Articles posted by: polly_admin

Q1. You’ve recently joined the Bath Massage company, what brought you to join the team?
It was a stroke of luck. I’ve just moved back to Bath and was looking for jobs in massage therapy,
but more specifically therapeutic, deep tissue, and pregnancy massage. I searched online for
massage companies in Bath and the first one that came up was the Bath Massage Company. I
went onto the website and loved everything I read, so I wrote to Polly on the off chance she was
looking for a new therapist and my timing couldn’t have been more perfect. What stood out to me
over other massage companies was the emphasis on focusing on the client as an individual, and
not just treating each client the same or following a set routine. It’s hard to find that.

Q2. What did you do before you joined the company?
I owned my own company for 6 years. I started as a Health Coach, helping people address their
diet and lifestyle, and then I trained in Massage Therapy and Reflexology.

Q3. What treatments and therapies do you specialise in?
I specialise in therapeutic massage which tends to be deep tissue, reflexology and pre- and postnatal
massage and reflexology. I have completed lots of CPD courses but I keep coming back to
the same treatments. I believe that being committed to two or three therapies can be more
effective than practising too many.

Q4. Do you have a favourite essential oil or blend and why?
I like to use a good quality eucalyptus oil as a lovely inhalation when the client first lies down, and
then when they turn over. On pregnant clients I substitute eucalyptus for cypress. Massage can
make you so congested and yet it is so important to breathe! I personally love the citrus scents…
grapefruit, lemon, and tangerine are favourites, as I find them very happy. Another favourite is
rosemary which really helps to clear my mind, and if I’m feeling really unbalanced I burn
frankincense.

Q5. As a reflexologist, what do you think complements your treatments?
As a reflexologist I think it is really important to love and understand feet. I especially love it when I
give a full body massage and pick up on areas that are tight or out of balance, and then continue to
work these areas on the reflex points on the feet to further help the issue. I completed a course in
Spinal Reflexology two years ago which focused on just working the spinal reflex on the foot. Each
nerve between the vertebrae connects to an organ in the body. So for example, if the thyroid gland
is out of balance, working C7 on the foot can really help. I have found it the most effective way to
treat clients so far.

Q6. How do you relax and rejuvenate when you are not working?
I walk everywhere and that is my therapy and exercise. Music tends to be my go-to when I’m
starting to feel low, I love playlists with happy folk music…it just makes everything instantly feel ok.

Q7. What kind gestures do you appreciate the most?
The simple ones. A bunch of wild flowers, a beautiful card, a smile. Of course the kindest gesture a
client can give is a referral!

Q8. Where in the world would you like to travel to next?
New Zealand…I get the impression they are big on health and wellness and all things natural,
which is just up my street. But not for a long time. I have no travel bug left in me for the moment!
I’m focusing on growing some roots for now.

If you’d like to meet Mel for a treatment she currently is available Monday, Tuesday, Friday and Saturdays – to make an appointment with Mel please contact us.

We are very (very) excited to announce that we have a new member of the team…introducing Mel Williamson.

Mel trained here in Somerset, where she completed the ITEC Level 3 Diploma in Holistic Massage. She has been practicing in St. Kitts for the past few years where she partnered with local practitioners to expand her knowledge base and create an individual style blending deep tissue, Swedish, active release therapy, and trigger point therapy.

Her extensive practice and broad client base allows Mel to address conditions with the most efficacious techniques, leading to rapid, lasting results and permanent resolutions of not only symptoms, but also the underlying causes.

Mel also specialises in care of pregnant women, and completed a specialist course in antenatal and postnatal care in London, and she also gained the ITEC Level 3 Reflexology Diploma to compliment her treatments and provide yet another avenue to healing the body naturally.

Mel not only addresses the physical structure through various massage techniques and reflexology, but also incorporates diet and stress management techniques to help create a lifestyle that is not draining but rather rejuvenating. This results in more energy, more productivity, and a happier work and home life.

Treatments available with Mel include: Swedish massage, Deep Tissue massage, Reflexology, Pregnancy Reflexology and Pregnancy Massage.

We are delighted to welcome Mel into our team x

Have you heard of Bamboo Massage? Our amazing therapist Kasia Gigon is now offering this unique massage treatment from our Bath venue.

If you’re wondering what is it, pieces of smooth bamboo are gently heated and used for kneading tight muscles and rolling out tension.

Sounds painful? Not at all, the bamboo is surprisingly pliable and you’ll find yourself wondering if it’s Kasia’s hands or the bamboo that’s kneading and massaging you! Read all about this lovely new treatment here.

If you are pregnant and have been thinking about potentially doing a Hypnobirthing course but are unsure if it’s for you, or how it works, read on to hear a first hand account from a very happy client who recently did the course with Polly and had a beautiful, positive birth using all the learnt techniques. 

“Without hypnobirthing, I would not have been prepared for giving birth at all. This was my first baby, and I was going through my pregnancy focusing on what life would be like as a mother, blocking out thoughts about the actual birth. This until I met my sister’s friend, who made me realise I was suppressing thoughts of the birth out of fear, and that I should absolutely prepare myself through hypnobirthing: she regretted not doing so with her first, and had a much better experience with her second thanks to the relaxation techniques she’d learnt.

Luckily, upon moving to Bath, I found Polly, who was the perfect guide along the hypnobirthing journey. She is a kind and gentle person whose methods really put my partner and I at ease around the other people who attended the course.

Thanks to hypnobirthing, I was able to cope with a) the discomfort and b) the unexpected elements of my birth in a much calmer way than I otherwise would have. (These being a strong urge to push at 7cm dilated that completely took over due to my waters not breaking fully and an amniotic sac fooling my body into thinking it was the baby’s head! This meaning the baby was in the birth canal for longer than would have been ideal, and his heart rate had to be monitored on the way out.)

In spite of this, I was able to give in to the situation and take control at the same time – give in to what my body was doing but also push things (literally) along with my strong willpower and determination, narrowly avoiding a ventouse and episiotomy! There was no fear or panic, I just gave in to what my body was doing with some help from gas and air, and I know that I would have panicked without the preparation I received thanks to Polly’s help.

The classes consisted of a great mix of audio (mp3s and Polly reading passages to send you off into a relaxing trance), visual (birth videos), and kinaesthetic content (practical breathing exercises, practising birthing positions, showing partners where to massage the lower back, etc), as well as group conversations and lecture-style slides. We found this mixture of teaching techniques very stimulating.

Hypnobirthing is not an airy fairy technique, it includes pragmatic scientific knowledge about birthing as well as the promotion of mindfulness during this all-important phase of a woman’s life!

Finally, I benefitted from the very nice and relaxing venue, its perfect location in the centre of Bath, and appreciated the lovely home-made snacks you made. Thank you Polly for contributing positively to my birthing experience”.

Patricia, Bath

We have now launched an online booking service where you can check our availability and book your appointment with ease.

You can use the BOOK page on our homepage to make all your bookings, and your details will be securely kept on our system making it even easy each time you book.

Using a foam roller in between your massage appointments with a therapist can help maintain relaxed muscles and prevent them from tightening back up.

https://www.shape.com/fitness/workouts/10-ways-use-foam-roller

At The Bath Massage Company, we carefully select our essential oils to provide the best complement to your treatment. The right oils not only provide warmth and added relaxation but will also help to ease pain and reduce muscle inflammation especially effective in our sports massage. As essential oils are absorbed into the body, this also means their effects continue long after your massage!

We’re currently enjoying geranium – used for its warmth, balancing and lifting low moods, it is great for the skin and has also been known to reduce the appearance of wrinkles.