Today we’d like to introduce you to Airin Mitchell.
Hi Airin, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Healing has been a thread running through my life for as long as I can remember.
Long before I became a massage therapist, I was fascinated by the way touch could comfort, connect, and help people feel better. Looking back, it’s easy to see how I eventually found my way to massage therapy.
What I didn’t know was how much my own experiences would shape my understanding of healing. The journey that eventually led me to massage therapy would be far different—and far more difficult—than I ever imagined.
I have never known a day without pain.
Some of my earliest memories are of waking up with severe pain in my legs that would slowly travel upward throughout the day until by evening it had reached my hips. When I was three years old, I woke up one morning unable to walk. My mom rushed me to the doctor, and I spent time in a wheelchair while they ran tests trying to figure out what was wrong. No one ever really found answers.
Pain simply became part of my normal.
As a child, my sister and I used to rub each other’s backs to help cope with discomfort, and somewhere along the way I naturally became the person always reaching out to massage someone’s shoulders or help relieve pain. Even as a young girl, people constantly told me, “You should become a massage therapist.”
At ten years old, I was injured in an accident that affected my jaw, spine, and equilibrium. I started falling backward unexpectedly, developed severe back and tailbone pain, and spent years barely able to sit comfortably. Despite all of this, I stayed incredibly active. I loved gymnastics, hiking, science, art, and fashion design. I learned to push through pain because I didn’t know any other way to live.
At fourteen years old, I started attending Rogue Community College early after passing the entrance exams. I originally dreamed of becoming a fashion designer and had even been accepted into the International Fine Arts College in Miami at the young age of 14. But while preparing for that future, my health suddenly began collapsing in ways I couldn’t understand.
I had just turned 17 and a month before I was suppose to leave for Miami I developed crushing fatigue that lasted 3 months and made it feel like I was sleeping my life away. There were periods where I could barely stay awake long enough to function. After 3 months I was able to start functioning again but from then on battled serious fatigue. Eventually, spanning a discovery process of 3 decades, doctors discovered multiple chronic health conditions including Hashimoto’s disease, PCOS, sleep apnea, a neurological pain disorder, ADHD, learning disabilities, Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome and Lyme Disease that likely explained much of what I had struggled with my entire life.
Around that same time, I kept thinking about all the moments throughout my life that had quietly pointed me toward massage therapy. I remembered helping a friend whose leg pain had become so severe she could barely walk. I instinctively worked on her leg for nearly an hour, and afterward she stood up pain free. I didn’t understand the science behind what I had done, but I never forgot that moment.
So instead of fashion school, I enrolled in massage therapy school.
Even there, my body fought me every step of the way. I was in constant pain during school and often had to modify my body mechanics just to get through class. Then shortly after graduating, I severely injured my SI joints. For years afterward, my SI joint would repeatedly slip out of place, leaving me bedridden in excruciating pain. The best way I can describe it is that it felt like a dull spoon was slowly cutting me in half.
At the same time, I was also caregiving for my grandmother through dementia and then after her death working as a caregiver for developmentally disabled adults. Caregiving became one of the central themes of my life long before massage therapy officially did.
I tried multiple times to pass the massage licensing exam and failed repeatedly despite doing very well in school and receiving amazing feedback for my massage work. Over time I genuinely began believing I was becoming stupid. I had started college at fourteen as an straight A honor student, but as my health worsened, my memory and ability to process information seemed to disappear.
Years later I finally underwent extensive testing and learned I had ADHD, Autism, working memory deficits, short-term memory impairments, and a visual processing disorder called Scotopic Sensitivity Syndrome. I discovered that when I was taking tests, the letters and answer choices were literally moving on the page. The testing was so taxing on me I would start to fall asleep mid question from the tester. She had never seen that happen before. For the first time in my life, I realized I wasn’t failing because I lacked intelligence or ability.
Still, by that point I had largely given up on my dreams.
My twenties and thirties became years of survival, caregiving, chronic fatigue, trying to hold life together while living in constant pain. At one point I became so ill that I could barely eat and was slowly dying without realizing how serious things had become. Ironically, it was my sister — while battling cancer herself — who pushed me to see doctors that ultimately saved my life.
Even during the years when I doubted whether I could ever practice professionally, massage therapy never fully left my life. I continued taking continuing education classes, studying bodywork, and working on friends and family whenever I was physically able. Healing work remained something I stayed deeply connected to for more than two decades, even during the years I was too sick or discouraged to believe I could build a career from it.
My sister became one of the greatest sources of encouragement I have ever known. She battled cervical cancer for twenty years, at the tail end of her battle, 8 months before we lost her, she pushed me to return to school and finish the college degree I had abandoned years earlier. I only had 2 math classes left, but because of my learning disabilities and memory issues those classes were excruciatingly difficult and beyond frustrating. There were so many nights I cried and wanted to quit, convinced I was not capable. But I had to make it through for my sister.
The day before my sister died, we found out I had passed my final probability and statistics class with an A+.
Before she passed, she made one final request of me: “Get your massage license. Even if you never practice, just get your license.”
I promised her I would.
In 2018, after years of fear, setbacks, pain, and self-doubt, I finally passed my massage licensing exam with accommodations in place for my disabilities. But even then, I still did not believe my body could actually handle massage therapy professionally. I started slowly, doing massage only on weekends while continuing caregiving work.
Then COVID happened, and I lost my caregiving position. Around that same time, I met the love of my life. He became one of the biggest reasons I finally took the leap to pursue massage therapy fully. When I doubted myself, he believed in me enough for both of us.
Spurred on by his endless encouragement and my Parents supportive pride. I started working part time at a massage clinic, terrified my body would fail me. That first year was brutal. I would come home crying from exhaustion and pain. Some weekends I would collapse into my partner’s arms convinced I could not keep doing this. During sessions I mostly sat on the rolling stool scooting around the massage table while working because the fatigue and pain were overwhelming. I wanted this career so badly, but there were many moments where I feared my body simply would not cooperate.
But something unexpected happened.
My clients loved my work — especially people living with chronic pain and autoimmune disorders. I realized that spending most of my life inside pain had given me a deep empathy for what others were experiencing physically and emotionally. People felt understood by me.
Slowly, my body began getting stronger.
What once felt impossible became sustainable. I gradually could stand longer during sessions. I could handle more clients. And eventually I found the courage to open my own practice, Purple Stone Massage.
Today I see around twenty clients a week, and I have built some of the most meaningful relationships of my life through this work. I still live with chronic pain and fatigue every single day. I still have hard days. But I am stronger than I ever imagined I could become.
Massage therapy ended up becoming the intersection of everything I have lived through: pain, caregiving, resilience, healing, and human connection.
My journey has taught me that healing does not always mean becoming pain free. Sometimes healing means building a meaningful life anyway — and helping other people feel less alone in the process.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It definitely has not been a smooth road. In many ways, my biggest challenge has been learning how to build a meaningful life while living in a body that often felt like it was working against me.
I have lived with chronic pain since childhood, and over the years I also developed severe fatigue and multiple chronic health conditions that affected nearly every part of my life. There were long periods where I could barely stay awake, struggled to function normally, or spent days in excruciating pain. At one point, repeated injuries to my SI joints left me bedridden regularly for years.
One of the hardest emotional struggles was watching my confidence slowly disappear. I started college at fourteen as an honor student, but as my health worsened, I began struggling with memory, processing, and learning challenges I didn’t understand at the time. I repeatedly failed my massage licensing exam despite doing very well in school and receiving incredible feedback for my massage work. I genuinely began believing I was becoming unintelligent or incapable.
Years later, I discovered I had ADHD, Autism, working memory deficits, and a visual processing disorder that caused letters and answer choices to shift on the page during testing. Finally understanding what was happening changed my life and allowed me to receive the accommodations I needed to succeed.
Another major challenge was simply believing my body could handle this profession. Even after earning my massage license, I was terrified to fully pursue massage therapy because I was still living with chronic pain and fatigue. During my first year working professionally, I would often come home crying from exhaustion and physical pain, convinced I would not be able to continue.
At the same time, I was also navigating grief after losing my sister to cervical cancer. She was one of my biggest supporters and one of the people who pushed me to believe I was capable of more than I thought possible.
I think one of the biggest lessons I’ve learned is that healing is rarely linear. There was never one magical moment where everything suddenly became easy. It has been years of adapting, rebuilding, grieving, learning my limits, and continuing anyway.
Ironically, some of the very things that challenged me most have also helped shape me into a better massage therapist. Living with chronic pain has given me a deep empathy for clients who feel unseen, discouraged, or exhausted by their own bodies. I understand what it feels like to feel trapped inside pain, and I think that allows me to connect with people in a very genuine way.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Purple Stone Massage is a therapeutic massage practice focused on helping people living with chronic pain reconnect with their bodies and improve their quality of life. I specialize in working with chronic neck and shoulder tension, migraines, TMJ dysfunction, fibromyalgia, low back pain, and persistent pain patterns that often leave people feeling exhausted, discouraged, or unheard.
A large part of my practice focuses on supporting women and their families through chronic pain and stress-related conditions, though I also work with male clients through referrals and professional partnerships. My approach is highly individualized because I understand firsthand that no two bodies — and no two pain experiences — are exactly the same.
What sets my work apart is that my understanding of pain is not only clinical, but deeply personal. I have spent most of my life navigating chronic pain and health challenges myself, and I think that experience has given me a unique level of empathy and intuition when working with clients who are struggling physically and emotionally. Many of my clients come to me after years of feeling dismissed, frustrated, or stuck, and one of the things I am most proud of is creating a space where people feel genuinely listened to and cared for.
My work blends therapeutic techniques with a nurturing, calming approach. Whether someone is dealing with migraines, a fibromyalgia flare, chronic muscle tension, injury recovery, or simply the stress of carrying too much for too long, my goal is always the same: to help them leave feeling more supported, more comfortable in their body, and a little less alone in what they are carrying.
One of the most rewarding parts of building Purple Stone Massage has been developing long-term relationships with clients and watching people gradually regain mobility, hope, confidence, and relief over time. I truly believe massage therapy can be an important part of healing — not just physically, but emotionally as well.
Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
Growing up, I was a mixture of creative, curious, intense, and extremely independent. I was the child constantly making things, asking questions, reading, drawing, designing clothes, climbing Grey Back Mountain-the mountain my childhood home was at the base of, hiking, or trying to understand how things worked. I loved both science and art equally, which sometimes made me feel a little unusual because I never fit neatly into one category.
I also grew up dealing with chronic pain from a very young age, so I think I became emotionally mature earlier than many kids my age. Pain and health struggles forced me to become resilient and adaptable, but they also made me very empathetic toward other people. Even as a child, I naturally gravitated toward caregiving and helping others feel better physically or emotionally.
I was very active growing up and loved gymnastics, tennis, racquet ball, body building, biking and being outdoors, despite the physical challenges I dealt with. At the same time, I was also deeply creative. Fashion design was one of my biggest passions as a teenager, and by fourteen I was designing clothing patterns from scratch and had dreams of attending fashion school in Miami.
Academically, I started college early at fourteen years old and loved learning, especially science, psychology, anatomy, and creative subjects. Looking back now, I can also see that I struggled socially in ways I didn’t fully understand at the time. Years later I would learn I had ADHD, learning disabilities, and on the autism spectrum, which explained a lot about why I often felt different growing up.
Overall, I think I was someone who experienced life very deeply. I felt things intensely, thought deeply about people and the world around me, and always had a strong desire to create, help, understand, and connect. In many ways, the person I am today is still very similar to the little girl I was growing up — just a little wiser and more weathered by life.
Pricing:
- • Customized Therapeutic Massage (60 min) — $150
- • Customized Therapeutic Massage (90 min) — $220
- • Customized Therapeutic Massage (120 min) — $310
- • Insurance massage accepted for select plans
- • Online booking available through airinlmt.janeapp.com
Contact Info:
- Website: https://airinlmt.janeapp.com
