Devan Ridsdale

Registered Massage Therapist

Devan finds her treatments offer the most potential when they’re slowed and deeply intentional. Having taken Craniosacral and SomatoEmotional Release classes through the Upledger Institute, classes in trauma-informed relational somatic therapy, shamanic healing, and poly vagal theory, she has a relaxed and gentle style of treatment.

Devan is an educator and “walks alongside” her clients on their health care journeys. Learning from everyone she sees on her table, she takes great honour in her work and her clients. Working together with each client, she will find the best way to treat their tissues and get them back to climbing their mountains, literally and figuratively. Save

Devan specializes in head, neck and shoulder pain due to MVA, headaches, migraines or postural dysfunction, pediatric massage for infants and children, relaxation and stress reduction, pre and post natal – children welcome to tag along, craniosacral treatments blended with techniques from other modalities and somato-emotional release which is designed to help process and release emotional trauma in the tissues.

Fun Fact

When a land acknowledgment is spoken, Devan and her ancestors are recognized.

Devan has a rich Métis lineage but is still learning and reconnecting with the culture and language. She is a descendant of the very first Métis leader, Cuthbert Grant, and has ancestors that fought in the 1885 resistance against Canada, who attended St. Barnabas Indian Residential School in Onion Lake, and were good friends with Gabriel Dumont and Louis Riel.  Devan struggles with this birthright but is finding peace with her journey in it.

About Devan

After being pushed out of her rental in the housing crisis, she, alongside her husband and son, abruptly found themselves without a home. After being taken in by friends and family, Devan and her family found a little farmhouse south of Diamond Valley to call their own, landing her in a dream realized.

Devan spent most of her 20’s navigating the difficulties of being a single parent while building her career. This combination didn’t leave her with much time for herself.  While she learns to navigate having an independent son, she finds the hobbies she crafted in her 20’s are still the ones she still cherishes now. When she’s not with clients in clinic, she can be found engrossed in nonfiction books, on top of a mountain (or throwing herself down them on a snowboard), wandering deep in the forest, swimming in the bodies of wild waters, or dancing in her kitchen.

Education

Since graduating from Calgary’s Canadian College of Massage and Hydrotherapy campus in 2009, Devan has worked in a variety of different multidisciplinary clinics with many types of clients and practitioners. Having learned through co-workers, mentors, instructors, and clients, she has experienced many different healing arts and ways.

Devan is also a Craniosacral Therapist (CS1, CS2, and SER1) through the Upledger Institute.  After a year of shamanic training and another year of Relational Somatic Therapy through a trauma-informed, poly vagal lens, this has helped Devan learn to facilitate sacred and expanded spaces. She continues her education through unique avenues and has an undying passion to serve the world in ancestrally rooted ways.

Specialties / Special Focus

Devan’s treatment style has evolved with her education and she loves working on children of all ages, our elders, and the stressed. Specializing in relaxation massage, she keeps the pressure under the client’s pain threshold in these treatments to allow for their tissues to let go of their stress guarding. Her therapeutic treatments allow for a firmer pressure and include techniques that are more localized to problem areas.

Working with the clients’ tissues in a careful way, she doesn’t force or brutalize when looking for a release. She enjoys working with people who are interested in learning how to better care for their bodies, minds and souls and are dedicated to furthering their wellness.