Supporting Your Health & Well-Being

Ihotu Jennifer Ali, MPH, LMT, CLC (she/her) is a public health educator, researcher, and integrative massage therapist specializing in myofascial release therapies including the Arvigo Techniques of Maya Abdominal Therapy®, Craniosacral Therapy, Prenatal, and Infant Massage as a Spinning Babies Aware Practitioner®. Black Moon Bodywork offers massage therapy blended with health coaching and self-care practices around hormones, sexual and reproductive health, and reproductive justice. This "Moon Doula" care is tailored especially for bodies with menstrual or pregnancy pains, pelvic or low back pain, high stress, anxiety or digestive conditions, trauma, or disconnect around the womb, sexuality, family and community.

Ihotu's decade of experience in femme and family health includes years as a DONA certified birth doula and lactation counselor, prenatal yoga teacher and dancer, rape crisis counselor, Institute for Integrative Nutrition coach, and director of pre-conception health programs funded by the March of Dimes. She has collaborated with midwives and physicians in Haiti, Nigeria, Congo, and Morocco, and worked in health policy and research with the U.S. Congress, Clinton Foundation, United Nations Millennium Development Goals, and Columbia University's School of Public Health. Raised between Minnesota, New York City, and West Africa with respect for both indigenous and evidence-based medicine, Ihotu strives to offer innovative care that is affordable, consent-and trauma-informed, gender fluid and ancestrally rooted. Her writing, public speaking and coaching brings together emerging science in hormones and gut-brain health, Reproductive Justice and Afrofuturism movements, and commentary on busy modern lifestyles, social pressures and anxieties, violence and unresolved trauma often at the root of today's chronic health conditions.

Training Experience

• Massage Therapist, graduate of the Finger Lakes School of Massage including 1000 hours in Myofascial/Connective Tissue Therapy with Dr. Carol Phillips, Deep Tissue/Neuromuscular Therapy, Prenatal Massage, Shiatsu and Acupressure, Polarity Therapy and Aromatherapy
• Nationally Certified by the National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork (NCBTMB) and Member of the American Massage Therapy Association (AMTA)
• Arvigo Techniques of Maya Abdominal Therapy Practitioner, Arvigo Institute
• DONA Trained Birth and Postpartum Doula
• Certified Lactation Counselor, Healthy Children's Center for Breastfeeding
• Registered Yoga Instructor, Yoga Alliance
• Trauma-Informed Yoga, Inhale to Exhale
• Holistic Health Coach, Institute for Integrative Nutrition
• Rape and Sexual Violence Crisis Counseling, Crime Victims Treatment Center
• Masters Degree in Public Health, Columbia University
• Mesoamerican Medicine under Panquetzani Ticitl
• Spinning Babies fetal positioning from Gail Tully and Adrienne Caldwell
• Plus additional study of African and Midwestern foods, plants and ritual with Cathy Calderon, Maria Gavina, and Mama Okpoga, as well as other bodyworkers, herbalists, and spiritual leaders in her family.

Services & Rates

• Customized Therapeutic Massage (including your choice of Maya Abdominal, Craniosacral, deep tissue, and energy balancing techniques), 75 min - $120
• Craniosacral Therapy & Myofascial Unwinding, 75 min - $120
• Arvigo Maya Abdominal Therapy*, 75 min - $120
• Moon Massage (a gentle treatment for during or just after menstruation, including reflexology, energy balancing, and myofascial release for abdominal, hip and low back tension and cramps), 75 min - $120
• Yoni/Pelvic Steams (an herbal steam for irregular or painful cycles, fertility, pelvic tension or dryness, which can be booked in-office as an add-on before a Maya Abdominal appointment), 25min - $20
• Prenatal Massage, Fetal Position & Labor Preparation, 75 min - $120 (Please email Ihotu to book if breech presentation so she can asses and recommend the best session length)
• Postnatal Massage & Abdominal Recovery, (babies welcome with advance notice, email Ihotu), 75 min - $120
• C-Section Scar Tissue Treatment, 75 min - $120
• Newborn Craniosacral Therapy & Baby Massage (available as a home visit, email Ihotu to schedule)
• Sliding scale discount pricing available, please visit www.blackmoonbodywork.com for more information

*Abdominal treatments are best timed when not menstruating, not using an IUD, and after the first trimester of pregnancy. Please schedule your first treatment after the end of menstruation and, if trying to conceive, before ovulation.

*PLEASE NOTE all rates are subject to sales tax. Providing a referral from a Chiropractor, Physician or Acupuncturist may eliminate the charge of sales tax on therapeutic bodywork.