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Positive Being is a non-profit service organization dedicated to improving the quality of life for those living with HIV through healing touch.

Positive Being seeks to heal and nurture by helping those with HIV reclaim their bodies as a site of well-being, a source of healing strength, and a temple of the divine.

Positive Being fosters the integration of the physical, healing, and spiritual nature of our bodies to effect positive change in the health and well-being of anyone with HIV.

Massaging wrist & hand

For Positive Being, finding safe ways to allow touch to effect healing is a primary goal. More than a mere pat on the back or a cool hand on a warm brow, these proposed programs incorporate non-threatening and safe touch as a way to fill in a dangerous gap created by treating symptoms of a disease, rather than taking into consideration the whole and wholly individual person.

We believe that battling HIV requires a two-prong attack: stopping the virus and restoring the immune system it has damaged. For the first of these, medications are required and prescribed by medical doctors. However, these drugs do not restore the health of the immune system, except insofar as they halt the progress of the virus. HIV can be a very individual affair. Some drugs or therapies work better in some individuals or populations than others. Stress, which taxes the immune system's ability to effect repairs, can be reduced by the implementation of individualized plans to both bolster the immune system and minimize common side effects, such as neuropathy, lipodystrophy, high blood pressure and cholesterol levels.

Missing from most of these therapies is the all-important element of touch. Too often those with HIV feel like “damaged goods.” The heightened sense of isolation, which leads to depression and other counter-productive attitudes (such as lack of perspective, alienation, and loss of self-esteem) can and should be countermanded by a proactive approach to touch. Positive Being’s vital role lies in the restoration of touch as a healing tool that helps this otherwise unaddressed aspect of returning the body to a place of balance wherein the immune system can recover its potential.

The first element of the Positive Being outlook on healing is massage. Our first program, up and running since January of 2001, is a low-cost donation clinic for massage.

In 2008, we launched our first annual “Exploring the Body Positive” workshop at Wildwood, a spiritual retreat in the California redwoods. Positive Being clients receive scholarships to spend a weekend of bonding and touch in this beautiful mountaintop setting. The workshop aims to improve self-esteem and well-being and to fight off the feelings of isolation and alienation that too often come with HIV.

Positive Being also funds and produces one-day workshops, such as Accupressure for People with HIV, held in 2007. A restorative partner yoga workshop is planned for 2014.

Fighting unhealthy attitudes underlies all Positive Being programs and makes way for hope in the possibility to heal each other through touch. Fostering the ability to reach out and touch is fundamental to Positive Being’s mission.

  • Brad Jelinek, CMT
  • Brian Swager, CMT
  • Donny Lobree, CMT
  • Terry Jones, CMT
  • Bill Stern, CMT
Brad Jelinek
Brad Jelinek, CMT
www.spabrad.com

Brad combines Asian healing therapies to promote healing, relaxation, and pleasure in his bodywork. His style is a mix of acupressure, deep tissue, barefoot shiatsu, reflexology, and other modalities.

Brad trained at the Acupressure Institute in Berkeley and with the Body Electric School. He serves on the board at Positive Being and has been a volunteering with them since 2007.

Tim McAdams
Brian Swager, CMT
www.sfomassage.com
Ph: 415-551-7866

As a professional Certified Massage Therapist, I offer excellent therapeutic bodywork incorporating an eclectic blend of styles. With 18 years of experience, I still love my work and look forward to every session. I love every body. My hands are strong yet sensitive; my touch is nurturing and healing. I adapt my technique to your particular body’s needs and personal desires, anything from gentle Swedish style to penetrating deep tissue work.

Please consult my website to learn more about my approach and to read my brief article: “The Secret Healing Power of Massage.”

Namaste.

Donny Lobree
Donny Lobree, CMT
Donny@GetTouchForMen.com

Break through the Body Stories that are holding you back. What would it be like if your power were released and you could express it though your work, your relationships, in everything you do?

If you want a strong, caring man to be with you to hold this sacred space for you, then contact me.

I am a Sacred Intimate blessed with hands and heart of healing, I help you release that erotic power that has been locked away in you for so long.

It’s time to let it out and step into your full masculine power.

I am a graduate of the San Francisco School of Massage and Bodywork with twelve years of experience. I have also taken several hundred hours of advanced post graduate massage workshops in Sports Massage, Deep Tissue, Trigger Point, Reiki and other disciplines. With all these modalities I have the tools to give you a truly “unique” massage, specific for your individual needs. I enjoy working on all types of clients, young, old, male and female, and also have substantial experience with the transgender community.

My work is done on a wide table with soft music and candles in a warm and totally private space. I am located in a house on the edge of Bernal Heights, the Mission and Noe Valley, easily accessible by BART and MUNI.

Bill Stern
Bill Stern, Ph. D., CMT
Positive Being
Executive Director

www.billstouch.weebly.com

I offer a very personal and loving form of Swedish Esalen-type massage that emphasizes long, integrative strokes. I trained with Chester Mainard, receiving certifications in Swedish and Deep Tissue from the Body Electric School. I am a firm believer in the power of touch to counteract the damaging effects of stress, as well as to bring about a sense of well-being and spiritual awakening.

I founded Positive Being in late 1999, in part because massage is one of the few therapies that feels good, as well as being good for you. I think that feeling good is part of feeling well, and even after 15 years, my joy in doing this work has not diminished.

Billy Stern, Positive Being Executive Director, Ph. D., CMT
Billy Stern, Executive Director, Ph. D., CMT

The formation of Positive Being was inspired by my own experience with the AIDS epidemic. After several close calls with death and the loss of much of my sight from an HIV drug trial, I found myself very isolated. While the emotional and practical support of family, friends and local agencies helped me manage a difficult day to day existence, even on the best of days I felt as though I were barely surviving and not really living.

Touch changed all that. I started seeing a massage therapist regularly and the very fact that someone was willing to touch me with loving and healing hands made a huge difference in my outlook. As soon as I was well enough, I began taking massage classes, receiving certifications in Swedish Massage and Deep Tissue, as well as exploring other powerful modalities such as Sacred Intimacy. In the years since I started Positive Being, I have seen others who were isolated and depressed make progress by crossing the “touch threshold,” eventually becoming more out-going, comfortable with their bodies and lighter in spirit.

I believe that this comes not just from the therapeutic effects of massage (which are many) but from the loving human contact itself. My own sense of self-worth improved with the willing touch of others and helped me to engage in the world in a way that seemed impossible before. Our goal at Positive Being goes beyond nurturing a client’s sense of integration with his own body, mind and spirit, to foster connections to the body, mind and spirit of others.

Board Members
Board of Directors
Mark McClelland (left), John Olesen (top),
Billy Stern (right), Derrick Mapp (bottom),
and Ray Millette (not shown).

Would you like to donate a few hours a month to serve on the Positive Being board?

We are always looking for committed individuals willing to help us manage resources, raise funds, and plan for the future. It's fun as well as rewarding.

Call Mark McClelland at
(415) 351–9758 to find out more.

Positive Being is a registered 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization.