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MATRIX 2025 Lab WORKSHOPS Dissection Study Group

Anatomy Explorations for Bodyworkers

Dear Anatomy Lover, 

We’re so excited to collaborate together on AnatomySCAPES and share this work with you. We want more bodyworkers to have access to the anatomy lab and the latest research on fascia. 

For us, studying anatomy in general, and fascial anatomy in particular, has taken our understanding of the human body so much deeper. And more important to us as bodyworkers, our touch skills have been taken to the next level. And our clients have noticed. 

The anatomy lab has been the domain of a select few for centuries. That is shifting. And we get to be part of the generation that is changing who gets to do anatomy. 

We are committed to creating online and in lab educational opportunities that make this work more available.

We hope you'll join us!  

Love,  

Rachelle & Nicole

Rachelle L. Clauson, BS, CMT, NCBTMB

Rachelle is the owner of Flourish Bodywork and is a Nationally Certified Massage Therapist with a private practice in San Diego for the past 18 years. Since January 2018, she has been working as a volunteer dissector and photographer with the Fascial Net Plastination Project (FNPP) in Guben, Germany, working with Body Worlds and Fascia Research Society to create the world's first fascial-focused plastinate. Rachelle devotes much of her time to better understanding the fascial system. She loves to help others understand how this previously under-studied network of the human body affects how we move, get injured and recover. Since childhood she has had an unwavering curiosity to understand the human experience of a spiritual, mental, and emotional journey living through a physical body.

She co-authors Massage & Bodywork magazine’s Anatomy for Touch column, where AnatomySCAPES features imagery from their dissections in the lab. Her publications include Chapter 3 in Fascia, Function, and Medical Applications (2021) as well as the feature article in Massage & Bodywork Magazine (Sept/Oct 2018). Rachelle is a founding member of the Fascia Research Society and will co-present a workshop about the work of the FNPP at the 6th International Fascia Research Congress in Montreal September 2022.

Rachelle earned her B.S. in Psychology from Ambassador University in Big Sandy, TX where she worked as a staff photographer, and then taught English as a second language in Bangkok, Thailand as a fifth year. Her certifications include her degree in Massage Therapy-Asian Studies from Mueller College in San Deigo, CA; CranioSacral Therapy from the Upledger Institute; and Pre & Perinatal Massage from Carole Osborne. Her teaching certifications include Yamuna Body Rolling from Yamuna Zake, MELT Hand & Foot from Sue Hitzmann, AcuBall from Dr. Michael Cohen, and Fascial Fitness from Dr. Robert Schleip. Rachelle is beyond grateful to her mentors and teachers who have opened up worlds of knowledge to her curious mind, including (but by no means limited to) Bill Mueller, Robert Scheip, Carla Stecco, Gil Hedley, Divo Mueller, Sue Hitzman, Antonio Stecco, Andry Vleeming, Jean-Claude Guimberteau, Helene Langevin, David Lesondak, Eric Franklin, her incredible collaborator and the FNPP lead designer and dissector, Gary Carter, and all her amazing colleagues from the FNPP.

Nicole M. Trombley, MA, CMT

Nicole Trombley is a massage therapist, writer, and educator. She brings her background in Biology and Biochemistry to AnatomySCAPES. She is passionate about making science and scientific research accessible in fun and meaningful ways to other bodyworkers. She’s always fascinated with what happens under our hands in a massage at both the cellular (micro) and tissue (macro) levels—it’s where so much of the massage magic happens! When she’s not at the massage table, you’ll likely find her deep in some rabbit hole in research databases or occasionally in the stacks at her local university library.

She co-authors Massage & Bodywork magazine’s Anatomy for Touch column, where AnatomySCAPES features imagery from their dissections in the lab. Her recent article, Fat 101: Must-Know Anatomy for Massage Therapists, appears in Massage & Bodywork magazine. (You can read it here). 

Nicole has been a bodyworker since 2001 and is the owner of Equilibrio Massage in San Diego, where she trains and mentors other bodyworkers in massage for pregnancy, birth, and postpartum. She became Nationally Certified in Therapeutic Massage & Bodywork (NCTMB) in 2004 and is a California Certified MT. Her work in the lab is rooted back to an undergrad histology class when she discovered the female anatomy was missing from all of the lab textbooks and atlases; a lifelong research project was born! She is passionate about situating anatomical representations and the study of anatomy in cultural context, including histories of race, class, gender, sexuality, and nationalisms. In grad school, she worked on one of the first Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) projects geared toward finding ways to get more women and girls involved in the sciences. Prior to her career in bodywork, Nicole worked in the social justice nonprofit sector as the co-Director of the National Network of Grantmakers and served as Vice President of the board of the San Diego Foundation for Change.