Heather Hart, Founder/LMT

Practicing Since 2003

A 2003 graduate of the Great Lakes Institute of Technology, Heather Hart began her career at the Hamot Wellness Center and local salons. By 2005, she partnered with a local chiropractor, honing her skills in addressing soft tissue dysfunction and focusing on alleviating pain and correcting muscle imbalances. In May 2010, Heather launched her own practice, A Compassionate Hart Massage & Wellness, which has grown into Erie, PA’s top-rated massage therapy studio with over 330 five-star reviews.

In 2011, Heather earned her Reiki Master Teacher Certification, enriching her ability to support clients in achieving true mind-body integration. Her dedication to holistic wellness expanded further when she spent six years working with Great Lakes Home Hospice, offering compassionate care that remains one of the most rewarding chapters of her career.

As Heather’s passion for wellness evolved, so did her business. In 2023, she was awarded the prestigious Athena Powerlink award, gaining mentorship from 12 local leaders to help her realize her vision of creating a 3,200-square-foot wellness center.

Heather is not only a successful entrepreneur but also a passionate advocate for the massage therapy industry. She serves as a board member for both the Float Tank Association (FTA) and the AMTA Pennsylvania Chapter, working to elevate, support, and strengthen the industries and professionals she has spent more than two decades serving.

But Heather’s story today is less about expansion and more about evolution.

After spending nearly four years working toward an ambitious vision for the next chapter of A Compassionate Hart, Heather has encountered more challenges, pivots, setbacks, and hard-earned lessons than she ever anticipated. That experience has forced her to recognize something far more valuable than another business milestone: her own resilience.

It has also fundamentally changed what success looks like to her.

For years, Heather believed growth meant building something bigger—more space, more services, more employees, more opportunities, and more people to support. Today, she is questioning that definition entirely. The more she built, the clearer it became that more isn’t necessarily better. In fact, the life she wants now may require significantly less.

Heather is currently in a season of simplifying, reevaluating, and deciding what she genuinely wants the next chapter of her life and career to look like—even if that means dismantling much of what she spent years building and returning to the simplicity of working for herself.

That shift isn’t about giving up. It’s about finally understanding that she doesn’t have to sacrifice herself to keep a vision, a business, or everyone around her afloat. After decades spent caring for clients, employees, family, animals, and her community, Heather is learning to put herself back at the center of her own life.

Her personal growth today is rooted in a much simpler philosophy: she is responsible for protecting her own peace, energy, health, and happiness. She no longer feels compelled to build something bigger simply because she can. She is far more interested in building a life that actually feels good to live.

That desire for simplicity extends beyond Heather’s professional life. After years of fostering, volunteering, and dedicating herself to animal rescue, she has realized that this chapter of her life is changing, too. While she continues to deeply support the nonprofits and rescue organizations that have meant so much to her, she no longer feels the need to personally carry that work. Instead, all those years of rescue ultimately led her to create the little family she didn’t know she needed: her two dogs, Rosie and Petey, and her cat, Opal. These days, that little family—and the quiet, uncomplicated life they share—is more than enough. In fact, it’s exactly what she wants.

Outside of her professional life, Heather finds joy in comedy, community involvement, and connecting people with resources that make their lives a little better. She also hosts a podcast spotlighting local wellness experts and continues to explore what leadership, mentorship, and wellness look like when they come from a place of authenticity rather than obligation.

After more than two decades in massage therapy and 16 years in business for herself, Heather isn’t chasing bigger anymore.

She’s chasing simpler. Lighter. More intentional.

And, for perhaps the first time in her career, she’s building the next chapter around herself and for herself.