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Release Your Stress, with Tracy Cedrone, LMT – Brendan Higgins

April 30, 2022/Brendan Higgins

By Brendan Higgins, contributing writer

My goal as a writer is to focus on Rhode Islanders doing positive things in life. Tracy Cedrone definitely qualifies. When we met at her office located in the Meadows Office Park, at 1130 Ten Rod Road – A207, in North Kingstown, she had a suggestion. She felt doing an article on her business would be more authentic if I experienced a sample of her technique. To my surprise, she offered to do some body work. I gladly accepted. Tracy worked on my back taking away all the stress from the day. The mini session was amazing! We did not speak during the impromptu massage session, but I felt her positive energy the entire time. Helping people feel free from pain is only a small sample of what Tracy brings to the table.

As a fellow yogi, I was looking forward to speaking with Tracy. She started practicing yoga as a teenager and has continued her practice to this day. I knew we would have an enjoyable conversation about her career, and interesting life’s journey. She grew up in Coventry. After graduating from Coventry High School in 1990, she went to URI. At first, Tracy wanted to pursue a career as a math teacher. In her sophomore year she realized her true passion was helping others. Once that realization was in place, Tracy focused her attention on psychology. She graduated in 1994.

Tracy jumped right into the fire, working for a suicide and drug hotline. She described the experience as intense and heavy. Tracy was drawn to the work of Wayne Dyer. That led her to getting attuned to Reiki. Tracy told me, “If you look it up, I’m not sure how it’s described, but I’m going to tell you how it went for me. There are all different ways you can get attuned to Reiki. Mine was a one-on-one experience. It felt like an uploading happened inside of me. It opened up a portal using symbols and internal chanting. I was being attuned to a universal energy. It was a profoundly massive experience. It may have been where I was in my life, or who I am as a person, but from that day I felt different. When I practiced yoga and put my hands over my head, I felt electricity in my fingers. I viewed everything differently. I began to trust in the universe. I started following my gut more.”

With her newfound clarity in place, Tracy heard the call to become a massage therapist. In 2009 she was looking at life through a new lens. She was about to blossom into the woman she was always meant to be. She said, “I’m not sure if I hadn’t done Reiki if it would have been that strong, but it hit me pretty hard when I was in my car with my friend, Mindy. She is a massage therapist. I love helping people. I’m an empath. Mindy was talking about her job. I could feel how much she loved it. I was driving and she was in the passenger seat. I just listened to her. It hit me that I needed to become a massage therapist. At the time, I had two babies. My former husband was not supporting the idea, but I was convinced I had to do this.”

Tracy began to check out massage schools. They all seemed the same until she walked into the Connecticut Center for Massage Therapy. She knew right away this was where she needed to be. By her own admission, Tracy was not a good student. She revealed she barely got through high school and college, but she was determined to do this. She was working a full-time job. She had 2 small children and managed to attend massage school 2 days per week over an hour away in Groton, Connecticut. Tracy is a determined woman. She described the memorization involved in her 20-month training as exhausting, but she got through it.

Once she completed her training, Tracy took a position at Massage Envy in East Greenwich. She felt it was a good starting point in her new career. She learned more and more about her new profession while working there. She said, “It is corporate. There are rules to follow. I learned things that I still use today during my time working at Massage Envy. Things like time management and client intake. I learned a lot of the business end. I was there for 6 years. It was a valuable experience for me.”

Tracy worked a second job in customer service while she built her clientele in the massage world. She started to be more frequently requested, and her schedule filled up. This gave her the confidence to consider moving out on her own. The goal was to eventually leave her second job. She wanted to give up the job she had to do to make ends meet, to transition to her passion (massage therapy) on a full-time basis. Her first move was to leave her customer service job and work full time at Massage Envy. After that, she started to entertain the idea of going out on her own. Tracy took a practical approach to this idea. She knew she needed new clients to strike out on her own. As she continued to receive positive feedback from clients her momentum grew to achieve her goal.

Tracy began looking at potential office spaces. Like everything else she does, she knew the right place the moment she walked in. She found her new home inside The Meadows at the suggestion of a friend who works in the same office park. Tracy said, “I was going to take the smaller room, but I decided to go for it and rented this beautiful space.” I looked around as she raised her hands in pride. Her office is without a doubt the perfect massage environment. It is a calm and peaceful space. The atmosphere is exactly what anyone needing down time and TLC could ask for.

Tracy went on to further her career when she became a certified life coach. She completed the BodyMind Coaching program with Laura Wieck at BodyMind Living. Tracy incorporates massage and life coaching. She explained, “I help people with the physical and also help them tackle the emotional aspect together. I sit with people and listen to what they want in their life and figure out how to get them there. I had to go through the process of being a BodyMind client to unlock what I wanted and that was to open my own office. I’m so blessed. I’m so grateful that this found me or vice versa because this is without a doubt what I’m meant to do. I still have a lot of questions in my life but this, being here, I know without a doubt is where I’m supposed to be.”

Tracy has gotten so busy with massage she has put life coaching on the back burner for the time being. If you want to book a session, her next available appointment is not until August. That of course speaks for itself. Tracy and her children, Skylar and Braden, reside in North Kingstown. For more information visit releaseyourstress.net or call (401) 474-3888.

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