SIDNEY — The Ohio State Medical Board has granted April Schmidlapp, of Sidney, emeritus status as she retires from practicing licensed massage therapy for 27 years.
Schmidlapp performed approximately 10,000 treatments for people from all walks of life. She introduced many people to the benefits of massage therapy in Miami and Shelby counties at her river retreat along the Great Miami River located between Piqua and Sidney for almost a decade. Schmidlapp also traveled to Scotland, where she performed massage in a 15th-century castle as she studied with healer Eric Cassirer.
In 1996, Schmidlapp moved to New Mexico, where she traveled around the state, performing massages at mountain music festivals, the Santa Fe Flea Market, hot springs and spas. She also traveled to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, where she performed massage on the beaches for three months.
Schmidlapp then settled in southern New Mexico near the U.S.-Mexico border and experimented in off-the-grid living with former New York chiropractor, Dr. John Larsen, whom she met in New Mexico. Together, they built an “earthship” complex made from recycled materials that functioned as a sustainable home. They were featured at the Albuquerque Solar Festival, where they gave workshops on how to make and use inexpensive solar ovens, how to turn used cooking oil (from the local bakery) into bio-diesel fuel for use in vehicles and how to make walls and windows from used soda cans and beer bottles.
Later, Schmidlapp moved to Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, and started a spa boutique and Native American art gallery. She incorporated balneotherapy into her massage therapy practice in the small tourist town, known for its hot mineral thermal waters. Her spa, Good Medicine, was immediately successful as she captured almost 20 percent of the spa services market within the first year of operation. In 2006, Schmidlapp was named a finalist as a New Mexico Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year.
The 2007-2008 national financial crisis significantly impacted many tourism and hospitality businesses in New Mexico, and Good Medicine was closed. Schmidlapp returned to private practice in southern New Mexico.
Schmidlapp returned to Ohio in 2015, as her mother was aging.
Prior to Schmidlapp’s massage therapy career, she had earned a master’s degree from Wright State University and pursued a successful career in corporate training and development, including a decade during which she consulted in the Dayton and Cincinnati business markets sponsored by University of Cincinnati, Xavier University and Wright State University, teaching leadership, quality management and communication.
Schmidlapp has “retired” to college teaching, currently serving as adjunct faculty at Sinclair Community College and Edison State Community College, teaching communication. She hopes to have her two books, “Recipes for Self-Pampering and Self-Care,” and “The Cosmic Cowgirl: An Adventure Towards Responsibility,” as well as her CD, “A Relaxation Meditation,” available at Amazon.com sometime in 2018.
