We were sad to learn that Karen Clarke, an early NO HANDer and the NO HANDS Poet Laureate, died recently. In her own words (from some years back)... "Hi, I’m Karen Clarke, and I attended my first NO HANDS course in March 2006. I was very quiet, shy and lacked something called “confidence”!"By September 2006 I was doing my Advanced Practitioner course. I had been going through more and more emotional release and structural re-alignment. I guess all the releasing ...

By Company Director, Tigger MacGregor The conflict in the world is heartbreaking. From the domestic violence that happens in every residential area to international crises like Ukraine and Gaza and everything in between. Heartbreaking. So often it feels like there's nothing, individually, we can do about these situations. Nothing, that is, other than making a major shift in our own lives to focus on addressing the issues through retraining, campaigning, lobbying or a host of other avenues. And ...

Running your own business means you're in charge...of everything! Which also means it's exceptionally easy to get overwhelmed and find yourself floundering around in analysis paralysis, or doing jobs which are useful - but aren't actually progressing you towards your long term goals. I believe the first step with getting clear on your focus has two dimensions: What is your focus in terms of where you want to get to? **and** What is your next step, the thing you need to focus your energy on ...

By NO HANDS Master & Co-Owner, Tigger MacGregor On the one hand, it's simple: 1) Complete the NO HANDS Massage Core SyllabusComprising the 4Elements (Part 1: Practitioner, Part 2: Advanced) & Transactional Bodyworker = 18 days of training 2) Attend the Mastery Programme for at least one yearThree, 3-day modules in a calendar year = 9 days of training 3) Complete the 7 essay-style assignmentsAs detailed in the members' area 4) Put yourself forward for Assessment while on MasteryTell ...

The right music can add such a powerful extra level to Massage treatments  - but getting it wrong can pretty much destroy things too! However, there are lots of reasons why a client may prefer to have no music - one being that they are a professional musician. When a client's career (and / or calling) is musical, that highly attuned part of their brain won't find the music a useful addition: it will usually become a massive distraction and, as mentioned above, potentially destroy ...

Searching for the best massage could easily take you a lifetime. It could also get you nowhere - or worse, set you back. So how can you "cut the corner" and get the best massage, for you, and for your clients? Simple: get the best massage for you. Learn how to deliver the best massage for your clients. Rather like a piece of music that is played at a uniform volume throughout, if touch is applied at a consistent depth it simply becomes “white noise”. In other words, ...

We think NO HANDS Massage is a great course to choose if you're looking for CPD - but then we would say that! The video below from our friends at Massage Warehouse sees several therapists from different backgrounds sharing their views on what CPD they've undertaken and would recommend - and at around 14min 30sec former student, Chris Maddon, talks about his experience of NO HANDS training. Check it out!

Wendy visited Miranda in her clinic in Herefordshire this week to film this short video. Please forgive the shaky bits, she is by no means a film expert! You can hear Wendy's voice in the background a couple of times, but mainly you will see Miranda sharing her journey from her painful days before NO HANDS to where she is now. Just see the joy on her face, and I defy anyone who spends just 8 minutes watching this not to be enthused by it. Of course if you want to get some of what Miranda's ...

I don't know where to start with this photo. This is the future. This is potential. This is love. This is support. This is excellence. This is humility. This is joy. This is the world I want to see. This. Is. Love.  (From left) NO HANDS Massage Masters Wendy Mills, Tigger MacGregor, Beth Lloyd, and B(eth) Hunt (joined here by her amazing son) gathered at the inaugural TigFest this weekend. There are other Masters not in this picture - not because they don't deserve to be here, not because ...

Massage means different things to different people: Different approaches: sports, relaxation, NO HANDS… Different impacts: pain, pleasure, and a lot in between. Different intentions: to “fix”, to be the “expert”, to deliver safe Touch for the client to use as they wish and do their own healing. So I got to thinking: what *is* my definition of what I offer as a Massage therapist? How would I, as it were, describe what a treatment with me is like to the ...

NO HANDS Therapist, Sandra Morris, has completed the full journey from the core zero strain bodywork right through transactional bodywork and to the most advanced NO HANDS strokes. She's also a NO HANDS Instructor, trained and licensed to offer the NO HANDS PRACTITIONER training. She offers both treatments and training courses in Essex.   "I started my working career as a hairdresser eventually opening my own salon in Leigh on Sea, which I ran for 22 years. When I reached ...

I’ve been utterly spoiled when it comes to Massage. After a brief dalliance with classic Swedish Massage, I got injured, found NO HANDS and never looked back. Which means I’ve also received hundreds, if not thousands, of exquisite NO HANDS treatments, both on courses and as a client. That said, I remain curious as to what’s going on in the rest of the Massage world. Every now and then I book in for a non-NO HANDS treatment – and, I confess, ...

One of the funny things about this story is that I’m convinced I first heard it on a NO HANDS Massage course, but Gerry (Pyves – founder of NO HANDS) swears blind that he first heard this story from me. Point being, if you’ve heard this story before or know its origins, please let me know! Every day things happen to us that we don’t take the time (or have the time) to ponder, process and integrate fully. They could be seemingly ...

Self-care and self-love are essential for a happy and healthy life. Even more so when working within the healing world - as therapists we are exposed to more stories of hurt, pain and trauma than many people hear in a lifetime. And that's on top of events in our own lives. Kim McMillen's poem, As I began to love myself, puts the journey towards self-care and self-love utterly beautifully (you can find it below). As is so often the case, the words of a gifted author offer a beautiful ...

The role of Massage in addressing and resolving trauma is a rapidly expanding field. Seeing Touch be recognised as a vital part of healing, especially in the challenging realm of trauma therapy, is a real victory. Especially for NO HANDS therapists who have been offering their clients the Touch, boundaries and communication which makes safe trauma release possible. This recent On Being podcast with renowned trauma therapist & researcher, Bessel van der Kolk, is fascinating on many levels ...

What a man: I was sad to hear of the death of Archbishop Desmond Tutu on Boxing Day. However, as sure as life is not possible without death, this news prompted me to re-examine the incredible man he was. There's an excellent and comprehensive Wikipedia page about him which I enjoyed reading to get more of a feel of him as a person. The quote that stood out for me was this, from his time at St Peter's Theological College in Rosettenville, Johannesburg. The college's principal, Godfrey ...

By Master Tigger MacGregor Last day of advent! When I was little I was always foxed by the advent calendars that stopped on the 24th - I mean, the 25th's the big day, right? And no, it wasn't all about the chocolate: I never had a chocolate advent calendar as a child - instead we had a stash of advent calendars that had been bought over the years and I got to have several in different places in the house. Mainly because I could never manage to choose my favourite... Every journey has to end and ...

I Choose Love I wrote about Love being a Doing Thing a few days back. Sometimes the "doing" looks suspiciously like doing nothing at all. Especially when it comes to choose what to say - and what not to say. Good communication has always been immensely important to me. Call me a pedant and I'll wear it as a badge of honour. One of the wonderful things about coming to NO HANDS Massage courses as a student was the outstanding communication I discovered. Generous. Compassionate. Clear. ...

Life as a Massage therapist can be incredibly lonely. Perhaps that's one of the reasons so many therapists attend courses in a range of different treatments and approaches: this is their opportunity to be with fellow professionals, to connect. The downside is becoming a "Jack of All Trades" - and Master of none. But the subject of specialism or generalism is one for another day. In addition to courses, there are also lots of therapist groups - both virtual and in person. These can be a ...

The most common greeting at this time of year is "Merry Christmas!" Although now very much a cultural celebration, the origins of this celebration are, of course, the birth of Jesus Christ, at the very heart of the Christian tradition. Being agnostic, and respecting the roots of things, celebrating Christmas doesn't really do it for me. Next up comes "Happy New Year!" I wanted to get behind this and I tried really hard. It was the end of one year and the beginning of the next! Woo hoo! Yeah, ...

We live in a world where a lot of money is made by making us feel inadequate - and hence need to buy the next "great product/experience". It's not enough to have a loving community and a simple life - you need a bigger house, a shinier car, a more toned belly, different coloured hair, make-up that obscures the lines and marks on your skin that make you, you. The list goes on. You know this list. You live this list. This constant yearning and striving for more, bigger, better in every aspect of ...

We live in a world that rewards fast. Where quality is often sacrificed in favour of quantity. Where people work incredibly long hours to be able to afford two weeks of rest by a pool in the Maldives. Yet slow really is beautiful. Entirely counter-cultural yet still beautiful. There is nothing I enjoy more than watching a room full of NO HANDS therapists as they explore just how slow they can go. How slow they can go while also maintaining the flow that is so characteristic of a NO HANDS ...

Something about the current situation with the Omicron variant of COVID-19 has brought back echoes of the days before the very first UK lockdown. We know so much more than we did then: about COVID-19, about masks, about lockdowns, about lateral flow tests and PCR tests (I just looked it up: PCR stands for polymerase chain reaction). We also know how much uncertainty there is in life - to a degree I definitely used to take for granted. Running away and hiding from it all isn't an ...

Touch can be an incredible healer. But ONLY if there is true consent. Sometimes it's explicit verbal consent. Sometimes it's body language - the way someone opens their arms for a hug, they way they lean in to a gentle stroke on the arm. Yet sometimes consent is virtually impossible to achieve because the person in the position to give consent has never been taught that their body is their own - that it is their right to say yes, or no. This can happen in a multitude of ways but until that ...

Tolerance. Three short syllables. Often a whole heap of energy required! There are some things in life that shouldn't be tolerated: bad relationships, bad jobs, bad political systems. But sometimes knowing what we can tolerate - and what's too much - is vital to keeping going. It's for this reason that Dan Siegel's Window of Tolerance model is such a valuable part of theory - and why it's part of every session, nay every conversation, I hold space for. In brief, the Window of ...

I saw this cartoon online recently and really liked it. The one thing I felt it missed, though, was the fact that love doesn't come in a box. Because Love is a Doing Thing. Saying "I love you" can be a throw away linguistic habit - or it can be an act of great bravery and courage. Acting in a way that shows your love brings a whole new significance and weight to it. That might be love for a friend: giving them a call when you know they're having a hard time. Love for your community: ...

I don't know what it's like with you today, but where I am it is undoubtedly a "book on the sofa by the fire" day. And today the book in question is Gerry's In Celebration of Feet. This is, by far, my favourite of Gerry's trilogy about NO HANDS. Bold statement! Well, The Principles and Practice of NO HANDS Massage is, of course, a classic. It has lots of pictures and breaks down into chunks well - but it's still much more akin to a textbook. In Celebration of Feet, however, is ...

Thirty years ago a therapist arrived at work. He had a busy day ahead: and work-generated injuries to both wrists. His first client of the day was a Russian opera singer by the name of Anton*. Think classic, rather rotund opera singer: that was Anton. Anton liked DEEP Massage. Anton would not be satisfied with the gentle stroking work that the therapist could offer without pains shooting up his arms. And just as the therapist realised this, and panic struck in, his body wisdom took over and NO ...

Yesterday I talked about the wonders of the EARTH treatment for resting. Today I'm talking rest AGAIN - this time, something you can do from the comfort of your home or even your favourite "getaway" spot: READING. Forgive me if I sound like an enthusiastic librarian at this point, but books - I mean, how awesome are books? Yes, e-readers are convenient, but for me, nothing beats getting your hands on a physical item, something that has been lovingly crafted, printed and dispatched direct ...

Every regular NO HANDS client knows exactly the type of Touch that will help them best, but there are certain patterns that occur again and again. So when a new client arrives in need of rest and recuperation two treatments are my absolute "Go to": the first is the EARTH treatment. This treatment is SLOW. This treatment is DEEP. During the session your tissues will be powerfully compressed - without any pain. They will be given space to expand and realign. The ...

Sunday is traditionally known as a "day of rest". But are there really any days of rest any more? Being busy seems to have become the thing to aspire to - "resting" a weakness rather than a necessity for living. This time of year in particular, with preparations for festivities and the closing of the year, rest often gets shoved to the bottom of the "to do" list. If we look to nature at this time of year all its energies are focused towards resting. Recuperation. Gathering energies. Minimising ...

The Chair. Oh, the Chair! My own relationship with Chair-based Massage has been a varied one but, I confess, right now it's an absolute love affair. The humble Chair is SO EASY. Other than the face cradle cover, there are no towels or coverings to worry about. It can be sanitised in less than a minute. The client doesn't need to undress. The practitioner can work from standing or from a stool. There's loads of space to move around (even in a room which would feel a bit "tight" for ...

We all need some nurturance in our life. A bit of TLC. And Touch is a MASSIVE part of this. A hug. A cuddle with a pet. Gently touching someone's arm. A Massage. Of all the different treatments NO HANDS therapists offer, the NO HANDS NURTURE treatment is very often their "favourite" or "go to". Because, by their nature, Massage therapists tend to be carers and nurturers, wanting to look after those around them (and then some!) The NO HANDS NURTURE treatment is a treatment that ...

By Master Tigger MacGregor “Learn as a client” This is one of the core 8 Minds of NO HANDS Massage - and it’s one I take very seriously. I receive treatments from fellow NO HANDS Masters, from NO HANDers who aren’t yet Masters, and from people who haven't even heard of NO HANDS, let alone trained. After every treatment I receive, and I mean every treatment, I have MASSES that I’ve learned. And this learning? It informs and sometimes changes how I interact with the ...

Although it would have been nice to tie in with the official Crohn's and Colitis Awareness week (which finished on December 7th) nothing will stop a NO HANDer getting geeky about the colon! One of the key things about NO HANDS as an approach is the core philosophy of systemic. This is the idea that we're not separate parts (an arm, a leg, a liver...) but we're an interconnected whole - so if there's a problem in one part of our body, it will have a knock on impact ...

Touch is so important. Safe, powerful, consensual Touch. In fact, it's essential to life. Recently, I've found myself sharing an anecdote I heard a long time ago. In these days of fake news and fact checking I wish I had a reference I could supply - but I don't. What I do know is that, even without a specific source, this story really resonates with me - because I absolutely believe it could have happened. When the scandal of the Romanian orphanages broke in the 1990s a whole array of ...

NO HANDS Masters have completed the full journey from zero strain bodywork, through potent and transactional bodywork to being able to offer truly Transformational Touch Therapy. Master Helene Abram became a Master in 2015 and works near Mold, in North Wales. After finishing a part-time secretarial job, a friend suggested that, like her, I should go to college, so over a coffee, we made our choices – I chose French, German….and Massage? Ooh, I’ve always fancied ...

By Sam Beckett, NO HANDS Master The end of one year and beginning of a new is often time for reflection. As I reflect upon 2020, and more specifically the effect of the pandemic upon my business, I feel very positive. At the start of the pandemic when lockdown was announced, I felt truly despondent. To me, it sounded like the death knell to the work I have enjoyed for the last 23 years; I could hardly believe it. I cancelled clients and spent my days walking, homeschooling and ...

The hard truth is that for some people, when they say "Massage" they actually mean "Sex". Euphemisms are funny in that these people will often do anything to avoid actually asking for sexual services - which means there are two people in a conversation talking about totally different things! One of the best ways to approach this is like you would do any interaction: with introductions. The text message that arrives from an unrecognised number: "Do you do Massage?" The phone call: "I'm ...

From her base in Bridport, Dorset, Amanda Jones has been offering NO HANDS for almost a decade. In her own words... After a move to West Dorset from Bath I was quite happy working with my partner on a day tripper boat doing 1 hour mackerel fishing trips around the bay in Lyme Regis. However, I then developed sun damage and was advised to get out of the sun. A friend was learning massage and suggested I gave it a try as a replacement career. What first triggered your interest in NO HANDS?I was ...

By Gerry Pyves, NO HANDS Founder & Creator  In a world of marketing manipulations, is science all we can trust? I recently had an enquiry about whether my work (which I use both clinically and teach to therapists on courses) can be used to treat Transverse Myelitis (TM). As Massage Therapists it is vital we stay within our scope of practice and not claim cure (or, indeed, attempt to diagnose). However, it raised an interesting issue around our society's reliance on ...

By Master Sam Beckett  During my Assessment year, I went for 3 consecutive Master Support Sessions with Master Sophie (Atkinson). Though a little daunting, I relished the opportunity to have constructive feedback from a Master about the strengths and weaknesses of my Massage. Firstly, I wanted to know that I was embodying the Postural Keys. For instance, was I really Falling? Was my work Flowing? Next, I wanted to know that the styles of Massage that I was offering were actually ...

Unless you have pulled a muscle through exertion, had an accident, or are suffering from a medically diagnosed illness or disease, most back and neck pain originates from tight muscles. These tightened muscles simply pull the vertebrae out of their natural alignment. The ensuing misalignment is what causes the pain and inflammation. About 90% of back pain originates from this simple ‘tightening effect’. So what causes our muscles to tighten like this? I often use the analogy of a ...

“Touch isn’t just good – it’s absolutely essential. Denying it is like denying a child oxygen. I get very exercised about the demonisation of touch. It’s cruel, in my mind. It’s another form of abuse.”  Prof Francis McGlone   In 2017 the British Psychological Society held a conference about the use of physical contact in schools and children’s services. As well as professor McGlone presenting his own findings regarding C-Tactile ...

Anxiety and stress can cause absenteeism and lowered productivity levels. The economic cost of this can be hard to measure. However, one study in America showed that anxiety and stress was costing top companies over 25 billion dollars a year (Palmer, 1990). These stress related costs show that any measures a company can take to reduce the effects of stress on its employees could have a real impact on their company’s overall success. Stress is endemic to the workplace - no surprise ...

If you’re looking for a seriously powerful treatment, look no further: CRYO NO HANDS is it! You may well have already picked up on it, but there's a really big buzz developing around the new CRYO NO HANDS treatments. CRYO NO HANDS combines the powerful therapeutic benefits of both medical-quality cryotherapy with the wonders of “gentle giant” that is NO HANDS Massage.  The cryo exposes specific areas of the body to extremely cold ...

NO HANDS Masters have completed the full journey from zero strain bodywork, through potent and transactional bodywork to being able to offer truly Transformational Touch Therapy. Master Amanda Watson became a Master in 2016 and works in Wakefield.  In her own words…      "Although I originally qualified as a Massage Therapist in 1996, it wasn't until 2013 that I first started training in NO HANDS. I had sustained injury to my wrists, hands, ...

NO HANDS Masters have completed the full journey from zero strain bodywork, through potent and transactional bodywork to being able to offer truly Transformational Touch Therapy. Master Sophie Crutchley became a Master in 2017 and works in Birmingham.  In her own words… My NO HANDS Journey so far… When I was at school trying to decide which career path to follow I had a conversation with my uncle who suggested I go down the holistic route as he was a holistic ...

Since it's inception 13 years ago, the TRANSFORMING TOUCH course has, quite literally, transformed the touch of thousands of therapists in the UK and beyond. How? By challenging these therapists to try doing things differently - across pretty much every area of their work. As with any course, it's up to each individual student to decide what to use in their own clinical practice after the course but the stories of the NO HANDS Masters are testament to what a difference "going the ...

By Gerry Pyves There are many different explanations for Massage being such a powerful experience. They range from mental stillness and psychological calm to the stretching of specific muscles; from emotional soothing to the balancing of meridians and chakras; from structural re-alignment to spiritual re-connection. The different benefits of Massage are, in fact, legion. Even Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, believed that Massage had many facets to it and that it was so important ...