A New Wellness Cooperative Sets Up In Former Bradshaw Building

The Body Kinect establishment in the former Bradshaw Building, founded by Tami Richards, will accommodate massage therapists, yoga teachers, a physical therapist, and a specialist in facial beauty treatment, all of which under one roof. To add, Richards said that there would be a Tai Chi teacher who will offer workshops, and artists could use space in the office to present their work at the start of next year.

Richards said on Friday that she and her wellness cooperative team are eager to reach out to the community. Richards, now aged 50, is a New York's Long Island native. She added that she had envisioned working in the center of action in New York, specifically in fashion designing, yet switched to pursue a career in physical therapy.

Richards addressed that she started working with Special Olympics and enjoyed it. At the conclusion of the 1980s, her training at a community college as a physical therapy assistant has been completed, thus entered the working world. She also added that she wanted to go back to school to receive training to become a professional physical therapist. However, that did pan out.

Richards specialized her training in physical therapy for counterstain for neural, arterial, visceral and venous, spine and extremity. As she posted on her on the website, Tami R Massage, her specialty also includes lymphatic massage, and infant and pregnancy massage.

 Richards also said in an interview with Daily Advance that she ended up in the Los Angeles area, where she would receive training both as a massage therapist and in yoga. Richards' interest in yoga began as a treatment for her clasped hands. She noted that she did the training for wellness, and eventually practiced it as a passion.

With that being said, Richards is an NC licensed massage therapist. As exposed on her website, Tami R Massage, she is also a certified lymphedema therapist and certified yoga instructor.

On the other hand, the state of Southern California would serve as a base for Richards to work approximately for over a decade being a traveling physical therapy assistant. She testified that she would have 13-week contracts that would lead her to travel from the Desert Southwest to the Midwest, across the nation.

 She recalled that she would prepare her car, where her dog would be in the front seat and herself in the driver's seat. In the mid-2000s, her travels would lead her to the Harbor of Hospitality, in which the then-Albermarle Hospital was short-staffed. Richards would then joined the hospital's team as a physical therapy assistant, working there for several years.

Richards met her future husband, Mark Richards, who manages the intensive care unit at Sentara Albermarle Medical Center after moving into the Elizabeth City area. At present, the couple has three children.

While still with the then-Albermarle Hospital, Tami Richards started to work independently as a massage therapist, at the office of Dr. Steven Manuli, a local internal medicine specialist. After the relocation to a building on the southwest side of the city by Dr. Manuli and his team, Richards decided to open her own massage therapy business located in downtown of Water Street Commons.

Richards said in the follow-up interview that most of the people in the newly established cooperative are those whom she previously worked with. She also added that she likes to network with other people and learn from them, and feels that there's such a need in the community helping out and educating one another.

At the former Bradshaw Building, Richards and the cooperative are recently occupying a first floor that had been vacant since the previous occupant, Serenity Studio Arts, closed for months. However, a local studio, The Photography Co., remains on the second floor of the building.

On Friday evening, she stated that she is pleased with the location, which is across the intersection of Poindexter and Main streets from Arts of the Albermarle. She expressed, in an interview with the Daily Advance, that she likes the exposed brick, with the location excellent as it is far as traffic. Adding to her previous statement, the building was big enough to meet her team's needs, describing it as a high building for her business.