Sarah Nelson Massage Therapy

14/09/2025

Hello,

I'm doing a bit of web site maintenance today so the site isn't available.

I'm still contactable on messenger or via email: feelgreat@sarahnelsonmassagetherapy.co.uk. I'll update here when it's up and running again.

08/10/2024

I'm delighted after a long absence on here to announce the opening of my new workspace in Blackpool.

Since moving here in 2022, the other half and I have been working hard to create a relaxing space for my treatments in the centre of Blackpool and I'm proud to finally show you the results below. I'm currently open for bookings on Wednesdays and Fridays.

Please note my clinics in central Manchester and Adlington, near Chorley, will also continue.

But meantime, if you have unresolved pain, scars or chronic illness symptoms or cancer is affecting your life, a massage may help. Contact me to find out more.

19/08/2022

I'm off on holiday for a couple of weeks, so no appts til the start of September now, but before I go, I thought I'd share this lovely article I saw today about an artist who has been working with scars.

Although it's a very different approach to what scarwork does, it shares the idea that scars represent part of our journey through life, and for this reason they can be symbols of hope, healing and progress rather than bad or ugly, which unfortunately many people believe about their scars.

Like the golden kintsugi of the artist, manual therapy for scars helps people to learn to love and accept their scars as part of a successful recovery from illness or injury.

I can't turn a scar gold, but it is a lot easier to learn to live with and love a scar that isn't painful, restrictive or numb.

Cambridge artist makes patients' scars 'glisten with gold'

The artworks, inspired by the Japanese technique Kintsugi, are on display at Addenbrooke's Hospital.

26/03/2021

Hello everyone!

It's been a while since I've done anything on here, so firstly, apologies for the absence.

As you may know, the government has said massage will be allowed again from 12th April. It's been a long time and I've been missing everyone loads, so I'm excited to welcome you back for treatment.

If you'd like to make a booking, please get in touch (and be patient as i'm not checking work stuff every day).

I'll be starting quite slowly, as I had Covid in March last year and unfortunately I'm still affected physically, with fatigue and aches and pains being my main symptoms.

I will be attempting to do three days a week to begin with, two at Adlington, one in Manchester.

Until the vaccination programme is completed, to minimise risk for everyone, I'll be keeping the length of appointment as 60m max, with deep cleaning taking place in between each session, so appointments will be more limited in availability as we go forward for now.

The latest evening appointment I will be able to offer for now will be 5-6pm to help me to manage my own fatigue.

For new clients our consultation session prior to the first massage will take place by video.

I hope this is useful information but if you need more, drop me a line.

15/09/2020

I’m on holiday this week, but diligently doing some training and this is my homework:

Who has/had:

TMJD
Migraines
Headaches
Earaches
Vertigo
Tinnitus
Visual disturbances

Give me a yes below.

09/07/2020

Hi everyone again,

Today I have some more news and this time it’s of a good variety. Hurrah!

The govt has said we can begin to offer massage from next week, which is fantastic news.

However, it’s quite short notice, and new rules will apply to keep us all safe, so the earliest I would be offering appointments is from 27th July. Even this is isn’t definite but it seems more likely than anything we’ve been told so far.

Til now the new rules have been discussed quite vaguely, and its even today these have still not been clarified.

As you can imagine, there are likely to be a few hoops that I need to jump through before my insurers will consider me safe to work.

I don’t want to bore you but it’s worth making you aware of some of this stuff, primarily to explain the delay.

The first of these is asking the building owners where I work (Adlington and Manc city centre) to complete a risk assessment. This will allow me to complete my own assessment and make appropriate changes to the way the room and entrances are set up.

I also need to order relevant PPE and set up a new workable schedule based on the new guidelines, as cleaning needs to take place between each appointment.

To make all of this a bit easier, I plan to offer an online booking facility. So I also need to get this sorted.

I know that some have been lucky enough not to be affected by the virus much, or at all.

However, I became quite sick at the start of lockdown, and I am still not fully recovered. I get tired from even quite small activities on a daily basis.

Whilst I may never know if it was covid, many of the symptoms matched, and it made me
ill enough that my first priority when I start is to make sure we are all as safe as possible.

Massage should be a place for relaxing, not worrying, so I hope you will all be able to bear with me moving forward while I get this sorted out.

At this point if anyone would like to make a booking for August, I am happy to accept them as of now, so please pm me on here in the first instance.

I should add a big fat caveat that this is of course all subject to change, so watch this space for now. Xx

03/07/2020

Hi all,

It’s time for a little massage update as it’s been a while since the last one.

I hope you’re all keeping well out there first of all.

Disappointingly, there is still no news around opening for massage therapists in England (as of today, well-qualified therapists in Scotland and therapists in Ireland now have dates for a return).

Our industry bodies are working hard to lobby the government about this, but it’s clear there’s a long way to go in terms of understanding of what we do.

I mentioned in my last post we were in the hairdresser category and that’s no longer the case. Progress of a sort! 😏

But some of you may already have seen the depressing footage of ill-informed MPs discussing the subject of my profession in a lighthearted way this week, or seen references to ‘massage parlours’ in government documents. If not, and you have a moment it’s worth a look for them.

If it wasn’t so jaw-dropping, it’d be like a whimsical trip down memory lane to the 1950’s in terms of attitude/ignorance. MPs guffawed as they belittled a form of healthcare that has been used by humans to help each other since records began.

It may surprise some of you to learn that I face confusion regularly as to whether what I do is s.ex work (It’s not).

Attitudes like this do not help, so I’m very pleased to also report that thanks to some excellent work by my colleagues many references have now been changed to ‘massage therapists’. Which is nice.

But even if we get them to understand what we do, the situation in the country remains too risky for close contact services based on the govt’s own guidelines: Leicester is in lockdown again, testing is still not what it needs to be and the tracking system is only reaching 25% of those it should.

At time of writing, the UK’s daily death rate from covid is more than the rest of Europe combined and we’re about to open pubs this weekend which may lead to a further increase in cases.

So, whilst I’m very sad that I can’t see any of you, and beginning to be a bit impatient now, like I’m sure you many of you are, we need to carry on as we are for now.

If you have any massage related questions, or any odd aches and pains you’d like advice about, you know where I am meantime.

Due to the ‘dry’ nature of this post, I won’t add anything fancy like a picture.

But I hope this slightly grumpy tone amuses you all enough to have a good weekend.

Missing you all meantime. Xx

10/06/2020

Hi all,

I hope everything’s good with all of you and you’re surviving lockdown with everyone safe around you.

It’s time for a little update, as people are beginning to ask what’s happening with massage appts.

I won’t bore you with too many details, but in order for me to practise I need insurance. I always joke that massage is normally very safe and I haven’t killed anyone so far, but in reality, this situation represents a risk, especially to clients with pre-existing conditions, or who have friends/relatives who fall into this group.

Until my governing body (The FHT -there are others in the Uk too) decides that the risk of working is small enough, massage therapists won’t be insured to return to work.

The govt guidance changes a lot daily, and is complicated, but it seems that massage is considered to be in the same risk category as hairdressers and beauty salons.

Some guidance suggests that 4th July may be possible to return to work, but other sources suggest mid August. For those of you geeking out about the specifics, it will be deemed safe when we move from level 4 to 3.

It will all depend on the rate of infection and numbers of confirmed cases staying low/reducing further.

Although I can understand that this may feel frustrating, given how infectious Covid is, it makes sense to wait until the country has decent track and trace, as well as more widely available testing before we go back.

I got sick with something which I believe was Covid at the start of lockdown, and it hit me badly, so I am acutely aware of how unpleasant this disease can be.

My priority is always to protect and care for all my clients as much as possible, and this may mean waiting for longer than we want to see each other during these strange times.

So watch this space. As soon as I have definitive information about what’s what, I will let you all know.

Meantime, if any of you are struggling with aches and pains and would like to have a little zoom chat with me to go through some stretches, let me know!

Or if you have any other massage related questions, you know where I am.

Nothing is as good as a massage from another person, but there are plenty of useful tools and techniques that you can use to look after your body, and limited opportunities to socialise mean you should have some free time to use them! Give me a shout with any queries.

Please note: I’m not checking in here every day. It’s too depressing I’m afraid!

If you want me more quickly, email feelgreat@sarahnelsonmassagetherapy.co.uk and I’ll get back to you within 48 hours.

Be well, and safe and care for each other.

Sarah xx

12/03/2020

Time to write something about Coronavirus, as today I’ve had some cancellations due to self isolating.

I don’t have all the answers but thought a massage/aroma perspective might be useful.

Following government advice is sensible (on this occasion 😏).

Wash your hands with soap and water whenever you can, and use hand sanitiser often when you can’t. Try not to touch your face. Use moisturiser to stop your hands from drying out because germs can enter small cuts in dry skin.

If you’d like to do more to protect yourself and those around you, here are my top tips:

1. Get an aromatherapy diffuser if you don’t have one, and diffuse essential oils in your home or office (get permission and check for colleague allergies) that are known for their anti viral and immune system boosting properties. These include eucalyptus, lemon, lemongrass and Siberian fir.

The tiny airborne particles from the diffuser spread themselves over clothes, furniture and people, getting rid of nasties that might be lurking. And they smell good! Some hospitals use this method to deep cleanse rooms which don’t respond to other methods of cleaning and there is evidence it is effective.

Neal’s Yard Remedies make a nice pre-blend called Organic Defence but unsurprisingly it’s sold out. Shout if you’d like more blend ideas.

2. Have a massage or go to a yoga class.

There is a lot of evidence to show that both of these boost your immune system which is really our best defence, after hygiene. Good therapists and teachers should already be following appropriate hygiene protocols to minimise risk in these situations. For example, I diffuse appropriate oils while working in addition to changing linens between clients and washing hands.

3. Eating healthily to give your body the right fuel to protect itself is also a good plan though it’s not my area of expertise so see a nutritionalist if you have concerns or want to know more.

Avoiding booze, alas, falls under this one. It reduces immune system activity markers by around 25% within 30 mins of consumption.

4. Try not to worry.

This is not meant to sound trite. Clearly it’s not an ideal situation. However, we do have an inbuilt defence mechanism in our bodies: our immune systems. And guess what? They don’t work as well when we are anxious or stressed! So, try to focus on the positive things you can do for yourself.

Finally, it might help to reflect on this:

We’re so lucky that most of us have not experienced a public health crisis like this ever before in our lifetimes. At some points in human history, our current situation was the norm rather than an exception. Well done science and medicine! 🤩😀

Sending love and good health to all of you meantime. Xx

05/03/2020

Exciting news this week: I’m officially qualified as a TMJ Practitioner!

I’m very chuffed, as it’s been hard work to get here. It’s a bit awards ceremony, but a big thanks to all who helped, especially my awesome case studies.

I’m now able to help with many more common problems relating to heads and necks, including lockjaw, tooth grinding, migraines, tinnitus, snoring and stuffy noses and a whole host of other TMJ related symptoms.

So if you or anyone you know is suffering, they don’t need to any longer!

19/01/2020

Seems like this will be a really fascinating programme.

Touch is the first sense to develop in the womb and often the last to remain with us as we move towards the end of our lives. It connects all of us human beans. Worth a listen I reckon.

What impact does touch have on our lives? Claudia Hammond reveals the many aspects of touch and investigates what we still don’t know about this sensory experience.