Get To Know Me

Phone:  +1 206 510 6334             Email:  gabriel@kaonamassages.com

Based in Nashville, Tennessee. I just won 3rd place in the Online Massage Championships 2020/2021 in the Lomi Lomi Nui category! I am eternally grateful to my mentor, Jody Mountain, for all of the teachings she has shared and openings she has held the space for. I also wouldn’t be here without all my music educators throughout my life. I’m thankful to the Kahuna Nui in 9 different fields who taught her and brought this Ancient Wisdom forward – Kahu Abraham Kawai’i, Aua’ia Maka’i’ole, ‘Uliama. Visit www.napuaolohe.com for more information.  For information on Jody,  go to www.lineageoflight.com. The video below will give insight into what her trainings did for me.

I was born in New York to Mexican parents with lineages in Poland, Russia, Belarus, Italy, France, Spain, possibly the Middle East, Ashkenazi and Sephardic Judaism mixed with Catholicism. Growing up in Washington state, I lived in Mexico for two years as well, I had a desire to become a psychiatrist and found a passion for singing. That passion made me pursue music through high school and earned a B.A. in music, specifically operatic singing. After earning a master’s in vocal performance from the Manhattan School of Music in New York City, I began life as a professional opera singer with visions of singing in opera houses around the world and becoming a star as a comprimario tenor. 

I never imagined I would become a Ke Ala Hōkū Accredited practitioner. I found my passion for this ancient and rare practice of lomi lomi by attending a retreat led by my mentor in Ibiza, Spain. Little did I know what lay ahead.

After auditioning in Europe in 2013, I went to Jody Mountain’s workshop for some spiritual rejuvenation, which changed my life. For the first time in my life I looked at myself in a mirror and said “I love you.” Something had awoken within me. Some parts of the bodywork came quite easily and naturally, almost as if I had done it before. Other parts were quite challenging, even petrifying.

The following year, I attended three more of Jody’s retreats in Europe. My personal and professional life started to reflect the transformations, acknowledgments, and releases I did during the retreats. Although I was becoming more successful in my opera career, I found it lacking.

From 2015-2019, I continued to do more study with Jody, achieved accreditation, and began assisting her with her retreats around the world. I finally left my opera career in 2016. I have over 2,500 hours under my belt and Ke Ala Hōkū is the ONLY lineage of massage that I have learned.

Although I never imagined I would go from psychiatry and opera singing to become a Ke Ala Hōkū Accredited practitioner, all three have a form of healing. I am also an ordained member of the Church of Spiritual Humanism & Universal Life Church, which allows spiritual healing and laying on of the hands.

I believe that life is interconnected. I honor what I know and don’t know. I honor the western, eastern, and indigenous perspectives of life. I recognize the ancestral, cellular, emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual parts of myself just as they are in the moment as much as I can. I accept the constructs of good, bad, positive, negative, and how they create, filter, or influence my life every step of the way. I also accept that there is much more beyond what is defined as good vs. bad, positive vs. negative. These are some of the foundations I stand upon to offer and share my time and energy with you.

Oprah Winfrey
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Gabriel Gargari sharp

Kahu Abraham Kawai'i

Kahu Abraham Kawai'i (informal)

Jody Mountain

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