Holistic Massage

Holistic massage treats the person rather than the symptom. The session starts with a conversation about how you are — sleep, stress, work, mood, physical complaints — and the therapist shapes the treatment around that, drawing on Swedish massage, aromatherapy, gentle stretching, breathing and sometimes energy work such as reiki.

The pressure is generally light to medium and the pace slow, with attention to the nervous system and to emotional release as well as to muscle. It suits people going through a difficult period, recovering from illness, or carrying stress that shows up in the body as much as the mind, and it is often chosen by those who find purely physical treatments miss something.

Sessions run 60 to 90 minutes and are as likely to be offered by a therapist who also practises counselling, yoga or reiki as by a spa. It is one of the more variable treatments in the directory, so read the profile closely to see what a particular therapist's version includes.