Karina Phillips - Advanced Clinical Massage Therapist

24/11/2025

Get squatting folks!

Increasing lower leg muscle mass can be as easy as a set of slow squats in your kitchen. Accelerated results can be obtained by adding resistance (weight).

24/11/2025

17/11/2025

Happy monday gorgeous being!

This weeks musings from the massage couch are encouraging you to enjoy your massage, not endure it!

No pain no gain is a great mindset for when you're training hard at a sport or in tbe gym - not for when you're trying to encourage your body to heal - it needs to feel safe in order to do this!
You will compromise your healing if you're lying there with your tissues feeling like they are under attack!

If you feel like you don't get the reaults you need unless tbe massage is brutal - perhaps you need a different type of tissue release, myofascial work is great, slow deep tissue is great, there are many ways of working deeply into tissues without them being pummelled, battered and bruised!

DM me if you'd like to chat about how I can help or visit my website if you wanna get booked in
www.kpacmt.com

14/11/2025

Can you think of a better way to spend a rainy day than in this lovely space making people feel great!
So grateful 🥰

Come and enjoy it with me - limited spaces left next week, don't miss out!

10/11/2025

Are you ready to take charge of driving your health in a positive direction?
Feeling a little lost about where to start?

Let me help you...


In addition to receiving an incredible massage I can advise you on steps to take to make dramatic improvements to your health and wellbeing.

I can help you rehabilitate physically, stretch tension and tightness out of your body, improve your daily habits leading to better sleep, better mood and a better relationship with yourself

10/11/2025

November is Men's Mental Health month - this is a subject etched in my heart forever as I heartbreakingly lost my Dad to su***de when I was just 4 years old 😭💔

My beautiful fiancé is doing Movember this month and raising funds for this super worthy cause (which I feel slightly torn about because I am strongly opposed to a Mo (sorry guys sporting the look, they're grim!) and don't enjoy having to see one each morning when I wake up 🤪 but the cause makes it worthwhile!

I've decided that in a bid to support this super important cause, I'll be donating £5 from all treatments for men during November, backdated for those done already...

And this is a double whammy of goodness because as I've said before, Advanced Clinical Massage is a great way of supporting and improving mental health in men just as much as in women...

So do something doubly awesome, book your man in for a treatment or encourage them to book and take some time out for meaningful self care and at the end of the month I will calculate and share the total that we raise to support in his fundraising efforts for

Www.kpacmt.com

https://www.fresha.com/book-now/serenity-wellbeing-w0k8pd07/all-offer?share=true&pId=242804

***deprevention

04/11/2025

It's so sweet of you, but stop folding the sheets after your massage - embrace your time and space of not being the cleaner!

They all go straight in the laundry anyway because everyone gets a lovely fresh set of linens just for them!! No shared sheets, no flipped sheets, no bare couch, no annoying couch roll! Just freshly laundered sheets!!

04/11/2025

So I had this exchange over the weekend 🙄 from someone who I went to school with and has been for maybe 2 massages in the 20 years I've been doing it... He clearly felt this was sufficient to warrant having a laugh with me regarding the work I do. He was wrong. I don't allow my fiancé or friends to make such jokes about my work, I'm not going to allow a client to do so either.

Part of my work is elevating massage to a higher standard, hence why I've done a degree level course in it. Part of my work is spreading the word about all the incredible benefits therapeutic massage has for people.

I've been fortunate in my time (compared to some of my fellow Massage Therapists experiences at least!) to only have had mild uncomfortable experiences from some men; requests for happy endings, a hard on on the couch 🤢, and this...

Now compared to the other more direct and physical suggestions this seems almost barely worth mentioning, but apparently it's the straw that has broken this camels back - I have had enough of it!!!
This is all too common for me to see posts about this and worse, so I want to put out to the men of this world, a very undeniably clear message, that this is not acceptable!!!

Massage therapy is not a s3xual service!
I'm aware that sadly, some places do use massage as a guise for this (that is a whole other issue with UK society that needs addressing imho)!

To men who are friends and loved ones of a massage therapist... don't belittle them, or their hard work and credentials by making crude and s3xualised suggestions, even as a joke! If you want to make a joke, find something funny to talk about.
If your friends do it, call them out on it too!

When you do get called out on your poor views and attitude, don't then apologise for the therapists' response to this - there is nothing wrong with them calling you out, it's valid, the issue is with your comments.

27/10/2025

One of the first things we had to do when I started my level 6 BTEC with was to recap all of the conditions that we learnt how to treat in the first ACMT year. As I did my first year back in 2017, I've been fortunate enough to get loads of experience dealing with most of these conditions and I thought it might be helpful to share details of all the things that I can help with...

You don't have to simply suffer it out even when mainstream medicine tells you there isn't anything else they can do for you - you have the power to make meaningful change in your life, sometimes you and your body just need some expert guidance and advice alongside some really good treatment.
You also don't have to wait until any of these things get to be debilitating - treating these conditions at the early stages can nip them in the bud entirely or really change your entire experience of a condition.

Please reach out if you'd like to know more about how I can help.

17/10/2025

What a difference 3 years makes!

Omg, I loved the red and orange hair combo 😍 also loving my new fringe!

The more important and meaningful change here though is where I am at...
I loved working at the Henley Chiro Centre with the very lovely team of people there and I miss them very much, however, being bold and following my dream of having my own business space has been such a good decision for me - it has pushed me so far out of my comfort zone and there have been moments when I thought maybe I should let it go and find another room to rent - I am so pleased I didn't let my doubts and fears get the better of me! Outside of your comfort zone is where the magic happens!!

Terrifying? Yes. Easy? Nope. Worth it? 100%!!!

I'm now over a year in to running my own space - it's still growing, I'm still growing, that's the point right - ever evolving into the best version of myself, and The Space Place Wellness Studio is an extension of me, so it too will continue to evolve, getting better with every little adjustment.
It makes me so damn happy turning up there to work every day, it's like a sanctuary for me and for all of my beautiful clients that have joined me so far in the journey - here's to many more years of evolution and expansion 🥰

Follow your dreams people, it will make your soul happy ✨️

17/10/2025

Musings from the massage couch...
Very quiet mumbly musings this week - it was recorded at silly o clock!

This weeks musings are about how I don't ever take for granted that it's no small thing that, for existing clients, you entrust your body to me each time you come and see me - so thank you for your body, thank you for your business and thank you for your trust!

For potential clients, I know it can be nerve-wracking considering going to a new place, meeting a new person, taking clothes off and being at the mercy of someone you only recently met!
This is why it's so important for me to help you feel comfortable with me, and confident that I'm creating a safe space for you in which you can be entirely yourself, exactly as you are - I'm not here to judge you in anyway, I just want to help you heal and feel amazing in your body and mind!

13/10/2025

Heated couch cover is back ladies and gents!
I've also invested in a lovely infrared heater to keep you snug as a bug wrapped up in a heated rug 🤭 (and be kinder to the 🌎 with energy usage).

Perfect place to come and escape the Autumn chill while doing something super good for yourself

DM me or visit my website to book
www.kpacmt.com