About the Float Shoppe

The Float Shoppe was created in 2011 as a welcoming, calming environment in which to experience floatation therapy combined with massage, acupuncture, and counseling.

Founders Dylan and Sandra created The Float Shoppe after their own first float sessions provided deep relaxation, renewal, and pain relief. As an RN in cardiology and psychiatry at the time, Sandra had witnessed firsthand the impact of chronic stress among her patients and felt strongly that floatation therapy represented an opportunity for a significant shift in the lives of those who make it a practice. Having gained relief from her own anxiety and chronic pain, Sandra set out with Dylan to create a place of integrative healing with floatation therapy at its core of offerings.

Opened in 2011, the Float Shoppe exists to provide integrative therapies which promote a healthful life through reduced stress, reduced pain, and opportunities to reveal and engage with the core of one’s being.

A full team of staff now delights in every person who walks down the Float Shoppe’s stairs with their post-float glow. Clients leave refreshed, with a restored sense of optimism and confidence in their ability to create the life of their choosing.

“Floatation therapy–and the way it integrates with massage, counseling, and acupuncture–has immense potential to foster health and wellness.” – Sandra Calm

The Float Shoppe is a local family business which strives to provide an extraordinary environment both for its clients as well as its staff. Since opening, Dylan and Sandra have become leaders within the float industry, providing guidance to others including the research facility at the Laureate Institute for Brain Research, where float research is progressing every day. Dylan hosts the Art of the Float Podcast, started in 2015 to help others successfully start their own float centers, and offers his skills both as a consultant and photographer to others in the float industry. They are surrounded by exceptional practitioners and dedicated, enthusiastic float facilitators who create an environment for all who enter which is akin to walking into a hug.

Float Shoppe Co-Founders: Dylan and Sandra Calm

MASSAGE THERAPISTS

Experienced massage therapists with great range and depth of skill in massage for both relaxation and therapeutic work.

Allyne Hylace LMT

Massage Therapist

Allyne graduated from the Ashland Institute of Massage and has been practicing massage therapy since 2013. Using a holistic approach that is equally intellectual and intuitive, Allyne integrates therapeutic skill with deeply relaxing, fluid massage and energy work in balance with the unique needs of each client. Allyne specializes in Swedish massage, deep tissue, trigger point therapy, myofascial release, and energy healing for imbalances of the mind, emotional healing, and spiritual awakening.

Amber Star Pollard LMT

Massage Therapist

A recent resident of Portland from the Big Island of Hawaii, Amber Star has over 12 years of professional experience in therapeutic bodywork and the healing arts. After graduating in 2006 from one of the country’s most esteemed schools for medical massage therapy, The Hawaiian Islands School of Massage, her continued exploration of healing modalities led her to study in many places around the world, including Thailand, Bali, Peru, and Kauai. Her work has since expanded to the fields of multi-dimensional healing, intuitive channeling and spiritual coaching, but her love of therapeutic massage and working with the body remains amongst her favorite offerings. Her bodywork has a unique integrative style, combining the refined skill of medical deep tissue with a compassionate and highly intuitive touch. She utilizes an array of techniques, including myofascial release, Hawaiian Lomi Lomi, and channeled energy healing to deeply release, realign, and nurture the body on every level.

OTHER STAFF MEMBERS

Dedicated to furthering awareness and knowledge of floatation therapy and its many benefits.

Sandra Calm RN, MS

Co-Founder

Sandra Calm is an RN and nurse educator as well as one of the two co-founders of The Float Shoppe. While working as a bedside nurse and nurse educator in local hospitals in both medical-surgical nursing and psychiatry, Sandra witnessed the enormous impact of stress on the development of chronic illness. After floating relieved her chronic back pain and anxiety, it was clear floatation therapy represented an immense opportunity to support the long-term health of many. She became determined to create a welcoming, comfortable atmosphere in which people could discover and utilize floating in conjunction with therapies that work perfectly in tandem. Through the Float Shoppe, Sandra aims to provide a center for wellness which fosters well-being and the prevention of disease.

Dylan Calm

Co-Founder

Dylan Calm, Portland native and co-founder of The Float Shoppe, has a passion for community and personal development. In 2011 he and his now-wife Sandra opened the Float Shoppe. Dylan started Art of the Float With Brian Van Peski in 2014 to help others open and run successful float centers, providing consulting services and a podcast to support those starting and running a float center. He soon added photography for use in marketing by float centers and his photos, taken at the Float Shoppe, are now visible across the float community.

Nathalie

Office Manager

Nathalie has been the Office Manager at The Float Shoppe since April 2019.

She has lived in Portland Oregon since 2006, after moving from Washington State to attend the Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA).

Once she did her initial float it was clear that this was a missing piece to the puzzle in her overall recovery and wellness. Floating regularly has significantly reduced chronic pain inflammations, as well as helping to manage a severe anxiety disorder.

She also works to coordinate local goods and art being sold and displayed at the Shoppe.

Nathalie is a certified Adult Mental Health Peer Support Specialist through NAMI Portland and is a strong advocate for the mental health, houseless, and the LGBTQIA2S+ communities.

She would like to thank and acknowledge the land of the Chinook, Cowlitz, and Clackamas peoples on which the Shoppe is standing.

Abraham Reese

Assistant Manager/Float Facilitator

Abraham believes strongly in our innate capacity for self-healing. Floating helps Abraham see what is truly important and leaves him feeling kinder, more compassionate, and more creative. In addition to collaborating on behind-the-scenes construction projects and connecting with local artists, Abraham’s favorite part of working in this industry is the importance placed on simply holding space. Abraham always endeavors to help others live in each present moment, honoring their stories and the paths that they have travelled. He believes healing is always there to meet us exactly where we are, no matter from where we come.

Brian Van Peski

Senior Solution Architect

Brian plays a variety of roles, from troubleshooting computers and helping with websites, to optimizing business practices and workflow methodologies. He also works alongside Dylan to create Art of the Float Podcast.