Helena Scharf trained at the Healing Arts Institute in Fort Collins, Colorado, graduating in 2019, and she’s been practising for seven years. Before massage school she studied Health and Exercise Science, and she holds a yoga teacher certification from Holistic Yoga School. She isn’t teaching classes these days, but she uses that training to help clients build self-care they can keep up at home.
She describes her approach as a belief that modern medicine and older, holistic practices work best side by side — which suits where she works. WAY Wellness Center offers acupuncture and herbal medicine alongside massage therapy.
What a session draws on
WAY’s team page lists Helena as a deep tissue specialist who focuses on prenatal and postpartum work, and the clinic’s own guidance is plain about it: for gentle, lighter myofascial work, book a colleague; for deeper work, book Helena. Her work covers therapeutic deep tissue, myofascial release, cupping, neuromuscular therapy and an integrative massage that combines them, in sessions from an hour up to two.
Two services are worth knowing about if you haven’t come across them before. C-section scar massage is a 30-minute session aimed at feel and function after a Caesarean; direct work on the scar starts once you’re at least eight weeks postpartum, though massage itself is fine straight away after either kind of delivery. Assisted stretching is done fully clothed, in gym clothes or anything you can move in, on the table, with no massage included — 30 or 60 minutes.
Prenatal sessions use side-lying positioning and props to keep you comfortable and stable, and are offered in every trimester.
Who comes to see her
Her listing names pregnancy, post-surgery recovery, scar tissue and adhesions, headaches and migraines, and hypermobility and EDS. She works with athletes and runners, performers and musicians, first responders and veterans, seniors, and neurodivergent clients, and her care is LGBTQ+ affirming. Se habla español.
WAY Wellness Center, and how to book
WAY is at 1360 Old Freeport Road in Fox Chapel, with plenty of parking in the lot. The front door has stairs down to the office; the back door is the accessible entrance. The practice has a 5.0 rating across 140 Google reviews.
Sessions run from $50 for a half-hour of stretching to $180 for two hours of deep tissue or integrative massage; an hour of massage is $100. WAY accepts FSA and HSA cards, and those, like cash, checks and debit cards, skip the 3% fee the clinic adds to credit card payments. Booking is online through WAY’s scheduler, where same-day appointments open up until three hours beforehand, or by phone at (412) 772-1461.
Her Pennsylvania licence, MSG016854, is verified against the Department of State, the same as every listing here.