Zen Canyon Massage by Shannon Helquist LMT

02/07/2026

This is my favorite page to learn about the lymph system. I've been telling a bunch of my clients about it. These guys explain it so much better than I do. 🙂

02/07/2026

Happening in Brian Head, love the one you're with!

01/27/2026

To my fellow humans and regular clients, I will freaking miss you!!! But.....I will be around for another couple of weeks while I continue to wait on my WA state license that is required before I can legally work in their state. It was a long awesome process. Let me tell you why, here are all of the requirements of WA state:
1. Health equity course
2. In person only CPR training
3. 28 CEU's of massage therapy related courses to make sure I'm keeping up and knowledgeable in my field.
4. Four hours of Ethics CEU's, luckily they let me use my Ethics in Psychology practicum from SUU, so I didn't have to take additional courses.
5. Proof of my massage therapy education
6. Proof that I took and passed the MBLEX (state exam massage therapists are required to pass before a license is issued regardless of whether you went to school and passed all of your courses. Sometimes people go to 6 to 10 months of school and still don't pass the very intense exam and unfortunately they cannot get licensed until the exam is passed with a 70% or higher.)
7. Fingerprints and background check to make sure I'm not a criminal (incase you're wondering, I passed with flying colors! 😄)
I actually highly respect and appreciate this process because it keeps the field high quality and respectable.
Anyway.....I am available for appts in the next 2 weeks. Please text me at (435) 262-0545 to schedule your appt.
I'm still in my regular studio location:
71 North Main
Parowan, UT
To ALL my people out there, you are always welcome to come visit me at my new location in Vancouver, WA, not Vancouver Canada 😅
I am soooo beyond excited to go hike all the local waterfalls and volcanoes!!! Come join me!
And.......UT will always be my original home, it's where I was born, raised and fell in love with the Earth herself. I will be back periodically for visits and will let you know as I will be taking appts when I'm here visiting.
Text: (435) 262-0545

01/12/2026

I am not the world's best photographer but I did add new skills to my massage practice, woot!!! I just completed a 3 day course, 10 hours a day of advanced Thai Yoga Massage training. Some of this stuff I learned years ago but a lot of this course was mostly new material for me and I'm sooooo excited to start practicing regularly again! 😁

Who can benefit from Thai Yoga Massage: EVERYONE!!! Thai Yoga practice can be adjusted to all body types and various physical limitations. It's great for stiff joints, tight muscles, relaxation, to help build better flexibility and range of motion.

How Thai Yoga Massage is practiced:
The client wears loose comfortable clothing and will lay on a soft mat on the floor while the practitioner moves the client around in various Yoga postures applying compression and stretching of which there are endless possibilities but what's cool about official training as a licensed massage therapist is that we know our anatomy and physiology so we can be sure to not injure you.

If you have pain or restriction in a hip, shoulder, back, neck, calves, thighs, arms, feet, Thai Yoga Massage is for you! If you would rather be on a massage table, I can arrange that as well, we call it Table Thai.

To book please text me at (435) 262-0545
I'm still in Parowan and Brian Head for the next few weeks and would LOVE to work on you.
My Thai sessions have an introductory rate of $75 per hour for the next few weeks.
71 North Main
Parowan, UT

01/09/2026

Today I'm participating in day 1 of a 3 day Thai Yoga Massage course taught by the amazing instructor and owner of the school, Rebecca who has been practicing and teaching and who received her training in Thailand. Rebecca takes students to Thailand but it wasn't fitting into my budget or time frame yet....I've actually already taken Thai Yoga massage from one of my fav teachers and friends Melissa Eggertsen, many years ago and another short weekend class in Brian Head a long while back. This is a review as well as learning some more awesome techniques. I will be adding Thai Yoga Massage back in my menu and hoping to practice often as it's many Massage therapists favorite modality to both give and receive.
I'm looking for clients to practice on to strengthen my technique. Thai Yoga massage is traditionally done on a mat on the floor with the client wearing loose comfortable clothing. It's a great modality for people with chronic tension and stiffness as it addresses both physical and energetic aruvedic systems.
More description to come later...
If anyone is interested in booking a sesh, I'm doing an introductory price for the next few weeks of $75 per hour, which is dirt cheap! After my introductory period, I will be charging $100 per hour for Thai Yoga Massage.
To book, text me: (435) 262-0545
71 North Main
Parowan, UT

01/07/2026

If this is you, come see me!!! I thought I'd be in Washington state by now but they have requirements that I'm still working on for my WA state license, and then.......I'll be mostly there but sometimes also here in Utah. 😁💜
This weekend I'm taking a 30 hour CE course in advanced Thai Yoga massage to meet WA state CE requirements. I'm sooooo excited!! I'll be adding Thai Yoga Massage to my menu again after not practicing for a few years due to a herniated disc that's pretty chill these days.
I am taking appts at my Parowan location and Brian Head location.
Text me! (435) 262-0545
71 North Main
Parowan, UT

01/05/2026

You can also get great massages in both Brian Head at Celestial Being or in Parowan. I work both locations and I'll be around for another few weeks. 😁

Text me (435) 262-0545
71 North Main
Parowan

🌲🛍️ Two Vibes, One Trip

Why settle for just one experience when you can have the best of both worlds? Brian Head delivers high-altitude adventure with wide-open views, fresh mountain air, and endless opportunities to play—whether you’re hiking, biking, skiing, or simply soaking in the scenery. Just down the road, Parowan welcomes you with cozy Main Street strolls, locally owned shops, delicious dining, and a rich sense of history you can feel in every block.

Mountain to Main Street Mondays are your reminder that the perfect getaway isn’t about choosing between adventure and relaxation—it’s about enjoying them together. Start your day in the mountains, end it on Main Street, and discover how seamlessly these two communities connect to create one unforgettable trip.

01/01/2026

Ooh.....perfect description! When I'm working on YOU, my hands are literally scanning your tissues and listening to what it is YOU need. I'm literally tuning into your body and waiting for feedback. I'm holding space and reminding your body and your nervous system that it is safe to let go. It has been such an honor working with my local Parowan, Paragonah, Cedar City, Brian Head, Enoch, Duck Creek, and Beaver, UT clients.
As most of you know, I am moving soon to Washington state. Thank you so much for allowing me to work with you and get to know you. Many of you are like family to me and I will miss you terribly! When I come back to Utah periodically, I'll let y'all know and I will throw out my schedule of availability for anyone who might like to schedule an appt with me while I'm in the hood. If any of you are ever in the Pacific Northwest area and want to schedule, please reach out! My cell number will remain the same (435) 262-0545
Happy New Year to each and every one of you!!!
💜🥳💜🎉💜

Lately, the word somatic seems to be everywhere. It’s being used in captions, course titles, and conversations so often that it can feel like just another passing trend in the wellness world. But somatic work is not new, and it is certainly not a buzzword. For me, it is a remembering. Long before it had a name, the body already knew how to communicate through sensation, rhythm, and response. Somatic work brings us back to that language, inviting us to listen beneath the noise and honor the intelligence that has always lived within the body itself.

So, if you will indulge me with a few moments of your precious time, I would love to share the meaning behind this word.

Somatic work is the art of listening with the hands. It is an invitation for the body to speak in its own language, one that lives beneath words and stories. Rather than asking the body to perform or correct itself, somatic work creates a space where sensation becomes the guide and awareness becomes the medicine. We slow down enough to feel the subtle tides beneath the skin, the places where the body learned to brace, adapt, or go quiet in order to survive.

In this work, nothing is forced. The nervous system is met with patience, curiosity, and respect. As safety is reintroduced, tissues soften, breath deepens, and the body begins to remember its own rhythm. Movement returns not because it was demanded, but because it was invited.

Somatic work honors the body as an intelligent, living landscape. Every sensation is information. Every pause is meaningful. Healing unfolds not by fixing what is broken, but by restoring relationships, helping the body feel seen, heard, and safe enough to release what it has been holding.

Somatic awareness is what transforms technique into art. When we weave somatic principles into bodywork, our hands stop leading and begin listening. Each stroke, hold, and pause becomes a conversation with the nervous system, guided by breath, sensation, and subtle shifts rather than force or expectation. It is where skill meets presence, where science meets intuition, and where the body is given the space it needs to reorganize, release, and remember its own capacity for healing.

12/31/2025

Been there, done that. Got sciatic nerve pain? You probably need some hip/glute and psoas work. Don't suffer in silence, come see me. I gotchu!

(435) 262-0545
71 North Main
Parowan, UT

12/26/2025

Ooh....such a great article to help us better understand brain fog.

🧠 “What If Your Brain Fog Isn’t in Your Head—But in Your Neck?”

How Lymphatic Blockages Around the Neck and Clavicle Can Choke Your Cognitive Function

Introduction

Brain fog. That hazy, disconnected feeling like you’re wading through cotton wool. It’s one of the most frustrating and misunderstood symptoms people experience. Often dismissed as stress, hormonal, or “just in your head”—many don’t realize the real problem might lie in your neck.

Specifically: your lymphatic drainage system.

Let’s connect the dots between neck congestion, clavicular lymphatic bottlenecks, and your brain’s ability to detox and think clearly.

🔬 1. Your Brain Has a Lymphatic System—The Glymphatic System

For decades, scientists believed the brain was an “immune-privileged” organ with no lymphatic drainage. That changed with the discovery of the glymphatic system (Iliff et al., 2012), a network of channels that clears:
• Cellular waste
• Neurotoxins (like beta-amyloid)
• Inflammatory byproducts

This cleansing system is most active during deep sleep, relying on cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and healthy venous + lymphatic outflow—which exits primarily via the neck.

🦠 2. The Neck: The Drainpipe for Your Brain

Lymphatic drainage from the brain moves through:
• Perivascular glymphatic pathways
• The meningeal lymphatics
• The deep cervical lymph nodes
• The thoracic duct and right lymphatic duct, which both drain into the subclavian veins beneath your collarbones

If these regions are stagnant, compressed, or congested, the brain’s waste cannot exit efficiently.

The result?
• Brain fog
• Head pressure
• Sleep disturbances
• Visual processing issues
• Emotional flatness or mood swings

⛔ 3. What Blocks the Brain’s Drainage Pathways?

Several physical and emotional factors can choke your neck’s lymphatic outflow:

🧍 Poor Posture:
• Forward head posture (“tech neck”)
• Rounded shoulders compressing the thoracic outlet
• Clavicular pressure reducing flow through the subclavian vein and lymphatic duct

🧘‍♀️ Shallow Breathing:
• Diaphragmatic stagnation = less thoracic duct movement
• Less “pumping” pressure on the deep cervical and thoracic lymphatics

😔 Unprocessed Emotional Trauma:
• Somatic memory and fascial tension held in the sternocleidomastoid (SCM) and scalenes
• Protective “hunch” posture following emotional injury
• Vagus nerve restriction, which impacts brain-gut-lymph communication

🧬 Chronic Illness or Autoimmunity:
• Inflammatory debris buildup in brain and lymph
• Hypothyroidism or Hashimoto’s slowing detox
• Sinus congestion backing up drainage from the cribriform plate and facial lymph

🧠 4. Why Lymphatic Drainage Clears Brain Fog

When you manually or pneumatically stimulate:
• Deep cervical nodes
• The thoracic inlet (under the collarbone)
• The jugular chain
• The diaphragm + cisterna chyli

You open the gates for glymphatic clearance to occur.
Clients often report:
• Clearer thoughts
• Brighter vision
• Deeper sleep
• Emotional breakthroughs

Sometimes, they cry unexpectedly—not because they’re sad, but because their nervous system is finally exhaling.

📉 5. Signs That Your Brain Fog Is Neck-Related
• You feel “cloudy” despite eating clean or balancing hormones
• You have sinus pressure, ear fullness, or tightness under your jaw
• Your collarbone or neck feels puffy, tight, or sore to touch
• You clench your jaw or carry stress in your upper shoulders
• You experience relief after neck massage or cranial work

✅ What You Can Do
• 🖐️ Lymphatic drainage therapy focusing on the clavicle, SCM, jawline, and thoracic inlet
• 🌬️ Vagus nerve exercises + diaphragmatic breathing
• 💧 Stay hydrated to support CSF and lymph flow
• 🧂 Use trace minerals to maintain osmotic balance in the brain
• 🧘‍♀️ Gua sha or lymphatic facial massage 2–3x per week
• 🚫 Avoid prolonged neck compression (phones, tight bras, poor pillows)

🔄 The Bottom Line

Your brain fog might not be in your mind—it might be in your neck.

Clear the pathways.
Open the drain.
Let your brain breathe again.

📚 References
• Iliff, J. J., et al. (2012). A paravascular pathway facilitates CSF flow through the brain parenchyma and the clearance of interstitial solutes. Science Translational Medicine, 4(147), 147ra111. https://doi.org/10.1126/scitranslmed.3003748
• Louveau, A., et al. (2015). Structural and functional features of central nervous system lymphatic vessels. Nature, 523(7560), 337–341. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature14432
• Nedergaard, M., & Goldman, S. A. (2020). Glymphatic failure as a final common pathway to dementia. Science, 370(6512), 50–56. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abb8739
• Plog, B. A., & Nedergaard, M. (2018). The glymphatic system in central nervous system health and disease: past, present, and future. Annual Review of Pathology, 13, 379–394.

©️

12/12/2025

This is why we tell you to drink plenty of water after a massage. We move around a lot of fluid, metabolic and cellular debri that your body wants to flush out. Your body wants to heal and repair.
To book please text: (435) 262-0545
71 North Main Parowan, UT

💚🔥 Inflammation vs Lymph Stagnation: Understanding the Difference

By Bianca Botha, CLT | RLD | MLDT & CDS – Lymphatica

Most women feel swelling, heaviness, puffiness, tightness or discomfort and assume it is “inflammation.” But inflammation and lymph stagnation are not the same thing — although they love to appear together and confuse the entire picture.

Understanding the difference is one of the most powerful steps you can take toward real, lasting healing. Because when you know what your body is doing, you finally know how to support it.

Let’s gently unpack this in a way that feels empowering, not overwhelming.

🔥 What Is Inflammation?

Inflammation is your body’s built-in protection system. It is an immune response that activates when something needs to be repaired, defended or cleared.

Acute inflammation can show up as:
• warmth
• redness
• pain
• heat
• swelling

Chronic inflammation is quieter and looks like:
• fatigue
• joint stiffness
• brain fog
• hormonal imbalance
• gut irritation
• headaches
• autoimmune flares

Inflammation says:
“Something here needs attention.”

But inflammation is not the problem —
the inability to clear it is.

💧 What Is Lymph Stagnation?

Your lymphatic system is responsible for clearing inflammation, toxins, cellular debris, excess fluid and immune byproducts from your tissues.

When lymph stagnates, your body struggles to remove this waste — creating a feeling of heaviness, swelling and fullness.

Lymph stagnation looks like:
• puffy face and eyes
• swollen hands or feet
• heaviness in legs
• bloating
• fluid retention
• tight rings
• cellulite or dimpling
• a “thick” or congested feeling

Lymph stagnation says:
“I can’t drain what you’re asking me to clear.”

🌿 Inflammation and Lymph Stagnation Are Partners

They are deeply connected.
One triggers the other.
One worsens the other.
One calms when the other flows.

Here’s how:

🔥 Inflammation without lymph flow

causes fluid buildup, pain, swelling and chronic symptoms because the waste isn’t being removed.

💧 Lymph stagnation without inflammation

creates congestion, puffiness, heaviness and toxicity — which then leads to inflammation.

It’s a cycle.
Not a mistake.
Not your body failing you.

A cycle asking for softer support.

🧘‍♀️ How to Tell the Difference

Here is a simple way to recognise what your body is experiencing:

💧 Lymph Stagnation (fluid-driven)

• Swelling improves with movement
• Massaging the area feels relieving
• Warm showers help
• Puffiness fluctuates during the day
• Morning swelling is common
• Clothes feel tight but not painful

This is fluid that isn’t draining.

🔥 Inflammation (immune-driven)

• Area feels warm or hot
• Pain or sensitivity is present
• Symptoms worsen with pressure
• Rest helps more than movement
• Pain lasts even when swelling goes down
• May accompany fatigue or joint pain

This is your immune system actively working.

Your body often shows both at the same time — and that is where the magic happens, because lymphatic work becomes transformative.

💚 So What Does Your Body Actually Need?

Support looks different depending on the message.

For Lymph Stagnation:

• warm foods
• movement
• hydration
• gentle lymph drainage
• deep breathing
• diaphragm activation
• magnesium
• open neck and collarbone pathways

Your body wants movement and flow.

For Inflammation:

• lowering inflammatory load
• calming the gut
• supporting the liver
• reducing stress
• anti-inflammatory foods
• nervous system regulation
• rest

Your body wants calm and stability.

When you combine both?
Your whole system opens.
Healing accelerates.
Symptoms soften.
You feel lighter.

🌼 A Beautiful Truth

You are not “too sensitive.”
You are not “inflamed for no reason.”
You are not “swelling randomly.”

Your body is speaking.

Inflammation is the message.
Lymph stagnation is the traffic jam.
Healing is restoring flow.

When you support your lymphatic system, inflammation finally has a way out.
When you calm inflammation, your lymphatic system can do its job again.

Your body is not working against you.
It is fighting FOR you.
Let’s give it the flow it needs. 🌿💛

Medical Disclaimer

This article is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always consult your healthcare provider before making changes to your diet, lifestyle or health regimen.

12/08/2025

Gift certificates are available for the holiday season! 🎄🎅

$80 ~ 1 hour
$120 ~ 90 min
$160 ~ 2 hour
$20 ~ hot stone add on
$10 Cupping add on

Please text me at:
(435) 262-0545
71 North Main
Parowan, UT