The Chapter Distinguished Service Award is presented to an individual who has made a lasting impact on CT’s massage therapy community.
Lani has been an active member of AMTA for 12 years, since her graduation from CCMT. Her first chapter volunteer position was as on-line election coordinator for 2 years. Following that, she was elected as the Connecticut Chapter Secretary for 6 years and as a Delegate to the Assembly of Delegates for 2 years. Lani has been a member of the sports massage team (SMT) and the community service massage team (currently community outreach team – COT) since graduation.
Lani found her way to massage through yoga, having completed her yoga teacher training prior to massage school. She continued to teach yoga in studios and for special events until the pandemic. From 2015-2019, Lani was an instructor for the massage therapy profession. She started her teaching as an assistant instructor, and later as an instructor, at Cortiva (and the predecessor schools of CCMT and Steiner). Lani has an affinity for Thai massage and donated her time as part of the bodymind center for thai
massage’s Open Mat Mondays, raising money for the Polaris Project. Lani was also active with the Thai Massage Gong Meditation sessions at the Conduit in East Hartford, providing massage on session participants while the gong meditation was happening. In addition, Lani co-instructed “Thai for the Community” where she helped to teach a short Thai routine to couples. Always advancing herself, Lani has become a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner as an additional way to serve her clients.
Lani is a familiar face in the AMTA community on the state and national level. Lani’s welcoming, friendly, engaging personality can be found at most networking and educational events. She always steps in to offer a hand with any tasks that will improve the overall experience, such as coordinating, ordering, and picking up the lunches for members headed into HOD/AOD with limited time from registration to seating.
Professionally, she has been a member of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce. Lani has maintained a private practice since graduation and used the down time of the pandemic to enlarge her private practice, opening two new business locations offering massage therapy, nutritional therapy, esthetics, spa services and shamanic healing. Her business currently employs ten professionals. She continues to support new LMTs in the profession and offers education on-site to her employees, to support their careers.
The AMTA-CT Chapter is pleased to honor the contributions that Lani has made to our profession.