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Bright new Revive Therapeutic Center opens in Charlotte on Saturday

“We finalized our sub-lease in the sauna,” says Revive co-founder Sabrina Frazier.
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Registered massage therapists Winona Olson, left, and Sabrina Frazier, right, take a minute to enjoy their newly renovated Revive Therapeutic Center in Queen Charlotte. Offering massage therapy, life coaching and self-regulation therapy, not to mention an infrared sauna, Revive has its grand opening this Saturday, June 10.

After months of late-night sanding, polishing, painting and planning, massage therapists Sabrina Frazier and Winona Olson can join everyone else and relax.

Starting at 5 p.m. this Saturday, the pair will open their new Revive Therapeutic Centre — a health and wellness clinic in Queen Charlotte that offers registered massage therapy, life coaching, and an infrared sauna.

“It’s been a crazy couple of months, but exciting,” said Olson, who finished her registered massage therapy training three years ago and was hoping to open an integrative health clinic in five or 10 years.

“That was going to be a ‘down the road plan,’ but it’s happening right now — and I couldn’t be more glad,” she said.

For Frazier, opening Revive is a kind of homecoming.

When she moved home to Haida Gwaii 16 years ago, Frazier was the only massage therapist working on island, and grew used to moving place-to-place to serve everybody.

“Every time I moved into a community, it’s because someone said, ‘Please come, we’ll give you a space and a table,’” she said.

Given the limits of Haida Gwaii real estate, finding a suitable building for a clinic was tough.

Starting at Riverside B&B and then Dress for Less, Frazier moved for a time to a much-loved if rustic cabin in Tlell, where she lit the woodstove every morning and carried her linens out by backpack.

Even after stints at the old hospital physio room and landing on Haida Gwaii’s No. 1 massage therapy address — a cabin on Relax Road — Frazier wanted a larger space where she could offer more services, such as hydrotherapy, and partner with other providers.

At Revive, she and Olson already have a partner — Nadine Jones is offering life coaching and self-regulation therapy — and plans to expand.

It took big, bright windows, a cedar reception desk and trim by Merlin Naylor, a lotus logo by Alicia Embree, layout by Adele Eckstein, and rooms built by Ryan Paquette, but Revive has washed away all trace of its ink-stained history as the old Observer newsroom.

And despite all the renovating they’ve been doing on nights and weekends since September, Frazier and Olson are experts at balancing work and relaxation.

“We finalized our sub-lease in the sauna,” said Frazier, laughing.

“It felt very Scandinavian,” said Olson.

Revive is launching a pay-it-forward program for massages, as well as a 10-sauna pass, and will be open mornings and evenings. To find out more and check out the space with tunes courtesy of DJ O, drop by Saturday’s grand opening at 623 7th Street from 5 to 10 p.m.