Welcome to ESSENCE K

ESSENCE K offers advanced manual therapy for body balance and well-being.

We believe that conventional healing massage is insufficient in improving your postural alignment or releasing chronic patterns of tension.  Your body changes every day, every minute, just as your emotions do.  Adapting manual therapy techniques and choosing the most effective therapy for each client based on their daily condition and goals are the key to the best treatment.  We offer a private, safe, casual, and relaxing space that you can visit regularly to improve your body and health. 

Meet Your Practitioners

Kay Akahane

Licenced Massage Therapist (NYS)

Board Certified Structural Integrator (BCSI)

Certified Rolfing® Practitioner

Kay is a Licensed Massage Therapist, certified in Rolfing® Structural Integration and also the first Board Certified Structural Integrator (BCSI) in Tokyo.

Kay has been a healthcare provider in Tokyo since 2000.  She began her career as a relaxation therapist (Body and Facial Aromatherapy & Reflexology) then became a licensed Massage Therapist after graduating from the Swedish Institute in New York City in 2007 and also became a Rolfer™ after completing a specialized course of study at the Rolf Institute of Structural Integration in Boulder, Colorado in 2018.

She believes our minds and bodies demand ease and healing to re-align themselves in their natural state.  The best healing starts with listening to one's mental and physical self, and then allowing them unconditional space and freedom to re-harmonize.

Yasuka Ito

​(Advisor-Rehabilitation Science / Kinematics)

Certified Physical Therapist 

Certified Rolfing® Practitioner

Yasuka is a physical therapist certified by the Japan Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.  She is also a Rolfing practitioner certified by The Rolf Institute of Structural Integration in Boulder, Colorado.

Yasuka started her career in 2010 working at a hospital providing physical therapy rehabilitation for patients who had recently undergone knee or hip joint replacement, as well as those recovering from strokes, Parkinson’s disease, orthopedic disorders, and so on.

During her time at the hospital, she witnessed firsthand the important role that body structure plays in our physical movement, as well as our overall physical wellness.  

Yasuka became a certified Rolfer in 2017 and began her Rolfing practice while she continued to take care of her patients as a Physical Therapist. Now she focuses not only on improving bodily structure but also helps her clients to more fully enjoy their bodies and lead richer lives.

Rutsuko Hanamura

Certified ATSI (Anatomy Trains® Structural Integration) Practitioner

Certified IFA (International Federation of Aromatherapists) Therapist

Rutsuko’s journey of therapy has started when she was living in Paris in 2009. During that stay, she got interested in aromatherapy. She went to an aromatherapy school in Tokyo for a year to get a certification of IFA (International Federation of Aromatherapist) in the following year.

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To make progress in her treatment techniques and deepen her knowledge of anatomy, she continued to take massage, foot reflexology and oil treatment classes for body and facial treatment.

She also went to ATSI (Anatomy Trains(R) Structural Integration = developed by Tom Myers which is based on Rolfing(R)) course in the USA in 2016 and accomplished the course in Australia, has become the only certified practitioner of this technique in Japan.

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She had been in charge of marketing for international artists in the record company for 14 years so she is interested in many kinds of music. As she worked in the office for a long time, she understands well how the daily life postures and stress in the office influence on human’s body and mind. She believes it is very helpful to maintain our condition if we could have the right place to ease and heal our body, mind, and soul.

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*Japanese, English and basic French Conversation available