Staff Spotlight | NHI Redding’s Sarah Stroup on how Massage Therapy Transformed Her Life
NHI Redding grad and instructor Sarah Stroup at her first large onsite massage event at McCloud Mushroom Festival
Content Summary
NHI Redding Core Program graduate and instructor Sarah Stroup shares her transformative journey from a struggling single mom working fast food to a successful practice owner, homeowner, and beloved educator. Discover how NHI’s values, supportive mentorship, and holistic approach helped Sarah build a stable, fulfilling career—and how her creative passion for kinesiology brought her full circle back to the classroom to inspire the next generation of massage therapists.
- A Life-Changing Leap: From working fast food and balancing night classes as a single mom to owning her home and building a thriving private practice, Sacred Shift Therapeutics.
- Creative Mentorship in Action: How Sarah’s original student project—using plastic wrap and Sharpies on a classroom skeleton named “Skinny” to teach abdominal kinesiology—foreshadowed her return to NHI Redding as an instructor.
- Beyond Technique: Why NHI’s core values and focus on self-awareness, heart, and spirit helped Sarah grow as both a practitioner and a guide for her students.
When Sarah Stroup enrolled at National Holistic Institute (NHI) Redding, she was a broke single mom barely affording rent. Working a daytime fast-food job while attending night classes—and leaning heavily on a support network for childcare—she took a leap of faith to build a better life for herself and her child.
Today, seven and a half years later, Sarah is a thriving massage therapist, the owner of Sacred Shift Therapeutics, a homeowner, and an instructor at the very campus where her journey began.
Here is Sarah’s story of transformation, creative kinesiology teaching, and finding work you love.
Taking the Leap From Fast Food to NHI
Sarah’s path to massage therapy started almost by accident. To work off a personal debt, she began giving informal shoulder massages and discovered something unexpected: she really enjoyed the work.
“It hit me—like a frisbee to the face—that people DO this work for a living, and that I COULD DO this work for a living,” Sarah recalls. “I was enrolled for the next start at NHI 3 days later.”
While NHI was the closest school to her, it was the institutional values that sealed her decision during the admissions interview.
“It was the Core Values and Beliefs that stood out to me,” she says. “Ten statements that touched my heart and my spirit, and I knew I was where I was meant to be.”
The year that followed was intense. Balancing fast food shifts during the day with night classes at NHI Redding required trust, grit, and community support. But that year served as the catalyst for a total life transformation.
A Creative Spark by Wrapping “Skinny” in Plastic Wrap
Sarah’s passion for teaching didn’t start when she joined the NHI faculty—it began while she was still a student in the classroom.
During her kinesiology series, Sarah noticed her classmates struggling to visualize the actions, origins, and insertions of the abdominal muscles. Driven to make the material accessible and three-dimensional, she came up with an ingenious hands-on solution.
She wrapped Skinny—the classroom skeleton model—in plastic wrap around his midsection, used colored Sharpies to draw the muscle fibers, landmarks, origins, and insertions, and recorded an instructional video explaining the anatomy while moving the skeleton. Watch the video.
That creative approach to learning foreshadowed her future calling. Years later, when the NHI Redding Campus Manager reached out to fill a teaching vacancy, Sarah came highly recommended by her former instructor and mentor. She took the leap into teaching and came full circle.
Building Work You Love
For Sarah, massage therapy education at NHI went far beyond learning hands-on techniques:
Sararh Stroup grounding and centering before introducing touch on chair massage client
NHI changed the trajectory of my life. NHI gave me the skills and understanding that I needed to have work I love, and supported my heart in and soul in the process. The curriculum teaches more than how to move your hands and body. It taught me how to center my heart and spirit, so that I could move my energy from the right place, which matters a thousand times more than perfect technique. This educational experience asked me to look at myself and where I was inhibiting my own growth and supported me with open arms while I grew through those challenges. This program taught me more about myself than I ever expected, but it is that self-awareness that ultimately allowed me to become the kind of practitioner I wanted to be.
I love seeing the light in a student’s eyes when they get excited about finding a muscle, making a connection or understanding material, or get really curious about a topic they’re passionate about. I love seeing the arc of a student’s journey as they embrace everything that chapter of their lives has to offer. I love finding areas where I don’t have all the answers, where we can be curious together, and learn something new and keep expanding our understanding. I love to be a guide and a support, a listening ear or a brainstorming mind. I love the opportunity to make people feel seen, heard, and valued. I love that I am still learning. I mess up sometimes- but I work in a place that highly values reflection, self-assessment, and growth.
Today, Sarah balances her role as an NHI instructor with her private practice, Sacred Shift Therapeutics, in Shasta County.
Sarah’s Advice for Future Students
To anyone considering massage therapy or contemplating a major life change, Sarah’s message is clear:
“If you’re ready to open your heart and mind, take the leap. If you want something different for your life, take the leap. If you’re looking to build something better for your children, take the leap. This program is worth every penny, and I’d do it all over again if I could. (But as a teacher, I kinda do, every day!)”
Connect with Sarah by visiting the Sacred Shift Therapeutics website or following her on Instagram.
Meet more of our team by viewing other Staff Spotlights.
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