DESIREE RAQUEPO

Massage therapist/kinesitherapist, esthetician

& Hilot Binabaylan practitioner

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Working in collaboration with:

Dr. Natasha Hayden Chiropractic & Michael Locquiao

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Member of le Réseau des Massothérapeutes Professionnels du Québec: #14-1446

UGNAYAN IS A HOLISTIC HEALING PRACTICE, FOCUSED ON INDIVIDUAL & COMMUNAL BODY WORK

After I discovered my love for massage, I grew a passion for traditional healing. Choosing to connect with my ancestral values allow me to stay grounded, rooted, faithful, and expansive. I get to be with the past, the present, and the future at the same time. I can be space, I can be warmth, I can be healing, cleansing, protective, invasive & amplifying. My lifestyle allows me to be limitless. I play with light, colors, sound, texture, emotions, water, and scents. I get to be an artist, a researcher, dancer, healer, poet, visionary, a builder, gatherer, hunter, leader and follower - thanks to the  universal laws, patterns & systems found in everyone and everything. Through my practice, my digital art, and community engagement, I am an expression of the transforming spirit.

In the last few years, I've questioned the ways in which I could pick the interest of the Filipino community in order to offer them my gifts. It was difficult because massage is seen as a luxury amongst most, and physical touch can be too invasive for others. Big on the ideology of kapwa, I lead my approach in ways inspired by my ancestors & the motherland. To know who I wanted to reach and how I wanted to reach them, I began asking questions and understanding their struggles, navigating myself through their stories. what it means to be filipino is a lot to unpack. I am still discovering the role that best fits me in my community. 

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I have a theory on why we're drawn to beauty & design: it soothes, it comforts, it creates a sense of familiarity and opportunity. We fall in awe when we begin to see patterns, systems, and functions. It can make our hearts and our minds feel weightless and heavy at the same time. Our need to relate to what is outside of ourselves is our need to rediscover who we are and where we stand.  Life seeks gravity to survive. We seek to connect so that we can destroy & rebuild. Life knows that it is powerful, graceful, simple & grandiose. It is egotistic, and it values death. Life, like art, soothes, comforts, feels familiar and is faithful.

Naturally, like many, I explored and developed multiple methods of expression as of early age. From paint to photoshop, to web design, and blogging - I was heavily into trends, the intrinsic & extrinsic, and underground music, always looking for 'the next big thing'. But my path took a turn when I learnt that I didn't want to be told how to create art. With my mother's guidance, I fell into the world of esthetics: skincare, make-up, nail art & body morphology. Within my first year in the industry, I came across the world of manual bodywork. Inevitably, my world started revolving around natural medicine, homeostasis & holistic health. Today, this never-ending journey of self-development & healing in now my source of curiosity and drive.