By Mary Murphy
Editor's note: Chris Kinkade was one of the winners of ABMP’s Massage Is for EveryBody 2025 contest. We wanted to share more of Chris’s story, which exemplifies the inclusive values of this campaign. Please join us in celebrating Chris!
Los Angeles-based massage therapist Chris Kinkade recently celebrated a big milestone—nearly 40 years as an MT. Associated Bodywork & Massage Professionals (ABMP) sat down with Kinkade, a winner of the 2025 Massage Is for EveryBody Awards, to talk about how he became the go-to MT for Hollywood stars, his journey into massage, and what he’s learned over all these years.
Kinkade described Hollywood akin to an “Emerald City.” But beyond the bright lights, high-profile clientele, stardom, film sets, and cast and crew parties is a life shaped by curiosity, passion, dedication, and a commitment to the therapeutic art of massage—no matter what life throws at him.
Throughout ABMP's interview, Kinkade, owner of LAMassagePro, emphasized that massage therapy is less about technique alone and more about presence. His best advice? Be yourself, and the rest will follow. Forty years of lifelong learning and practicing massage cannot be summed up in one go—nevertheless, Chris Kinkade is here to give it a try.
ABMP: You must have had some crazy and interesting experiences over the years with your Hollywood clientele. Any stories you are able to share?
CK: I have always said that Hollywood is like “Emerald City” for a massage therapist like me. The beauty of being here is that you don’t have to convince anyone about the benefits of therapeutic massage—they are already all chips in.
Back in the early ’90s, it was common for a movie to hire MTs to do “on set” work during a production. I worked on many sets in those days: A Few Good Men, Hook, and many others. One of the most fun sets for me was working on White Men Can’t Jump. Woody Harrelson has now been one of my best clients since 1991, and though I would normally never drop a client’s name, my relationship with him has been publicly documented for years so I feel comfortable talking about it. Woody is like family—I have done hundreds of sessions on him and his family over the years.
I also have a lot of stories about my time [in Hollywood] I can’t talk about, but let’s just say to be working on some of the most powerful people in show business and to become a confidante to some great “behind the scenes” maneuvering has been fascinating. I have worked on so many actors, actresses, producers, directors, agents, and crew.
ABMP: What was the big shift that made you first leave Hollywood and move out to the country? And what does “semi-retirement” look like now?
CK: In 2017, I tweaked my knee carrying my huge table into a client’s house. My orthopedic surgeon decided a minor knee surgery would fix the buckle tear in my medial meniscus, and while he was at it, he would fix a partial tear in my ACL that had been there since 1986. Should have been a breeze—it wasn’t. I developed a DVT that was shooting pulmonary embolisms into my bloodstream. By the time I went to the emergency room five days post-op I was told that three embolisms were about an inch from my heart, and that if I had not come in I would have been dead in about an hour. Twenty minutes later, the doctor informed me they found something else: the scan tracking my embolisms discovered an aortic aneurysm in my ascending thoracic aorta. Had my knee surgery not almost killed me, I never would have known it was there, so in a way it was kind of lucky break. I was in the hospital for about 10 days. I survived that, and for the next five years had this ticking time bomb in my chest monitored every year, until the summer of 2022 when I was told I had about three months to live before it exploded.
I then underwent open-heart surgery and had another super rough time of it. I flatlined the day after surgery. Again, I was in the hospital for a long time, this time for about a month. When I got out, I took a few months off. I finally started seeing clients again in January 2023—I was so grateful they had not abandoned me. About six months later, my wife convinced me to leave LA and move out to her horse ranch. She needed help, and the timing seemed right to me. So, I closed up shop, dismantled my treatment room half a block down the street from Warner Bros. studio, and made the move permanent.
I entered a phase of “semi-retirement,” meaning I still see clients out at the ranch (and in Hollywood, but I only go there about once a week or so). I have congruence with so many amazing people out there that I can’t fully give it up.
ABMP: Tell us more about the therapeutic work you’re now doing at the ranch?
CK: We created a business called “A Horse in Your Life” where we not only work on horses with issues, we have horses help to heal people by interacting with them. Horses have hearts about five times larger than a human heart and the electromagnetic field around them is powerful. Just being close to them causes entrainment of the heart rhythms. We also focus on autistic people and people dealing with PTSD. It’s a whole new world for me and it’s been so much fun developing this new phase. Working with the horses has opened up new fields of healing I did not know existed. It’s a very exciting time. They are awesome creatures, and I love being around them every day!
ABMP: Not everyone ends up working with elite clients or in a private practice. But you’ve obviously learned a lot of lessons over your nearly 40 years in practice. What tips could you share for new practitioners?
CK: I will be the first to admit I have been very lucky. I was in the right place at the right time and by accident I discovered my true calling—doing transformational therapeutic massage therapy. I didn’t plan any of this. It was never a [career] option I even knew existed; if it had I would have been happy every day knowing it was my calling because I have found that it’s a wonderful way to go through life and be happy. I knew from an early age I had something going on with empathic awareness and touch, even though I had no idea what it was. If you do find [you have this quality], embrace the uniqueness of it.
My veteran MT advice:
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The best advice I can give is to truly know yourself. If you love doing this kind of work, nurture that passion.
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Be humble, be gracious.
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Don’t pat yourself on the back because you get to tell people you are a “healer” . . . that’s all ego nonsense. At your best, you are a “facilitator” in helping someone heal themselves.
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Be considerate, show up on time.
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Never “phone it in.” Give 100 percent in every session because you never know when you are giving your last massage. Make it a masterpiece!
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Learn from other people. Find some good mentors and teachers when you are starting out.
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Get massages from other great massage therapists. Learn from them how it feels to have a great massage and emulate the parts you like. While it’s true that I have learned a lot in classes, so much of what I have learned is from having great people work on me.
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Also never forget that life is just a vacation from the very serious business of being dead. Make every day a Saturday.
ABMP: Can you talk about how you incorporate playing harp into massage?
CK: One of my greatest relationships is with my harps; I have three of them. I believe in the powerful healing aspects of music as a healing modality and have a huge library I create playlists out of. No client has ever heard the same playlist twice and I never use any streaming services—all of my playlists are curated by me. As for my actual harp playing, I have played in therapeutic settings for years.
I used to play at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Burbank in the neonatal intensive care ward for the preemie babies. (I had read a study from Wake Forest University about how harp music lowers cortisol levels in preemie wards not only for the babies but for the families, doctors, and nurses on the ward.) I love to do this and do it for free. I have also played in hospice care at Cedars-Sinai hospital in Los Angeles and had a steady gig at a place called Angel City Yoga in Studio City for many years.
ABMP: Do you ever see yourself really retiring from massage/bodywork?
CK: Even after all I have been through with my own personal “near extinction” events, I have no desire to stop.
I think I’m pretty good at this stuff at this point, but the truth is, if you keep doing it new magic appears in your hands that can only appear from you doing something thousands of times before. I have done tens of thousands of sessions and am always delighted when some wall comes down and I get a peek at a brand-new power I can play with. Ranch life has been good for me in so many ways. I will keep on this path because I want to see what will appear next.
I think when I am 80, I am going to be really good at this massage thing!