Some people build businesses.
Others build places where people rediscover hope.
For Tara Mechaley, owner of The Body Spa & Cryo in Rapid City, healing has never been about massages, cryotherapy, or wellness treatments alone. It’s about people. It’s about seeing someone who feels invisible, carrying burdens no one else can see, and reminding them they’re worthy of care.
That mission didn’t begin when she opened her business. It began generations before she ever unlocked the doors to The Body Spa.
“My story technically started before I was born,” Tara said.
Her father, a firefighter, artist and Navy veteran, was killed by a drunk driver just 6 months after marrying her mother. A month later, her mother learned she was pregnant. Although Tara never had the chance to know her father, his legacy of service became part of her identity. Raised by her mother, Mary Beth, her Marine veteran stepfather Charlie, and grandparents who dedicated their lives to serving others, Tara learned early that every person deserves dignity.
Her grandfather, E.P. Howe, served in the Marine Corps, worked in the Civilian Conservation Corps in the Black Hills, became a park ranger, Border Patrol agent and construction contractor who helped rebuild Rapid City following the 1972 flood. More importantly, he taught her one lesson she’s never forgotten.
“He taught us that you shake the hand of the person living on the street exactly the same way you would shake the hand of the President.”
Her grandmother, Grace, an Army nurse, embodied compassion.
“Do for others as you would want them to do for you,” Tara recalled.
Looking back, Tara says serving people wasn’t a career she chose.
“It’s simply how I was raised.”
Her grandparents taught her that you should always give back to the community. That’s why it’s a priority for her to do community fundraising, donations, and volunteering. That foundation would later become even more personal. Tara openly shares something many people would be afraid to say aloud. She is a suicide survivor.
“I’ve walked through seasons where I truly believed the world would be better without me,” she said.
Years of emotional abuse left her questioning her worth until, as she describes it, God gave her another chance. That experience forever changed how she views healing.
“I don’t want people walking through our doors feeling invisible,” she said. “I want every client and every employee to know they’re valued, they’re needed, and somebody genuinely cares that they’re here.”
It’s why she believes healing isn’t simply physical.
Chronic pain affects emotions.
Trauma affects the nervous system.
Anxiety settles into muscles.
“The body and the mind are connected,” Tara said. “You can’t separate the two.”
When The Body Spa first opened, Tara wasn’t trying to create the largest wellness center in the region. In fact, she admits she never intended to own a business at all.
“I desperately wanted to provide a sanctuary for people,” she said.
Over time, that sanctuary became exactly what she envisioned, a place where people can finally exhale. Some clients arrive because of shoulder pain. Others can’t sleep. Some are grieving. Others carry invisible wounds no one else knows exist.
“I wanted them to walk into a place where they didn’t have to pretend anymore.”
Her favorite saying captures everything she believes.
“Pain isolates. Healing reconnects.”
Sometimes that means reconnecting a muscle. Sometimes it means reconnecting someone with hope. Sometimes it means reconnecting a veteran with their family because they’re no longer bringing pain and frustration home every night. That passion for veterans isn’t accidental. Military service has surrounded Tara throughout her entire life. Her husband, Marshall, served in Iraq. She has witnessed firsthand the weight veterans often continue carrying long after they return home.
“I’ve watched my husband grieve friends he lost overseas and friends who came home only to lose their battles here,” she said.
She’s also worked alongside first responders, nurses and healthcare professionals who face unimaginable trauma every day.
“The armor that keeps them alive at work doesn’t simply come off when they walk through their front door.”
That understanding inspired one of The Body Spa’s most meaningful projects, a pilot cryotherapy study focused on disabled veterans struggling with chronic pain. The results were remarkable. Veterans reported reduced pain, improved quality of life, decreased medication use and renewed hope. But for Tara, statistics were never the story.
“The numbers were exciting,” she said. “But honestly, the statistics weren’t what stayed with me. The people did.”
She remembers one veteran who had relied on a morphine patch for years before eventually working with his physician to stop using it after incorporating massage therapy and cryotherapy. Another veteran living with multiple sclerosis, fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome quietly admitted she’d been taking shots of vodka every night simply to sleep through the pain before finding healthier ways to cope. Perhaps the story that impacted Tara the most came from a veteran who told her his greatest improvement wasn’t physical at all.
“I wasn’t angry anymore,” he shared.
He was no longer snapping at his wife. No longer lashing out at his children.
“For the first time in a very long time,” Tara recalled, “he felt comfortable in his own skin again.”
Then there was the survey response she’ll never forget. “I no longer want to not live anymore.” Those words continue to drive everything she does. Despite those successes, Tara admits the journey hasn’t been easy.
As a credentialed VA provider, she’s watched preventative, whole-body care become increasingly difficult to access because of regulations, funding limitations and administrative hurdles.
She has seen veterans worry their referrals will end, not because they enjoy massage therapy, but because it’s helping them sleep, function and reconnect with their families without depending solely on opioids. Those moments are heartbreaking. But they’re also what keep her fighting.
“What keeps me going are the people,” she said.
Every step taken. Every better night’s sleep. Every smile. Every moment someone rediscovers hope. To Tara, those victories are everything. She also believes healing extends beyond the clients she serves. Over two decades of studying massage and wellness therapies, she has dedicated herself to mentoring the next generation of therapists.
“I want every one of my practitioners to become a better therapist than I am.”
Because no one heals alone.
She credits her incredible team, supportive family, mentors and unwavering faith in God for helping make The Body Spa what it has become today. Looking ahead, Tara dreams even bigger. She hopes to someday establish the Freedom to Heal Initiative, a nonprofit dedicated to providing healing services for veterans, first responders, families facing medical crises and others who need support but may not have access to it.
“I don’t believe one business should carry that burden alone,” she said. “I believe healing is something a community can invest in together.”
When asked what she hopes people remember after reading her story, her answer wasn’t about herself.
“I hope people don’t remember me at all,” she said. “I hope they remember how they felt.”
If someone finishes reading believing they’re worth taking care of… Believing they’re not alone… Believing there’s still hope… Then Tara says that’s enough. Before ending our conversation, she offered one final reminder that feels especially fitting in today’s busy world.
“If not now… when?”
Take care of yourself. Not because it’s selfish. Because your family needs you. Your friends need you. Your community needs you. And, as Tara believes with all her heart, every one of us was put here for a reason.
Never forget that.
