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| - An easy 15 min walk from the Renaissance Pittsburgh via Penn Ave/Stanwix.
Nice looking and welcoming from the outside as well as brochures available by the entry.
My appt was at 10am, so I arrived about 20 minutes early in case I needed to fill out paper work. They door was still locked, but the building owner was right there and he called in to them to let them know I was outside. Very friendly guy and gave me some restaurants options as well while we waited.
Inside is very clean, with a nice pop of colors. They carry Eminence skincare line. The staff is super friendly, especially the small poodle that greeted me with barks of interest as I came inside. I told him no barking during my massage, but he didn't listen.
The receptionist (who also owns the dog) was very nice and offered me my choice of teas or water.
About 10:15 I was taken into the room to make myself comfortable. The dog stayed with me, but left when the therapist came in. My appt started rather late at about 25 after. Luckily I wasn't on a schedule, but this could have been a problem, and my sweetie was wondering why I was so late getting back afterwards. I did have a 90-min massage scheduled, and she went close to that, so I didn't feel shorted. Thank goodness the British Open was on to keep him occupied.
My therapist was Portia and she was very friendly. Although my muscles needed the pressure (which was good throughout), I was a disappointed in her lack of variety in massage techniques.
Throughout most of the massage she would use the same technique (raking across the adhesion) 10-15 times (I counted), without any holding or compression of it. As I said, I needed the pressure, but without more variety in technique I left with my skin sore. Even two days later when my sweetie would pat my shoulder or back, I'd wince a bit because of the tenderness of my skin.
There were a few other distractions - heavy, clomping footwear going all around and up and down the stairs, washing and putting away dishes next to the massage room, barking dog, fast music that would cut off suddenly and then another song would come on, it would be very loud (to drown out the dog?) and then get turned down and up again - nothing that was truly relaxing.
I think that this is a good place to go, although I'd like to try a different therapist. I think that they should have more awareness of some of the little things I mentioned to take it up a notch.
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