ABOUT steve

I was lucky to be born in Montreal, Canada, a safe, multicultural and bilingual environment, a dynamic large city open to the world and to difference. There I lived a life constantly absorbed in books, in cinema, culture and antique shops, and writing, constantly writing. Introverted, I poured my soul into listening to and editing music, and studying cinema intently. I was attracted to the occult, to magic, spirituality, graveyards. I loved herbal teas. I studied psychology, health, photography. Art for me was the Pre-Raphaelites. Cinema was the Nouvelle Vague, Dirk Bogarde and the Factory films of Andy Warhol.

I graduated from McGill with Bachelor degrees in Psychology, then in Social Work. I worked in that field as a counsellor with schizophrenics and clinically manic depressive people, ex-cons too, before becoming a full time film critic for over seven years for various newspapers. I learned to intimately interview a wide range of different people. I lived out my dream of plunging deeper into my beloved world of cinema and writing, meeting many of my favourite actors and directors.

I quit that to surrender to my fate by exploring and eventually moving to the land of my ancestors, Estonia. Tens of thousands of kilometers throughout Russia and Eastern Europe, allowing myself to be changed by this too. In order to join my two greatest passions then, writing and travelling, I wrote travel guides for The Lonely Planet for over seven years and journeyed extensively, interviewed extensively, Living with a capital L.

When that exciting chapter felt as if it were closing, I delved into what had become my greatest passions: tea and massage. I started a tea importing company in Estonia in 2004, FirstFlush, and opened the specialist teashop Chado in 2010. I started studying Cha Dao from 2011 with Wu De at the Global Tea Hut in Taiwan and have been actively involved with them ever since, travelling extensively in Asia for tea as well.

Meanwhile, since 1998 I have been continually studying massage and bodywork: Yumeiho, visceral/abdominal massage, myofascial energetic release, lomi lomi, tantric male massage, Thai, shamanic massage, reiki I as well as trauma release modalities.

What a blessed life!

How can I combine in a concrete way my two greatest loves - tea and massage? I wondered for years, eventually realising that they are for me basically the same. Both offer opportunities to create healing, safe spaces in which people are accepted, recognised just as they are. Allowed to be themselves. These are spaces in which people experience themselves differently, and thus transformed. Portals to the divine!

All of our personal histories are to some degree just blah blah blah. Unimportant details in the large scheme. These ‘little me’ details are only important to the degree they helped shape a unique approach to the world around me: my lifelong fascination with human behaviour and the human experience; several thousand intimate encounters with a wide variety of people on my journeys, a sometimes difficult balancing act between introversion and extroversion; many thousands of hours spent interviewing and listening to others; and a lifelong interest in the mysterious aspects of our human life which cannot be touched (but which ironically can be accessed through touch!).

This gorgeous chance at Life is in full flow…

BODYWORK BACKGROUND & philosophy

Through the body beyond the body. Through my touch, I encourage an inner journey for the client to understand themselves differently.

I try to be a clear a vehicle for you and bring as much presence as I can to the session. I find I am most meditative during a bodywork session.

Through touch, I wish to listen and respond to you. I bring this consciousness into any style of massage, as well as a respect for your physical temple. I honour the permission to touch it.

I offer a safe space in which the body may respond as it needs to.

Since 1998 I have almost constantly been studying/practicing various forms of massage and bodywork, in an organised form or on my own. I have certificates in: Myofascial Energetic Release, Lomi-Lomi, Yumeiho, tantric male massage, Thanatotherapy, Visceral (abdominal) massage, Thai level I, Reiki I, chair massage and others.

In my spare time I study bodywork; some of the most influential works in the field for me have been The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk, What Really Matters but Tony Schwartz, Body Intelligence by Ged Sumner, Shaman, Healer, Sage by Alberto Villoldo, as well as the writings of Margot Anand and movement culture gurus like Katy Bowman and Ido Portal. Above this I am grateful for the wisdom of and pleasure of working and studying with Nisarga, Betty Martin, Roman Goldrin, Mantak Chia, Armin Heining and Loren Johnson. I have also been irrevocably influenced in my understanding of the human body by shamanic medicinal ceremonies. Mainly I am thankful to the hundreds of people who have let me approach and explore their bodies, which has given me the most invaluable education of all.

Counselling about men’s matters

Men’s stories often go unheard. Men’s fears, anxieties, worries and insecurities are not warmly welcomed by society at large. And yet they are plentiful: vulnerability about their bodies, performance, virility, emotional lives, health habits, relationships and struggles to be ‘real men’.

Many men have grown up without reliable male role models and in a world which offers contradictory messages of how to be a man, have tried to figure things out on their own.

I have made men’s issues, especially regarding sexuality, a main focus of study for several decades from various perspectives as varied as conventional medical to Taoist and neo-tantra. I do not pretend to be a certified medical doctor yet have degrees in psychology and counselling and can provide the studied advice of a wise, experienced and empathic older brother.

I occasionally give workshops/seminars on male sexuality and a conscious touch, holistic approach to the male body. Please be in contact with me if you feel that a bodywork or consulation session might be of value to you, and I will send you more information.