designed to help practitioners expand their knowledge of holistic techniques and incorporate them into their existing practices. The course centers on my signature Mind Body Balance session, which blends bodywork, energy healing, aromatherapy, somatic release, sound therapy, deep stretching, and Reiki to support whole-body balance.
Ultimately, I see my career as being about more than massage alone. I’m interested in creating holistic, natural, intentional spaces for wellness and education while also helping other practitioners grow in their own careers. That evolution has allowed massage therapy to become not just a profession for me, but the foundation for the larger wellness work I continue to build.
Cody-Brianna Pope
www.sdldspa.com
Where Could Massage Therapy Take You?
If you’re considering a career in massage therapy, learn more about the Massage Therapy Program at Irene’s Myomassology Institute and discover the skills, hands-on training, and education that can help you begin your own path.