by Ismael M. Belkoura, Fort Worth Report
March 15, 2026

Editor’s note: Made in Tarrant is an occasional Q&A series on small businesses started in Tarrant County. Submit your business here. 

Gentle Earth Therapy held a grand opening in November. For the Report’s recurring series, health reporter Ismael M. Belkoura spoke with Cameron Stewart, husband of primary masseuse Vivi Stewart, on how things have gone for the business in its first couple of months.

Ismael M. Belkoura: Can you tell me a little bit about yourself, how you got into this industry and how you started your own business?

Cameron Stewart: So I got into it through my wife, Vivi. She is a massage therapist. When we first started dating she was working for other people’s spas. After we got together and when we were clear we were going to get married, we decided to start our own business. 

We started renting a room out of Phenix Salon Suites. It’s across the street from us. We got really big, and it got to the point where Vivi developed quite a great reputation around town. We had a lot of good, loyal clients that kept recommending us. It was just word of mouth initially. It got to the point where we decided maybe it’s time to expand and open up a multiroom spa.

We partnered with my mom. She’s the official head of the business. We started Gentle Earth Therapy in this location just because the demand was so good. We just wanted to keep going while we had momentum. And we’ve been blessed to be really successful so far, really great clients. We have some good therapists working for us. I help out with the spa bookings and getting everything ready, and my wife handles most everything else.

Belkoura: Can you be super specific about the timeline: When were you renting out the smaller space, and when did you guys, because of demand, move to this other space across the street?

Stewart: We first started out at Phenix Salon Suites November 2023, and we were there for nearly two years. We kept getting so much momentum that it was time to expand. Our current spa has four rooms, four tables and a foot massage room, and we’ve got a chair massage.

Belkoura: You mentioned that a lot of the popularity that you guys now have was because of word of mouth. What made you guys stand out initially? What do you guys continue to do to stand out?

Stewart: What we try to do is we try to give the best quality massage. That’s a simple answer. But what we also do is if you book for an hour, we are going to give you an hour. If you go to Hand & Stone or Massage Envy or any of those places, they’ll say your appointment is at 1 p.m. That really means it’s 1:05 and you may get out at 1:55 so you lose 10 minutes. What we try to do is we try to get our clients in, get the paperwork done pretty quickly, and we want to give our clients that full hour. 

Another thing that is really special about us is my wife specializes in Thai massages — Thai Combination massage — which is really good for athletes. We have a lot of people who come in every week, because they need that work on their body. 

Another thing that’s helped us out at our current location is we are connected to a doctor’s office — Dr. Damico of Skin Care Fort Worth. We refer people back and forth. That’s been really good for us. On one hand, there is a relaxation component, but on the other hand, it can be a medical treatment for people who really need to have all that tension in the body removed.

Belkoura: Is it because of this variety, or are there other reasons why the most loyal customers that have been with you since November 2023 continue to come back?

Stewart: I think they know that when they book a massage with us, it’s always going to be great. We’re going to adjust to their needs. Everyone who comes to my wife and some of our other therapists say immediately after the massage that they feel so much better. 

People know that when they book with us, they are going to get a quality massage, and they’re going to feel a lot better, and they’re going to feel healthier too.

Belkoura: I know you touched on it a little bit, but what is the breadth of massages or services that you guys provide?

Stewart: So our most popular is called Thai Combination. It’s a mix of traditional Thai massage with Swedish and deep tissue massages. We have a lot of people who love to get that one because it has stretching, it has oil and deep tissue, but also some Swedish. That one gets whatever knots you’ve got in your body corrected, but you can also really relax. 

The other one we do is Thai massage. That one’s the one for people who really need a lot of work getting those knots and that tension out of their bodies. We also do Swedish and deep tissue massages. Swedish are for people who just need to really relax and treat themselves. On our intake forms, they’ll list injuries and stuff they’ve had, or they talk about where in their body they really need to focus. We keep notes of that from week to week.

Another part of our success is just simple communication. 

Belkoura: You mentioned that y’all have been very blessed. What have been some of the challenges that have come with the business, with the industry, that some people may not be aware of?

Stewart: Honestly, the biggest challenge is finding people who are as good as my wife. We have three very good people working with us right now. They’re all part time. Ideally, we would like more full-time people eventually. 

Finding people that can offer the quality that our clients are used to is the biggest challenge. Slowly, but surely, we’re getting there.

Belkoura: What is some advice as a small-business owner that you would give to someone who is looking to start their own small business?

Stewart: I’ll give you two bits of advice. The first is very vague: you don’t know how much you don’t know until you’re in it. The second one is you don’t know how Fort Worth operates — just the bureaucracy of getting everything set up and working with the city. Fort Worth, I learned the hard way, is not the easiest city to get everything up and going. It’s kind of a slow process, and you have to talk to several different people. If you are opening a spa or any business, be prepared to have a bit of a wait before you can open your doors.

Ismael M. Belkoura is the health reporter for the Fort Worth Report. His position is supported by a grant from Texas Health Resources. Contact him at ismael.belkoura@fortworthreport.org. 

At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.

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