During International Women’s Month, St. Albert Gazette is celebrating women that are making a difference in our local business and community landscapes. Meet Lorraine Winslow, owner of Love Within Pregnancy Massage & Womens Wellness Inc.
Lorraine Winslow, RMT, opened Love Within to help women have a place to relax, unwind and take part in self care. Love Within also provides massage services for pregnant women, postnatal women and infants.
The team at Love Within is women-owned and women-led.
“I am so lucky to have the women I have with me at the studio,” says Winslow. “They are constantly doing extended education courses and classes and becoming certified in so many different modalities so they are able to offer new services to our clients. All of our new services have been brought to me by my team.”
Clients love the Gua Sha face massage with Madison. Lorraine says, “Face massage focuses on the muscles of the face, scalp, jaw and neck to reduce stress, discomfort, puffiness and increase circulation. Other benefits included are natural face sculpt/lift, TMJ tension/pain relief, neck/upper body tension relief, headache and migraine relief.”
Chantal, a certified hot bamboo massage therapist, enjoys offering clients add-ons to such as natural facials and foot and hand scrubs.
Lorraine says, “Hot bamboo massage has numerous benefits. The combined warmth from the heated bamboo sticks along with rolling movements stimulates circulation in the body, increasing blood flow. The extra heat penetrates more deeply into tissue and muscle layers. The warmth can relax cold, tense muscles, essentially helping the massage to become more effective.”
The newest RMT at the clinic is Roswitha.
“She has been wonderful in specialising in infant massage to help with gas and issues with sleeping, feeding, etc.,” Lorraine praises. “Roswitha has taken on such a caring and nurturing role with everyone here. She has also just completed her Reiki certification.”
A popular service provided at Love Within is Induction Massage. Roswitha and Madison will soon be offering an add-on service to induction massage that will include extra birth work prep, breathing and mediation.
Love Within is proud to present a new service – couples massage… with a twist!
“I have brought in three new waterbeds and made a couples massage room so couples can enjoy our waterbeds together. We get a lot of friends who are pregnant together booking in, along with spouses and also moms and daughters.”
She speaks to the value of self care, saying, “As women, we are pulled in so many different directions. We need to push ourselves back and allow time to breathe, self regulate and let go of some of that control, even if it is just for an hour. Let someone take care of you! It is great that people are talking about self care more and not seeing it as being selfish. Giving yourself permission to do something that makes you feel good is the first step. Self care is a constant reminder that you love yourself. You need to take care of yourself.”
The clinic runs a monthly Love Within Our Community campaign.
“This started when I saw a Facebook post from a single mom in need of groceries to feed her small child until she got her next paycheck,” explains Lorraine.”
After helping and seeing more posts of that nature, she realized that many people in St. Albert needed help and were very desperate.
“Each month we give someone a $150 gift card to their preferred grocery store to help them out. You can nominate someone through our website.”
In 2021 Lorraine won the Young Entrepreneur Award at the Business Excellence Awards of Distinction. She celebrated the win with her team, as a recognition of meeting their shared goal – creating a safe, beautiful and welcoming space for women to reduce stress and focus on self care.
She concludes, “My team has helped Love Within grow into what it is today. The reliability, care and dedication they show is appreciated and respected more than they will ever know. They are the backbone of the company.”
