Skyhawk Celebrates 35 Years Helping Others

By TRACY O'CONNELL
Beacon Correspondent

Soft music and gentle scents greet a visitor to the Loving Hands Institute of Healing Arts in Fortuna, at 739 12th St. The director. Dr. Rosalind Skyhawk Ojala, and two assistants attend to phone and walk-in visitors, and prepare a gift certificate as a prize for a school raffle.

"We always help the schools," Ojala says, hurriedly building a sandwich she hopes to eat before her afternoon of teaching begins.

Loving Hands and its director fulfill a number of roles in the community. 

The institute is a private, nonprofit, state-licensed vocational school that teaches massage therapy. It is also approved by the state board of registered nursing to offer continuing education classes for health professionals. Classes include lymphatic compression massage, used to strengthen the body's immune system, trigger point therapy, including deep tissue sculpting, and a 150-hour holistic massage therapy certification program.

"We combine alternative and allopathic (traditional Western) medicine. They go together and help each other," Ojala says.

Dr. Bonnie Travis, an area chiropractor, also teaches classes at the Institute.

The institute also provides massage to clients. "Our focus is on medical issues; we're not a day spa," Ojala says.

A corridor leading back from the reception area to a large room is bordered by small rooms, each with a massage table.

"The most common remark I get from people who have had a massage is, 'I should have done this years ago.' The second most common remark is, 'I thought massage was some fluffy, feel-good thing, but this really is making a difference'," Ojala says.

Massage has been shown to help people relieve stress, improve circulation, decrease chronic pain, strengthen their immune system, and improve nerve function, skin tone and quality of sleep, Ojala says. "People of all ages are stressed today. Many don't even know it. They're so used to carrying their bodies in a certain way, they don't know how else to feel."

She did massage in Marin County before moving to Fortuna 17 years ago, when she began working in the offices of area chiropractors.

Now she receives referrals from a number of doctors familiar with her track record in helping patients reduce pain and increase mobility. In addition, she refers her clients to doctors when she finds concerns that
need attention beyond massage.

"We've had a number of successes going both ways," she says. "There's nothing like helping people feel better."

Ojala believes in making her services accessible to others. In addition to accepting insurance and having low fees, she provides discounts to seniors, students, and veterans. She's looking at offering a Saturday clinic for low-income clients.

Ojala was born in Montana and has lived in California since 1957. Her ancestry includes Native American, French, Scottish and Irish forebears, many of whom were healers.

"I'm named for my grandmother, Ramona May Skyhawk from the Ojibwa Nation, a healer for 60 years. I carry her name proudly," she says. Her father was a doctor, an aunt was a nurse in the U.S. Army in World War II. Others from that generation include dentists and an orthodontist.

Ojala's life is deeply rooted in the traditions of Native Americans and other early peoples. She holds a doctor of divinity degree, and is an interdenominational minister, a phrase she equates with "medicine woman." She is the principal chief of the Thunderbird Clan of Redwood River Lodge, a gathering of Native Americans of full or mixed descent from any tribal background.

Redwood River Lodge is the name of the four-acre property on the Van Duzen River in Carlotta that Ojala shares with her husband, a Vietnam veteran of Finnish descent, and family. "The redwoods are our cathedral; you can't replace them," she says. "They're awesome."

She wryly notes that the name for the land, chosen by an elder of the clan years before the similarly named conference center in Fortuna was built, causes some confusion.

She holds monthly drumming circles at the institute and monthly sweat lodges at her home. "The drum is the heartbeat of the universe, it is a way of tuning in to our own heart beat and rhythm."

Sweat lodges were the oldest structures on this continent and in Europe, she says, mentioning the similarity between peoples and traditions. "For instance, early Finnish people were nomads, they lived in tepees following the reindeer, and had saunas. We're all one."

In addition, she partners with others interested in alternative therapies and native spirituality to offer workshops and gatherings such as the upcoming, four-day 19th annual Visions of the Goddess Gathering.

"We welcome all people interested in native spirituality," she said of the events she hosts. "It is important to honor and respect all forms of worship and belief, to encourage unity and diversity. The way people are called is very individual, and there is such a melting pot here, we have such a rich cultural background. Whatever brings a person closer to the Creator is sacred and personal to them."