About Mikka Barkman

Mikka’s brand of bodywork has evolved over 20 years of practice and study.  Formal training in bodywork  began at Ohashi Institute , NYC in 1989 where she studied shiatsu. She is currently licensed by the state of Massachusetts and has a full time private practice in Great Barrington, MA.

“I found myself constantly distracted during practice sessions in class from he very beginning.  I would set out to be a good little student and do what was assigned, only to notice that the person’s body was telling me something  more.  Later,  in private practice a client   would say something like: “that feels like Thai   bodywork, is that what you’re doing?”  I didn’t know what  to call what I was doing most of the time in the early years.  For me, I was just doing what came naturally, I didn’t try to analyze it, clients liked it and it worked. Colleagues asked me often to put a course together but I couldn’t teach what I was doing because I couldn’t define it.  Then marriage and babies came along and my priorities changed.

A few years later I began to study other forms of bodywork to try to define what I was doing.  Some I studied formally and others I did not.  I found answers in NeuroLinguistic Programming (NLP), osteopathy (Barral Institute: Viseral Manipulation),  Positional Release and Muscle Energy Technique (Lee Albert/Kripalu), Tragger(R), Rolfing, Foot Shiatsu (Yamamoto), shiatsu in a variety of styles (Namikoshi) , acupressure, reflexology, craniosacral, Thai Yoga Massage (Jonas Westring, VT), Barbara Brennan Energy Psychotherapy, Neurofeedback (American Biotech Corporation), Insight Psychotherapy, yoga and meditation (17yrs), past life regression, hypnotherapy, crystal and chakra energy balancing, and massage therapy (Kripalu School of Bodywork).  I even traveled to England to take a post graduate shiatsu course.  I wanted to mingle with others who practiced shiatsu to see if they were doing anything like what I was doing. I really enjoyed the course, the instructors and students but it did not satisfy my longing.

It wasn’t until Moshom (my Grandfather) finally got my undivided attention in a vision. He said, “It’s time to be who you truly are”.  There was much more in the vision, however, from that moment on, I knew what I was supposed to do.

“When the student is ready, the teacher appears!”

Mikka was born in London, Ontario, Canada.  Her father, now deceased, was a medical doctor (GP) who later specialized in hospital administration.  Her mother,  retired, was a nurse practitioner, who in the last 18 yrs of her career, worked among the Cree people of northern Ontario.

Mikka’s Grandfather, Moshom, was the Anglican Minister at Sachigo Lake. Her Grandmother, Kokum, had healing abilities of her own, but Mikka knows little about her.

Following the natural cycles of change, Mikka moved to the United States in 1987, where she currently resides with her 2 teenage children.