Author Biography
Gwen Wendy Hammarstrom has been practicing and teaching massage and yoga for over thirty five years. She received a BFA in Dance from Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and soon after began teaching and directing at Innerworks Center for Bodyworkers and Healthcare Professionals in Philadelphia. At the same time she was artistic director of Agape Dancers, a modern dance company that reached out to non-mainstream audiences using choreography that combined yoga, martial arts, and images from nature. She moved to California in 1992 with her husband, who was taking the role of hospital administrator for a facility in Southern California, along with their seven month old daughter, two dogs and three cats. Gwen's first clients and students in Long Beach were infants and parents. She has come full circle with in-home massages for the ill, the elderly, the physically and developmentally challenged as well as their caregivers. Gwen was a co-founder of the Inland Holistic Health Association in Southwest Riverside County, California. She has written a column on health and wellness for the Californian newspaper for two years, as well as a bodywork column for Awareness Magazine and freelance writing for High Country Journal in southern California, The Murrieta Chronicle and Neighbor's Newspaper. She continues to create mandalas, teach yoga and see bodywork clients in North San Diego County and the Inland Valley. Additionally, as throughout much of her life she cares for and massages an interesting variety of animals.
