“In a previous life I was a lecturer in fine art and a gallery curator. After the stress of a few redundancies, I was looking to retrain. I found massage and fell in love with it.”

 – Lindsay, Relax & Be Therapist.

 Tell us about yourself?“I’m Lindsay, I’m 45 and I work as a holistic and deep tissue masseuse for Relax & Be. I work in both Bristol and Bath. I live in a cottage sort of in the middle of no-where! I love it but I hate commuting so much, so I’m thinking of taking up city life and moving back to Bristol.” How did you get into massage therapy?“My previous career was as a fine art lecturer in Bristol and also a curator for art galleries. After a few stressful redundancies I was looking to retrain in something else. I discovered massage by actually having a massage and thinking it would be something I would love to explore.”“My previous career was so thought heavy and I wanted to train in something more physical. So I trained in massage but also in counselling and hypnotherapy. I now specialise in deep tissue massage, I love the understanding of trigger point therapy and actually retraining the muscles into behaving in different ways.”“My future goals are to just keep delivering healing for as long as my body can do it!” How has the Covid-19 pandemic affected your life?“Lockdown has been challenging for a lot of people. My main realisation was how much we need touch in our lives. Physical contact is so important for human connection and to be without that is difficult for some people”“During my first massage out of lockdown, I burst into tears. It was so nice to have that human, healing connection again” What stretch or exercise would you recommend to your clients?“I do a lot of basic Yoga stretches, I don’t know the names for them but focusing on stretching the spine out and shoulder/arm stretches. I also recommend to my clients simple shoulder shrugging. With many of us working from home at the moment we are often hunched over a laptop. Shoulder shrugging helps retrain the brain from tense to relaxation” What’s your favourite essential oil?“My two favourite oils at the moment are Peppermint: for its healing quality especially for headaches and migraines. And Orange for its nice wintery essence.