Kari Cantrell, LMT | Perinatal Massage & Bodywork

More About Kari
Massage therapist, birth worker, educator,

and lifelong student of the body

I’ve been a licensed massage therapist since 2012 and working in birth and perinatal care since 2013. Over the years, those two worlds have become increasingly intertwined—and ultimately shaped Bloomington Birth & Bodywork into what it is today.

My work is rooted in curiosity about how bodies adapt through pregnancy, birth, postpartum recovery, infancy, and all the changes that happen beyond those seasons. I combine hands-on bodywork with movement, positioning, education, and practical tools to help clients better understand—and feel more at home in—their bodies.

Book With Kari

My Approach to Bodywork

I don’t believe there’s one “right” technique for every body—or even for the same body on different days.

My sessions draw from more than a decade of massage therapy and continuing education in pregnancy and postpartum bodywork, birth preparation, infant development, craniosacral work, myofascial techniques, cupping, kinesiology taping, movement, positioning, and nervous-system-centered care.

Sometimes that means focused therapeutic work. Sometimes it means slowing everything down. Often, it means a little of both.

I want you to understand what we’re doing and why. When it’s useful, I’ll incorporate education, movement, positioning, or things you can try at home—but there is always room to simply get on the table and receive care.

You don’t need to know what modality you need. That’s my job. You just need to tell me what’s going on.

Why Perinatal Bodywork?

My interest in pregnancy and postpartum care grew alongside my work as a birth doula.

Supporting families through pregnancy, labor, birth, feeding, and the early postpartum months gave me a perspective on the body that I couldn't have gained from massage training alone.

I became increasingly interested in the physical side of those transitions: how the pelvis moves and adapts, how positioning affects comfort, how pregnancy changes movement and tension patterns, how the body prepares for birth, and how feeding, carrying babies, interrupted sleep, and recovery continue shaping the body afterward.

That curiosity has driven much of my continuing education ever since.

Today, pregnancy, postpartum, and infant care are at the heart of my practice—but I bring that same curious, individualized approach to every person I work with.