LMT, Expert Massage Therapist in Chicago
Marzena Kostrzewska
I’ve been a massage therapist for over 26 years, and I still genuinely love this work. But my path didn’t start with a niche. Like many therapists, I began by helping anyone who walked through the door—stress, back pain, tight shoulders. Early in my career, a physical therapist referred a patient to me who was dealing with severe jaw pain and constant tension headaches. She asked if I could try to help.
Combined Knowledge And Skills
At the time, I had no specialized training in TMJ. I simply did what I knew gentle, thoughtful work on the face, head, neck, and upper body. To my surprise, and hers her pain started to ease. Her jaw felt better. Her headaches disappeared.
That moment changed everything. I got curious. Really curious.
I started learning everything I could about TMJ, even taking courses designed for physical therapists and adapting that knowledge to stay within my scope as a massage therapist. Back then, there were no clear paths for this kind of work, but I followed the results I was seeing and the people who needed help. Word spread. More people came in with jaw pain, clenching, headaches. And then I started to notice something important.
The same patterns I was seeing in the jaw were showing up everywhere neck tension, shoulder tightness, chronic headaches, even the way people held their breath or moved through the day. That’s when my work expanded. I realized I wasn’t just working with jaw pain. I was working with a nervous system that had become overprotective creating tension and pain as part of that response. Today, I specialize in TMJ, headaches, and chronic pain. My approach is very different from what most people expect from massage. I don’t believe in forcing the body or “pushing through pain.” In fact, you can’t treat pain by causing more pain.