Jessica Villeneuve | Top 40 Under 40 2025

Age: 39

Occupation: Founder and CEO, Same Stars Wellness

For Jessica Villeneuve, massage therapy isn’t a luxury reserved for those with a good benefits package — it’s health care. In 2018, she founded Same Stars Wellness to deliver evidence-informed treatment to adult and pediatric patients with disabilities, serious illness or trauma, and to those in end-of-life care.

“We’re not a spa,” Villeneuve says. “We treat people with cancer, cerebral palsy and neurological disorders. And we build treatment plans around their actual lives.”

Villeneuve started Same Stars Wellness as a mobile clinic and as its sole therapist. Today, she has a staff of 15 who have provided massage and acupuncture treatments to more than 31,000 patients in Calgary, including more than 15,000 treatments for patients living with disabilities and more than 2,500 treatments for patients navigating cancer care.

In 2023, she opened an accessible brick-and-mortar clinic in Bridgeland.

Although Villeneuve trained to become a Registered Massage Therapist and Certified Pediatric Massage Therapist in B.C. and Ontario, where massage is a regulated health profession, this structure doesn’t exist in Alberta.

“Anyone here can call themselves a massage therapist. There are no standardized requirements. That puts people at risk,” she says.

In addition to advocating for licensing reform, she shares her expertise through Same Stars Academy, which has trained more than 500 massage therapists in Alberta in oncology, neurological care and palliative treatment.

Changing the way massage is delivered in Calgary comes from Villeneuve’s mission to help her patients get the care they deserve and from her own lived experience.

She suffers from chronic migraines, often experiencing more than 20 episodes a month. The severity of her neurological condition can cause vision loss, speech disruptions and pain so intense she sometimes has to work from a hospital bed.

“My head being a lemon makes me a better therapist,” says Villeneuve. “I’ve lived this. I know what it’s like to be dismissed. And I never want someone to feel that way on my watch.”

Thank yous
“So many people for helping be able to do what I do. It hasn’t been easy but it’s always been worth it! My husband Marco — thank you for believing in every goal I’ve ever set, and for always reminding me to eat, sleep, and take care of myself along the way; my mom — who has spent her life advocating for me, making sure I felt seen, supported and never alone. She’s the reason I found this path, and I try to carry even a fraction of her strength and heart into everything I do. To my dad, who taught me never to stay quiet and to always use my voice to push for better — just like he did, fiercely and with purpose; Jeff and Georgina — thank you for always cheering me on and supporting the clinic every step of the way; your belief in what we’re building means the world; to the entire Same Stars team — thank you for living our values every day, for believing in accessible, evidence-based care and for leading with your hearts in every interaction and every appointment; Shai — the clinic wouldn’t be what it is without you; most importantly, to Halsey June — you’re still little, but thank you for keeping mama on her toes and making everything more fun; life is infinitely better with you in it.”