Specialized Bodywork & Movement Therapist · Pacific Grove, CA
Selina Sahba
ABOUT SELINA
NASM-CPT
Personal Trainer
CHEK
Practitioner
CAMTC
Licensed
CMT
Massage Therapist
For over 24 years, Selina has worked at the intersection of therapeutic bodywork, movement science, and clinical intuition, helping clients restore connection with their bodies and move through life with greater ease, stability, strength, and longevity.
24+
Years in Practice
1,500+
Hours of Training
10,000+
Sessions Performed
3
Local Schools Certified
A Practice Built on
Breadth of Understanding.
━━ THE STORY
Selina Sahba did not come to the wellness field through a single path. Before her 23 years of hands-on clinical work, she studied electrical engineering, worked in technology and software fields, and spent over 30 years as a classical pianist. Each of these backgrounds left a permanent mark on how she works today.
Her engineering background gave her an analytical, systems-level approach to the human body, she naturally looks for root causes, compensation patterns, and structural logic rather than treating symptoms in isolation. Her decade of technology work sharpened her ability to observe, diagnose, and problem-solve methodically.
Her 30 years at the piano gave her something rarer: an extraordinarily refined tactile sensitivity and an intuitive understanding of rhythm, coordination, and physical expression. Classical piano at a serious level demands precise muscle recruitment, highly differentiated touch, and deep body awareness, capacities that translate directly to hands-on therapeutic work in ways that are difficult to teach and impossible to fake.
She is also a longtime photographer, a discipline that has trained her eye for detail, light, and the subtle expressions of form, a quality that shows up in how she reads posture, asymmetry, and movement quality in clients.
Together, these backgrounds produce a practitioner who is simultaneously analytical and intuitive, clinical and deeply attuned, a combination that clients often describe as feeling like she already knows what's wrong before they've finished explaining it.
"Clients often describe her work as feeling like she already knows what's wrong before they've finished explaining it."
— From client feedback, compiled over 23 years
Classical Pianist
30+ years—refined tactile sensitivity and physical intuition
Engineer & Technologist
Systems-level thinking and analytical diagnosis
Photographer
Trained eye for posture, asymmetry, and form
Lifelong Student of the Body
23+ years of continuous study and refinement
━━ DISCIPLINE ONE
Therapeutic Bodywork
Selina completed her massage training at all three Monterey Peninsula massage schools, the only therapist in the region to hold this distinction. Her 1,500+ hours of formal training are the foundation of a practice that goes far beyond relaxation into genuine clinical therapeutic work.
01
Fascia-Focused Work
Selina works with the connective tissue system as a whole, tracing tension through fascial lines rather than treating muscles in isolation. This reveals the systemic causes of pain and restriction that surface-level work misses.
02
Structural Integration
Drawing on Rolfing principles, she works to restore structural alignment and improve how the body organizes itself in gravity. Sessions address postural patterns that accumulate over years and contribute to chronic pain.
03
Neuromuscular Awareness
Beyond releasing tension, Selina's work helps clients develop better proprioceptive awareness so the nervous system learns new movement patterns rather than reverting to the ones that created the problem.
04
Sports & Recovery Massage
Targeted therapeutic work for athletes and active clients—pre-event preparation, post-event recovery, and ongoing maintenance that keeps the body performing without accumulating structural damage.
05
Esalen & Meditative Work
Drawing on Rolfing principles, she works to restore structural alignment and improve how the body organizes itself in gravity. Sessions address postural patterns that accumulate over years and contribute to chronic pain.
06
Deep Tissue & Postural Balance
Beyond releasing tension, Selina's work helps clients develop better proprioceptive awareness so the nervous system learns new movement patterns rather than reverting to the ones that created the problem.
Specialized Movement Training
━━ DISCIPLINE TWO
Selina spent more than 20 years as a personal trainer and movement specialist before returning to a small, highly selective fitness practice. Her work has never been about general fitness, it has always been about how the body actually moves, and what happens when it doesn't.
Stability Before Strength
Every program begins by establishing joint stability and proper muscle recruitment before adding load. This is not a slow path, it is the only path that produces results that last and don't create new problems in the process.
Corrective Exercise & Postural Mechanics
Trained extensively through the CHEK Institute, Selina evaluates posture, gait, compensation patterns, and movement quality before programming begins. The goal is to retrain movement, not just strengthen dysfunction.
Biomechanics-Informed Programming
Her CHEK background gives her a deep understanding of how the body integrates, how the foot affects the hip, how the hip affects the spine, and why treating movement as isolated parts produces isolated results.
Injury Prevention as Strategy
Sessions are designed with a clear view of what could go wrong, particularly for clients with histories of injury, surgery, or chronic pain. Progress is measured and intentional. Nothing is rushed. Nothing is arbitrary.
Where Bodywork
Meets Movement.
━ WHAT SETS THE WORK APART
The most distinctive thing about Selina's practice is not what she does in either discipline, it is what happens when she combines them. This integration is not common. Most practitioners work in one lane or the other. Selina works across both, and the results are qualitatively different.
She regularly uses hands-on bodywork techniques within fitness sessions to release fascial restrictions that are limiting movement quality, things that no amount of exercise instruction alone would address. A hip that won't fire properly in training may need fascial release before the neurological connection can be restord. A shoulder that compensates in a pressing movement may have a restriction that is better addressed through therapeutic touch than through verbal cueing.
This integrated approach allows clients to achieve breakthroughs in movement, posture, strength, and pain reduction that are often difficult or impossible to accomplish through exercise or massage in isolation.
Therapeutic Bodywork
Fascia release, structural integration, neuromuscular work, and deep tissue techniques that restore tissue quality, mobility, and proper muscle activation patterns.
Integrated in a single practice
Specialized Movement Training
Stability-based, corrective, biomechanics-informed programming that builds strength, balance, and physical resilience, safely and intelligently, without aggravating what's already there.
The result
Breakthroughs in movement, posture, strength, and pain reduction that neither approach alone reliably produces.
Beyond the Table
— THE PERSON BEHIND THE PRACTICE —
Selina's work is inseparable from who she is. The backgrounds she brings to the practice are not credentials on a wall, they are the actual substance of what she does.
I
Thirty Years at the Piano
Classical piano at a serious level demands extraordinarily precise muscle recruitment, highly differentiated touch, an exquisite sense of timing, and an intimate understanding of how physical movement translates into expression. These capacities do not stay at the keyboard. They show up in how Selina listens with her hands, calibrates pressure in real time, and reads the body's response in ways that are difficult to describe and immediately felt by clients.
II
Engineering & Technology
A background in electrical engineering and software work wired Selina to think in systems. When she encounters a pain pattern or movement dysfunction, she does not treat the symptom, she traces the logic backward to find where the system broke down. This analytical approach coexists with deep intuition rather than opposing it, producing a diagnostic capability that clients consistently describe as uncanny.
III
Photography & Visual Acuity
Selina is a longtime photographer, a discipline that trains sustained visual attention and the ability to read light, form, and subtle asymmetry. In a clinical context, this translates directly: she notices postural asymmetries, compensatory patterns, and movement deviations that less observant practitioners miss. Before her hands confirm what's happening, her eye has often already identified it.
Formal Education & Certifications
— CREDENTIALS AND TRAININGS —
Massage Therapy
Certified Massage Therapist (CMT)
California Massage Therapy Council (CAMTC)Monterey Institute of Touch
Advanced Massage CertificationMonterey Peninsula College
Massage Therapy CertificationEsalen Institute
Esalen Massage Certification, Big Sur, CAABMP Member
Associated Bodywork & Massage Professionals
Movement & Fitness
NASM Certified Personal Trainer (CPT)
National Academy of Sports MedicineCHEK Practitioner
C.H.E.K Institute—Corrective Exercise & BiomechanicsACE Certified Personal Trainer
American Council on Exercise20+ Years Specialized Training Experience
Mature adults, injury recovery, corrective movement
Advanced Specializations
Sports Massage Specialization
Pre/post-event and ongoing athletic maintenanceMyofascial Release & Structural Integration
Rolfing-based methods and fascial system workNeuromuscular Technique
Trigger point and nerve compression protocolsOngoing Continuing Education
Anatomy, fascia research, holistic bodywork
10,000+
Sessions Performed
1,500+
Hours Formal Training
Only Therapist Certified
at All 3 Local Schools
— THE PHILOSOPHY —
"My goal is not to give you a good massage or a solid workout. My goal is to help you move through life with greater ease, strength, and confidence, for as long as possible."
Selina's practice is centered on longevity, intelligent movement, nervous system regulation, and helping clients maintain strength, independence, and vitality as they age. The work is not about intensity or performance, it is about building a body that works well for the long term, and understanding deeply enough to get there safely.
— WHO THE WORK IS FOR
The Clients Who Get
the Most from This Work
Selina's practice is deliberately selective. She works with a small number of clients across both disciplines, not because of availability, but because depth of attention is not scalable.
The people who benefit most share a few things in common.
Adults over 40 investing in longevity
People who understand that their body is a long-term project and want to work with someone who takes that seriously.
Clients with complex histories
Injuries, surgeries, chronic pain, and biomechanical concerns that have made conventional approaches feel unsafe or ineffective.
Anyone who has felt like a number elsewhere
Clients who have been through enough practitioners to know the difference between going through the motions and genuine individual attention.
Clients who value expertise over convenience
People who would rather work with one exceptional practitioner who knows their body deeply than cycle through generalists.
Beginners who want to start right
People new to structured movement who want to build proper mechanics from the first session, not habits that need to be corrected later.
— WORK WITH SELINA
Ready to experience
the difference?
Selina's practice is intentionally small. Both bodywork and fitness training appointments are limited, if you're ready to invest in your body with someone who will invest equally in understanding it, this is the place to start.
BOOK BODYWORK ➞
Therapeutic Massage • Female clients only.
BOOK SPECIALIZED FITNESS TRAINING ➞
Specialized movement training • Men & women • $200/session
READ CLIENT REVIEWS ➞
5.0 across Google, Fresha, Yelp & TripAdvisor