Her Journey
When Robin boarded a plane at twenty-two to teach English in Japan, she couldn't have imagined that the journey would eventually lead her to massage therapy, Eastern philosophy, writing, or a lifelong exploration of human connection. Living in Hiroshima introduced her to shiatsu and the concept of Qi, but just as importantly, it taught her to observe, listen, and become curious about ways of understanding the body and human experience that differed from those she had known.
After two years in Japan, she spent another year backpacking through Asia and Europe, following that curiosity wherever it led. Along the way, she experienced everything from Thai massage in a grass hut in Chiang Mai to traditional venik massage at Moscow's Sandunovsky Banya. What began as an encounter with another culture was becoming a broader fascination with the ways people experience the body, connection, and well-being across cultures.
That interest eventually brought her to New York University, where she earned a Master's degree in International Education. After several years working as a cross-cultural trainer and academic administrator, another turn in the road led her to the Swedish Institute. There, the strands of her earlier experiences began to converge. Its rigorous massage therapy program brought Eastern and Western approaches into conversation, giving her a foundation in Western anatomy and massage while deepening her study of shiatsu, acupressure, and Eastern approaches to the body.
After graduating in 2001, Robin spent more than a decade practicing in New York City in a wide variety of settings before returning to her native North Carolina in 2012. More than twenty-five years of hands-on work have continued to shape not only how she practices massage, but how she thinks about attention, relationship, and the subtle ways people experience themselves and one another.
Today, those once-separate threads have become a broader body of work encompassing therapeutic massage and acupressure, the IAMBB Method, partner massage education, writing, and sensory and nature-based exploration. Across these different forms runs the same curiosity that began all those years ago: an interest in embodied attention, conscious connection, and what we discover when we become more attentive to ourselves, one another, and the world around us.
Education
Swedish Institute College of Health Sciences (1999-2001)
Associate in Occupational Studies, Massage Therapy
License #12218
New York University, Steinhardt Dept. of Teaching & Learning
Master of Arts, International Education (1996-1998)
Bachelor of Arts, Writing (1987-1990)
East Carolina University, English Department
Publications
○ Integrative Swedish Massage with Acupressure: The Complete Step-by-Step Manual for Partners and Friends (2026)
Available in paperback, Kindle, and PDF editions.
○ Integrative Swedish Massage with Acupressure: A Step-by- Step Companion Guide for Partners and Friends (2026)
Available in paperback, Kindle, and PDF editions.
Featured
Voyage Raleigh
The New York Times
The Evolution of the Work
Robin's work has evolved over more than twenty-five years of massage practice, study, teaching, observation, and experimentation. At its foundation is Integrative Acupressure for Mind-Body Balance (IAMBB), her approach to therapeutic massage combining the flowing strokes of Swedish massage with acupressure, myofascial techniques, and principles of mindful attention. Rather than treating the body as a collection of separate parts, IAMBB reflects her longstanding interest in the relationships among touch, attention, sensation, and the experience of the body as a whole.
Over time, Robin began exploring how some of these principles might extend beyond the treatment room. Partner massage offered one path. By adapting professional techniques into simple, accessible forms, she developed tutorials that allow partners and friends to explore intentional, attentive touch with one another. That work eventually became the basis for her two Integrative Swedish Massage with Acupressure books.
Other explorations moved beyond massage itself. The Sanctuary and later Mobile Sanctuary considered how environment, sensory experience, and brief periods of retreat might create opportunities to pause during an ordinary day. The Face Cloud and Pause Pillows approached similar questions through objects, using qualities such as weight, texture, shape, and placement to invite attention to physical sensation.
More recently, that inquiry has extended into the natural world through Sensory Pauses and Nature in Hand: small invitations to stop, notice, listen, look, touch, and become curious about what is immediately present. A seed pod held in the palm, the sound of water, an unusual texture, or a fleeting movement can become an occasion for attention.
Writing runs alongside all of these forms of exploration. Through books, essays, and other work, Robin examines many of the same questions from another direction—drawing connections among the body, culture, nature, science, personal experience, and the sometimes surprising ways we make meaning from them.
What began with hands-on bodywork has gradually become a broader exploration of how we pay attention and how we connect: with our bodies, with one another, and with the world around us. Across its different forms, the work continues to be guided by three interconnected themes: embodied attention, conscious connection, and sensory exploration.
