HI!

MASSAGE THERAPY

I fell head over heels in love with massage.

I loved the connection I got from working directly on the skin and the tactile feedback from every massage stroke and technique.

You can literally feel the muscles, fascia, and soft tissues change under your hands as the nodules, knots, and tension melt away. It’s amazing, and I still love massage to this day for that very same reason.

Strangely, I’d never had a massage before I made the decision to study massage therapy, but after 6 months there I was, a fully qualified massage therapist ready to change the world, or so I thought.

Since then, I’ve gone on to study many different styles and modalities of massage. I’ve had the privilege to study with some of the best teachers in the massage industry from around the world.

I’ve studied techniques from complete opposite ends of the spectrum. such as techniques like Chi Nei Tsang, a Chinese abdominal massage to balance Chi (energy), which I studied in 1994, and DermoNeuroModulation, which I studied in 2012 and is a science-based technique using gentle skin stretching to encourage changes in the nervous system.

WORKING WITH A HUMAN CADAVER!

Yep, that’s right—I got to spend a whole week in the dissection lab at St Andrews University with human cadavers and a scalpel.

It is easily one of the most awe-inspiring and amazing weeks of my life!

I learned more in that single week than I have from almost every other course or workshop I’ve ever attended.

Here are some of the other courses and educators I have studied with over the years:

• Art Riggs (Deep Tissue Massage) 2010

• Joel Tull (Kinetic Massage) 2010

• Sol Petersen (Applied Structural Integration) 2011

• Gil Hedley (Anatomy/Dissection) 2012

• Diane Jacobs PT (DermoNeuroModulation) 2012

• David Lauterstein (Deep Massage) 2015, 2016

• Walt Fritz (Myofascial Release) 2017 and 2019

• Anatomy Trains 2018

• Brea Johnson (Heart and Bones Yoga 200hrs) 2019

• Core Fascial Release (level 1) 2022

• Aubrey Gower (Myoskeletal Assessment & Alignment) 2023

• Dynamic Assisted Stretching 2023

Over the years, I’ve become more and more interested in how massage works from a neurological perspective rather than just muscular and mechanical.

It really is our brain and nervous system that create that feeling of magic that we experience when receiving massage and bodywork.

My fascination for all things Oriental is still intact. I still practice Chi Gung every now and then, but I see it more as mindful movement rather than energy work.

Traditional Asian massage techniques still creep into my work every now and then, and why not?

They’ve worked for thousands of years, even if the theories and methodologies behind them don’t stand up to modern scientific testing.

Massage is massage when we focus on the hands-on work; it really doesn’t matter what the theory is that’s behind it.

MY CLINIC

In 2011, I got the opportunity to take over the clinic space I was working in.

I won’t say I jumped at the chance, because I didn’t.

I certainly never set out to run a clinic, and if you’d have asked me at the time what my goals were, it 100% wouldn’t have included running a massage clinic!

But I loved the space I was working from, and it was a case of either taking it over or having someone else take it over and become my new landlord.

So, with lots of umming and ahhing, I decided being the landlord was probably the better option.

That was in 2011.

To be fair, I am extremely lucky to have found a great bunch of therapists to work with me in the clinic, and they really do make running the clinic easy peasy.