Rebel Wellness

The article was published. Now I’m telling the rest.

Recently, Iowa Workforce Development shared my story about becoming disabled on duty and rebuilding my working life through Rebel Wellness.

I am incredibly proud of that article. I am grateful for Iowa Vocational Rehabilitation, the Drake University business program, and the people who helped me figure out what came next.

But seeing one word in that headline stopped me:

Disabled.

There it was. Public. Real.

And it made me realize there is another part of this story I’m ready to tell.

The article tells you about rebuilding.

My new blog tells you more about what I had to rebuild from.

The assault.

The pieces of that night I don't remember.

The coworker I remember seeing at the cell door while I was on the floor with an inmate on top of me.

The injuries.

The workers' compensation journey.

The workplace harassment.

Being fired approximately eight months later.

Losing the career and retirement I had spent 18 years building.

Losing pieces of the body and identity I thought I knew.

Learning to live with visible and invisible disability.

Learning to accept that I need a service dog.

And eventually, building Rebel Wellness out of everything that remained.

This one is vulnerable.

It's angry in places.

It's uncomfortable in places.

And it doesn't have a pretty little bow tied around it.

Because healing doesn't require me to pretend what happened was okay.

And building something beautiful afterward doesn't erase what it cost.

For a long time, I wondered how much of this story I should say publicly.

Then I started asking myself:

Who does my silence protect?

So I wrote it.

The Iowa Workforce article tells one part of my story.

Now I'm telling the part that didn't make the headline.

🖤 The Parts That Never Get Published: The Parts That Get Edited Out. The Truth Behind the Story.

Read the article. Then read the blog.

And maybe you'll understand Rebel Wellness a little differently afterward.



https://www.rebelwellness.site/trauma-informed-massage-therapy-west-des-moinesthe-parts-that-never-get-published

Apparently, “I’ll just build it myself” was a bold choice. 😂
The Rebel Wellness revamp is still happening. It’s just taking a little longer than I expected.
Because, to be completely honest, I had no idea what I was getting myself into with live-edge wood.
I thought:
Sand it.
Stain it.
Seal it.
Done.
Cute. 😂
Instead, there has been sanding.
More sanding.
Staining.
Waiting.
Top coating.
More waiting.

And then finding out the finish can take up to 30 days to fully cure.
Thirty. Days.

I also fell in love with some raw live-edge elm because of all the beautiful spalting, burls, weird edges and character.

What I apparently didn't consider was that buying raw wood meant I was also volunteering to become an amateur woodworker.

And then there’s the beverage station.
The beautiful live-edge walnut top is ready.
Oh, and the legs I have?
Well... that’s a story in itself.
They won't work. 😂
But before I figured THAT out, I tried attaching them.

Apparently walnut likes to do its own damn thing.
I drilled pilot holes. I bought the screws. I carefully started attaching the legs...
And the screws started BREAKING OFF in the walnut.
Not stripping.
Not refusing to go in.
SNAPPING. OFF.

So somewhere inside my beautiful beverage station are now little pieces of screws that have apparently decided they live there permanently.

Only for me to discover...
THE LEGS AREN'T GOING TO WORK ANYWAY. 😂
Excellent.

At this point, I'm starting to wonder if this beverage station has simply decided it does not believe in legs.
But I'm learning.

And honestly, I think that's part of what I love about what Rebel Wellness is becoming.
I didn't want to fill this space with generic furniture and call it finished. I wanted real wood. Texture. Character. Pieces that feel like they actually belong here.

Turns out character can be a pain in the ass sometimes. 😏
So yes, the Rebel Wellness revamp is still in progress.
A little sawdusty.
A lot slower than planned.
And occasionally accompanied by some colorful language.

But it's becoming exactly what I wanted it to be.
Warm. Grounded. A little wild. A little unexpected.
And unmistakably Rebel Wellness.

Stay tuned. That beverage station WILL have legs eventually.
At this point, I don't know which legs.
But there will be legs. 😂

Something new is growing at Rebel Wellness. 🌙

Introducing The Well, a local community created around wellness, connection, learning, and the belief that taking care of yourself shouldn’t happen in isolation.

The Well is a place to stay connected to what’s happening at Rebel Wellness and throughout the greater Des Moines area, including:

✨ Sound baths, yoga, meditation and restorative practices
✨ Workshops, classes and wellness events
✨ Nervous system and body-based education
✨ Local practitioners, teachers and healing professionals
✨ Community gatherings and opportunities to connect
✨ Events happening around the area that support physical, emotional and whole-person wellness

But I want The Well to become more than an events group page.

I want it to become a place where people can discover resources, learn something new, meet people doing meaningful work, and maybe find something they didn’t even know they needed.

There is a LOT happening in our local wellness community, and sometimes the hardest part is simply knowing where to find it.

So we’re creating the place.

The Well: Where connection creates expansion.

If deeper wellness, real community, nervous system support, movement, healing arts, or simply finding more ways to take care of yourself sounds like your kind of rebellion, come join us.

And yes, please invite your people. 💜

CTA: Join The Well and stay connected to what’s happening at Rebel Wellness and throughout our local wellness community.



https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19doHCUN6s/

Just me, a piece of notebook paper, a pen, and some questionable artistic talent.

The message, however, is legit:
Come get a damn good massage at Rebel Wellness in West Des Moines.
Real hands.
Real human connection.
A real space to exhale, get out of your head, and let your body have a minute.
And yes, I drew the massage table myself. Don't ya love the purple blanket?

Please hold your applause. 😂

📍 West Des Moines, Iowa
🌿 Massage • Bodywork • Nervous System Support
🔗 rebelwellness.site
AI could never recreate this level of artistic excellence. 😏

Do I dare drink this coffee? ☕️😈

I mean… I’m already WAY too amped up because Hair by Tina gets her hands on my hair TODAY. 🤘🔥

And apparently I thought adding caffeine before a 90-minute massage in 9 minutes was a solid business decision.

So here’s to coffee, 2CELLOS cranked up, and rocking the hell out of another day at Rebel Wellness. 🖤🎻

My client may be coming in for relaxation.
Their massage therapist is currently holding an imaginary backstage pass and burning sage like I am in a Cheech n Chong movie. 😂

Why do I feel out of place?
Maybe you've asked yourself that before.
Maybe you've walked into a room and known almost immediately...
This isn't where I belong anymore.

I've been thinking about that question a lot as Rebel Wellness approaches its third year.

Because if you've been here for a while, you know this little Rebel has already lived a few lives.

There have been moves. Changes. Experiments. Things that worked beautifully and things that taught me exactly what I never wanted to do again. 😂

Some of those moves happened much faster than I ever planned. Even my personal home move!

There were spaces I thought would be home for much longer. Spaces I invested in, worked hard to create, and then had to admit something I really didn't want to admit:
Rebel Wellness no longer belonged there.

So I searched.
Sometimes frantically.
Sometimes wondering what the hell I was doing.
Sometimes making decisions much faster than I would have liked because I knew staying somewhere that no longer fit wasn't the answer either.

And there were sacrifices behind the scenes that most people never saw.

Personal choices. Things I went without. Things I put off. Times I chose to invest in this dream instead of making my own life a little more comfortable.

Building Rebel Wellness hasn't been a perfectly curated journey.
It has been a becoming.

And through every version, so many of you kept walking through the door.
You followed.
You stayed.
You trusted me.
You gave this little Rebel the space to figure out where it belonged.
Thank you. Truly.

Now, as we approach Year Three, something feels different.

For once, I'm not asking:
Where do we go next?

I'm asking:
How deeply can we root right here?
I'm not interested in growing Rebel Wellness by constantly doing more. And especially rushing.

I want to grow by going deeper.
Deeper into connection.
Deeper into community.
Deeper into presence.
Deeper into the little rituals that remind us to slow down and come back to ourselves.
And deeper into creating a place where you don't have to wonder whether you fit.

Because maybe belonging isn't about finally finding somewhere you fit in.
Maybe it's finding somewhere you don't have to.

That's the feeling I want when you walk through the door.

I want the outside world to disappear for a while.
Warm light. Dark wood. Greenery. Comfortable chairs. Something warm in your hands. Music quietly playing somewhere in the background.
No rush.
No need to perform.
No expectation that you have everything figured out.

A place where you don't have to do anything to belong.
You can simply show up.

Wellness doesn't only happen on a massage table.
Sometimes it's movement.
Sometimes it's stillness.
Sometimes it's laughter.
Sometimes it's just arriving and realizing you don't need to fill every quiet moment.
And sometimes it's giving yourself permission to slow the hell down.

Maybe that's why the timing of this chapter feels so right.
Fall is coming.
The days shorten.
The light softens.
Nature starts pulling inward.
It sheds what it no longer needs and sends its energy back toward the roots.
Nature doesn't panic because it's slowing down.
It simply knows it's time for a different kind of growth.
Maybe we can learn something from that.

So as Rebel Wellness approaches its third year, I'm calling this chapter:
BECOMING DEEPLY ROOTED. 🖤

You may notice the rooms changing again.
Furniture moving. Live-edge wood appearing. Plants multiplying like they pay rent. 😂 More warmth. More texture. A little mystery.

But this time, I'm not searching for the next place Rebel belongs. I am not rushing.
I'm creating deeper roots in the place we've found.
I'm creating the feeling I've been chasing through every room that came before this one.

A space that doesn't immediately ask something from you.
A place where you can walk through the door and something inside you recognizes it before you even have words for it...

The world can wait outside.
Come in.
Set it down.
Exhale.
You don't have to fit in here.
You just have to be you.
Welcome to Year Three.
Becoming Deeply Rooted. 🖤

~Tammy

Rebel Wellness is opening a new chapter — deeper, more intentional, and rooted in community. Step into a space to exhale, connect, and share stories. Read more about our vision and what’s next for wellness in West Des Moines: https://wix.to/EqeQLXF

The Next Chapter of Rebel Wellness As Rebel Wellness enters its next chapter, the vision isn’t to simply add more. It’s to go deeper. To create a place where people can exhale, connect, share stories, and feel part of something real. This is the beginning of a more intentional Rebel Wellness, rooted in community, connection, and ...

For a long time, I struggled to charge appropriately for my work. Like many massage therapists, I worried what people would think. But the truth is, we have bills to pay, continuing education to invest in, and businesses to sustain too. I'm grateful this conversation is finally starting to happen because it's not about charging more. It's about recognizing the value behind the skilled hands, years of learning, and care that happen long before you ever get on the massage table. I'd love to hear your thoughts after reading this. 🖤

link to blog post in comments.