Today we’d like to introduce you to Alina Rodgers.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
My story has taken a few unexpected turns ~ which, looking back, is probably why I’m so passionate about helping people navigate transitions.
I was born and raised in Transylvania, Romania, and my first professional chapter was in medicine and dentistry. I graduated from medical school (Bucharest) and later practiced dentistry, so from the beginning, I was fascinated by the human body ~ not simply by disease, but by how everything is connected.
When life brought me to the United States, I had to reinvent myself professionally. Starting over in another country is humbling. Your education, experience and confidence come with you, but suddenly you have to figure out where they fit in a completely different system.
That reinvention eventually led me into therapeutic massage and bodywork. I became a licensed massage therapist in Pennsylvania and have spent more than two decades working directly with people through my practice, Oasis Skincare and Massage Therapy. I later became Board Certified in Therapeutic Massage & Bodywork and an NCBTMB Continuing Education Provider, which allowed me to add another role I love ~ teaching other massage therapists.
But somewhere along the way, midlife happened to me too.
I went through the physical and emotional changes of perimenopause and menopause while still being a mother, wife, professional and all the other things women are expected to somehow keep doing while their hormones are quietly rearranging the design. 😄
What struck me was how unprepared so many intelligent, capable women were for this stage of life. We talked about hot flashes, perhaps, but not nearly enough about identity, relationships, confidence, sexuality, sleep, changing bodies, brain fog, careers, motherhood, or that strange question that can suddenly appear in midlife: Who am I now?
That realization became another professional chapter. I expanded my work into menopause and midlife wellness consulting and coaching, bringing together my medical background, decades of hands-on experience with clients, wellness education, and training in communication and behavioral-change approaches.
Eventually, I realized I wanted to reach women beyond the walls of my practice. That became my book, “Midlife, Menopause, and Me: A Candid Survival Guide.” I wanted to write the kind of menopause book I would have wanted to read ~ informative and grounded in science, but also candid, compassionate and funny, because sometimes humor gets us through what another lecture about hormones cannot.
Today, my work sits at the intersection of healthcare education, bodywork, menopause wellness, coaching, teaching and writing. At first glance, those may look like several different careers. To me, they are really one continuous story: helping people understand their bodies, adapt to change, and feel more confident about what comes next.
And perhaps the biggest thing my own journey has taught me is that starting over doesn’t necessarily mean starting from zero. We carry everything we have learned with us ~ and sometimes what looks like a detour turns out to be the experience that makes the next chapter possible.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Smooth? Not exactly. I think my road came with a few extra curves. 😄
One of the biggest challenges was leaving Romania and rebuilding my professional life in the United States. I arrived with years of education, medical and dental training, and professional experience ~ but credentials don’t simply pack themselves into a suitcase and automatically translate into a new country and a new system.
There is something very humbling about knowing what you are capable of while simultaneously having to prove yourself all over again. I had to adapt, learn, and sometimes let go of the idea that my life was supposed to follow the path I had originally imagined.
Reinventing myself through therapeutic massage and bodywork was not a step backward. Eventually, I understood that I was building on everything that came before it. My knowledge of anatomy, physiology and healthcare became part of the way I approached my clients, and years of working hands-on with people taught me things no textbook ever could ~ especially the importance of listening.
Then came another transition: menopause. By that point I was an experienced healthcare and wellness professional, and yet I discovered that even with all that knowledge, midlife could still catch me by surprise. It affected much more than the physical body. It raised questions about identity, relationships, purpose, confidence and what I wanted the next part of my life to look like.
There have also been the ordinary challenges of being a small-business owner: wearing every hat, continuing my education, adapting as the industry changes, and learning that sometimes the person responsible for marketing, bookkeeping, answering the phone and cleaning up at the end of the day is the same person. Me. 😄
But I don’t think resilience means pretending difficult things weren’t difficult. For me, it has meant being willing to adjust without abandoning who I am. Some chapters required persistence; others required letting go and changing direction.
Looking back, many of the obstacles I once thought were taking me away from my path actually helped create it.
As you know, we’re big fans of Oasis Skincare and Massage Therapy LLC / Menopause Wellness Consultancy. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
Oasis Skincare and Massage Therapy LLC is an integrative wellness practice offering therapeutic massage and bodywork, skincare, menopause wellness consulting, coaching, and education.
I’m especially known for therapeutic bodywork and for taking an individualized, whole-person approach. I don’t believe in one-size-fits-all wellness. I listen carefully, look at what each person actually needs, and draw from decades of hands-on experience along with my background in healthcare, wellness, and coaching.
My skincare services follow the same philosophy ~ personalized care focused on healthy, well-cared-for skin rather than chasing unrealistic ideas of aging. My Menopause Wellness Consultancy expands that approach into midlife, where physical changes often overlap with stress, sleep, confidence, relationships, sexuality, and identity. My training as a Master NLP and Time Line Therapy Practitioner/Coach also allows me to integrate communication, reframing, and personal-change techniques when appropriate.
What I’m most proud of about the Oasis brand is that it has never been built around a trend or a single technique. It has grown around the person in front of me. Science, experience, listening they all matter. And sometimes humor matters too.
Whether someone comes to Oasis for therapeutic bodywork, skincare, menopause support, or coaching, I want them to feel that they are being seen as a whole person ~ not simply as a symptom, a skin concern, or a problem to be fixed.
That combination of knowledge, hands-on experience, personalization, and genuine human connection is what I want Oasis to be known for.
Can you share something surprising about yourself?
Something people might be surprised to know about me is that, because of the work I do, they probably imagine I spend my free time doing yoga, meditating and drinking green tea. And yes, I do some of that ~ but that’s definitely not the whole picture. 😄
I also ride motorcycles, have gone skydiving, learned to ski at 50, experienced Formula 1 racing, traveled extensively, and even learned magic.
I seem to have become more adventurous with age, not less.
For me, it isn’t simply about adrenaline. It’s about curiosity, challenging myself, and refusing to assume that reaching a certain age means life should become smaller or overly predictable.
Maybe that’s one reason I’m so passionate about midlife. We spend a lot of time talking about what changes, what hurts, what we’ve lost, or what we need to “manage.” I’m much more interested in another question:
What might I still discover about myself?
So yes, I’ll happily meditate and drink the green tea. Just don’t be surprised if there’s a motorcycle helmet sitting next to the yoga mat. 😄
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.nlpcoachalina.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/DrAlinaRodgers/
