A Coral Gables masseur accused of molesting of a sexual abuse survivor during a massage
A Coral Gables massage therapist pressured a sexual abuse survivor to stand nude in front of him then molested her during a massage, another woman told a Florida Department of Health investigator.
The woman leveling this accusation against Michael Brechtel: his ex-wife, who said their first sexual encounter was during a 2012 massage.
Brechtel voluntarily surrendered his license, a move that ended the Florida Department of Health discipline matter that included all of the above allegations. The state Board of Massage Therapy handed down the final order on Brechtel’s surrender on Tuesday. He’d been licensed since June 2007.
Messages left at two phone numbers for Brechtel found in a database haven’t been returned yet.
As of Sunday morning, Brechtel’s LinkedIn page claims that he’s a “certified traumatic incident reduction trainer and facilitator” at Traumatraining.net. State records say he was a vice president of that company as of the 2019 annual report to the state, but wasn’t as of the 2020 report. The West Perrine business changed its name to “The International Trauma Resolution and Resiliency Center” in 2018.
The “volunteer experience” section says that he’s a board member of The Trauma Resolution Center and worked with the Coral Gables business since March 2012. State records, however, don’t show him as a board member at any point.
They do show that one of the business’ original directors in 1996, the registered agent for the business until July 23, 2017 and the current president of the International Trauma Resolution and Resiliency Center is Teresa Descilo — Brechtel’s ex-wife.
Lomilomi, warm oil and demands of nudity?
The investigative report attached to the final order says Descilo came to the Florida Department of Health in September with an account of a massage session she learned about in 2017.
Brechtel’s client, KR, didn’t know anything about lomilomi (or “Lomi lomi”) massage, a centuries old Polynesian technique.
“Brechtel told her that as part of the massage, she needed to be standing fully naked in front of him so he could pour warm oil all over her body,” the report said. “KR allegedly became frightened and told Brechtel she had been sexually abused in her past and wasn’t comfortable with this process.
“Brechtel allegedly became indignant and said things to make her feel guilty, and attempted to pressure her into receiving the massage on his terms.”
The agreement they reached, according to Descilo, was that KR would keep her underwear on but Brechtel had to stay away from the area around her breasts.
Brechtel did not, Descilo said. She said he put his hands “between and around KR’s breasts against her wishes” and “flipped KR without warning, making her feel unsafe and uncomfortable with the full frontal exposure.”
The report says Miami-Dade police were notified on Oct. 21. Online court records show no arrests or charges for Brechtel.
A previous offer accepted
Descilo told the investigator that her first sexual encounter with Brechtel came as his massage client in March 2012, the same month Brechtel started volunteering with The Trauma Resolution Center. Here’s the report’s description of Descilo’s account:
“Brechtel allegedly offered [Descilo] a Lomi Lomi. Brechtel allegedly offered to give her sex and [Descilo] was too aroused to say no.”
This story was originally published April 25, 2021 at 12:21 PM with the headline "A Coral Gables masseur accused of molesting of a sexual abuse survivor during a massage."
