Karina Phillips - Advanced Clinical Massage Therapist

03/09/2025

My client has been suffering for 3 months with TMD/TMJ - for her it was presenting with intense face and head pain, unexplained pain in her teeth and some strange sensations in her tongue.
She's been to the GP, been referred to a specialist, had a CT scan - none of what little either of them suggested to her, in 3 months, made any difference! 😭
One treatment of clinical massage tailored at treating TMJ and the next day she is pain free! ❤️

This isn't the end of her journey, she knows, and I know, that it's likely the pain will creep back in over the next few days 😒 but that's why she's committed to doing some regular sessions.
We'll keep working the way we'd did in her first session, mixing it up depending on what we find and how the pain changes as it heals, finding the trigger points, releasing the tension, in not only her jaw but also her face, neck and head, calming her nervous system with soothing, relaxing and caring touch
✨️🙌🏼✨️

Based on many of the previous clients I've treated, each week the pain free time will get a little longer, the pain comes back a little less intense until it's gone... then she'll come in with something different going on and when I ask how her jaw is feeling she'll have forgotten that it was ever an issue for her... and in the meantime, the first pain free day in 3 months is a wonderful relief and reassurance that she hasn't had while waiting for the Dr's to provide some answers.

Are you ready to make some meaningful difference to your pain? DM me to chat about how I can help you feel great with clinical massage

04/08/2025

Are you suffering with pain that you just cant seem to shift? Seen the Dr/Chiro/Physio etc etc and get little to no improvement- a course of clinical massage might be what you need...

This isn't just massage to treat the specific trigger points in your muscles that might be contributing to your pain... breaking down adhesions in your tissues... releasing long-held trauma from your fascia... stretching and easing away the tension and making you feel great... giving you a well earned break from everything you do in life so you can just be....

It's treatment combining all of the above with...
- Regulating your nervous system that's over-burdened with the stresses of life.
- Increasing your understanding of how chronic pain works and what is actually going on in your body.
- Empowering you to make changes to your own mindset and belief systems around your pain and your day to day habits and life choices that ultimately create your reality.

All with the aim of helping you feel great!

01/07/2025

Last availability before my holiday lovely people...

20/06/2025

It's looking like a beautiful and busy week at The Space Place next week and I just have these 3 appointments left - yay for me 😄 of course it would be even more yay for me if some of you lovely people would like to fill these spaces and do something great for yourself!

It's proving to be a lovely, cool space even on the hot days and I do have my fan out now just in case!

Message or call on 07727 262925 if you'd like to discuss how I can help you or to book in!

16/06/2025

Ladies - if you're;
- over 35
- struggling with your mental health, especially stress, depression or anxiety
- living with any kind of ongoing pain
you may be suitable to take part in my research study.

6 weeks completing a 10min survey, 6 weeks of survey plus a beautiful, gentle, nurturing massage and a very quick and simple homecare practice, then a follow up survey 4 weeks after the 6th treatment. Simple.

Jing Method Clinical Massage has already been shown in many small scale studies to have really positive impacts on the mental health factors I'm studying... I'd love to help you make positive improvements to your life!

16/06/2025

Happy Monday you lovely being... maybe if you're seeing this it's a sign to take some meaningful and positive action to improve your health and wellbeing or that you're in need of some escape from this crazy world we live in 🤪 either way I can help you with that!

Message or call me to book in: 07727 262925

30/05/2025

As someone both with my own chronic pain and a purpose that involves helping people with their chronic pain, it's a subject I've done a lot of research into.

A huge part of the work I do with clients, aside from lovely scrumptious feeling treatments, is educating them as to what is really going on with their pain. We live in a society that is heavily focused on the mechanical and 'body up' approach and understanding of pain and, sadly and to the detriment of many people's healing, this is missing huge parts of the puzzle.

The good news is that you can make a difference to long term pain! Even better news is that you can protect yourself against getting to this stage!
If your pain practitioner, be it a GP, chiro, osteo, physio, massage therapist, isn't aware of the latest understanding of how pain works and is overly focused on what's going on in your tissues, maybe start to educate yourself...

A good place to start is The Way Out by Alan Gordon. I'll link here to the audiobook on Spotify but you can get it on all of the audiobook apps or even as a good old fashioned book, cos nothing beats a book - IYKYK!

https://open.spotify.com/show/5GtHbHpP56gHl5YQ2OLy53?si=kP1g3AeITJ-WkBzlJ0syiQ

I'm also always happy to chat if you're concerned that your stress is affecting your health or if you just want to know more - I genuinely love this stuff!!!

20/05/2025

Stressed, Anxious or Depressed & in pain?

You might be the perfect candidate for my upcoming research project starting in July.
Please reach out if you're interested.

If you know anyone you think might benefit from this please do share.

Many thanks 😊 🙏🏼

20/05/2025

Ladies!
Are you stressed, depressed or anxious?
Living with some kind of chronic pain?
In need of a decent massage, or 6?

Take part in my research study about the effects of massage on mental health (and maybe improve your pain at the same time!).

DM me your email address to be sent all the deets!

Please spread the word to anyone else you know who might benefit from this study 🙏🏼

22/04/2025

Some great tips here from a very knowledgeable practitioner...

09/04/2025

This!

The whole idea of no pain no gain that has been drummed into us for decades is really not appropriate folks - your body heals when you treat it with love, kindness and mindful touch - not abuse under the guise of therapy!!

I once read that the body cannot heal if it is under threat. One of the greatest offerings we have as massage therapists is to bring our clients into a place of safety so the body can get on with the job of repair.

I liken a brutal touch to the cornstarch demonstration I do in my Transverse STR practical day. I fill a bowl with cornstarch and add water, enough to create a semi-solid consistency. If you pound it, it remains solid, but if you apply your touch mindfully, you melt right through it.

Our bodies are very much like this - brutal work will put up walls of resistance and mindful work will get you to the depth that encourages repair.

07/04/2025

Why I bombard you all with aftercare at the end of every treatment folks 🤪 this is how I was trained (by masters of their craft!)... and more importantly because it works so well - never underestimate the power of small changes!