Serenity Therapeutic Massage

We are Serenity Therapeutic Massage located @ 219 North Congress Street, York SC 29745

We began our practice in April 2000 with just 2 SC Licensed Massage Therapists ~ Vicki Rose & Charlene Hracs. 

We had a couple stumbling blocks in the beginning. The city business district was not zoned for our profession. It was not recognized at all. They thought we were prostitutes! We needed & did educate them on the finer points of our industry. So two public meetings in front of the city council had to be held. Unfortunately we were in for the fight of our very early careers. We didn't get discouraged & we soldiered on. We invited people who we had massaged (for free - during our intense 6 months of massage school days), along with friends & family to be in the gallery with the rest of the public. I even had my pastor there since I was a church council member. I knew this would bring extra credibility. 

We were honest, ambitious, compassionate, women, who devoted the 1st part of their lives as wives, mothers, second income providers for our families.  We wanted to serve our community in a tradition of complimentary health care. 

The second month meeting was more successful. We explained the cost of our education was considerable & we had to have 500 classroom hours & 100 hours of practical application (hands on). And that saying we were prostitutes was an insult to us, our families & the clients we had worked on. 

Lastly we pointed out that we wanted to pay the city business license fee &  keep the revenue in our small city instead of it going to Charlotte NC. A 45 minute to an hour drive away from York SC. This ultimately has a reverse affect on a relaxation massage, do to the fact that you loose any benefit of a long drive home. We wanted to have them get home in less than 20 minutes. Restoration of the body does best when not subject to commuting stress. 

We hit them in the pocket book! They saw the light as the say & granted us a new business designation & we received our business district license! 

Our annual community tradition was the street festival of Summerfest, held every year, in August. We volunteered for 11 years straight. We set up our tent (in 85°+ temperatures) outside our front door & from 9am to 5pm, performed 10-minute sample massages (of course, full clothed on our massage tables) & educated the public on the benefits of massage. That it wasn't just a luxury expense for the wealthy, but a necessary health benefit for the every day, hard working Joe & Josephine! Our very 3rd grader joke was we were Bodyworkers - just like you take care of your car - we take care of you! It's a great way to keep you healthy & happy, renewed & restored - for the rest of your life. 

We added Amanda Rose to our office after 5 years & by year 10 moved to a new, larger location with a parking lot, only 1.5 blocks from our original office. We now have 7 Licensed Massage Therapists, Anna McKee, Christie Edwards, Eric Grose, Jennifer Bothast & Tobi Johnson, Vicki Rose retired in 2023. One of our former therapists Gwen Thompson was with us for 4 years & still practices in a new office a half block away. We referrer clients to her for other therapies we don't offer. We became a real family business when our children married & now share a grandson. So in 2006 our motto - Let Our Family ~ Treat Your Family, was permanently accepted. 

This April, Serenity Therapeutic Massage will be celebrating 25 years of continuous service in our beautiful community of York SC.  

We believe we should be voted Best In South Carolina. 

Respectfully submitted & Always Smiling ~ Charlene Hracs, LMT SC License 1802