Faculty Excellence

Mike Hovi: A clinical massage therapist who helps both medical students and Olympic athletes.

From the classroom, to the stage, to the Olympic games, Mike Hovi's career as a clinical massage therapist has enabled him to work with top medical and athletic professionals from around the world.

In addition to his ongoing work as Program Director and instructor at The Soma Institute, Mike has also administered guest lectures for complementary and alternative medicine at the University of Illinois-Chicago Medical School.

In 2002, Mike was honored to serve as a member of the Winter Sports Massage Team at the 19th Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City, Utah. Two years later, he served as a member of the Athens Health Services Sports Massage Team at the 2004 Olympic Summer Games in Athens, Greece.

During his work at these Olympic games, Mike worked with athletes from 34 different countries and 17 different sports. Four of these athletes won bronze medals, while three more were honored as members of gold medal teams.

Mike's massage therapy career has also brought him into the world of professional dance, enabling Mike to work as the lead massage therapist on the Chicago production of Riverdance.

While he no longer works within the professional dance industry, Mike remains at the forefront of the massage therapy industry. He has served on the Illinois State Licensing Board for Massage Therapy, and has served on the Board of the American Massage Therapy Association, Illinois Chapter as well. Currently, Mike is the President of the AMTA, Illinois Chapter.

In every class Mike teaches at The Soma Institute, he draws upon these diverse experiences to show each Soma student the virtually limitless career possibilities they can pursue as an accomplished clinical massage therapist.

Ellen Letten became interested in natural healing and mind-body medicine during her father’s battle with cancer. However, with a background in mathematics and science, she became frustrated with the lack of structure and supporting evidence in the complementary medicine field. That all changed when she attended The Soma Institute… Read more about Ellen Letten.