This is the story of how a foot massage morphed into a somatic session that brought me powerful and unexpected emotional insights. So, first off, I really love having my feet rubbed. Not sure why - just has always felt great and, let’s face it, my feet do a lot of work. Whenever I worked with other massage therapists in the past I always noticed I felt sad that they didn’t work on my feet for longer but this time I decided that I would ask André to only work on my feet.

We often think the moment a massage ends is the moment to stand up and carry on with the day. But what if those last few minutes of lying quietly on the table are actually part of the therapeutic process? At Olive Tree Therapies, I invite you to stay present for a moment after the hands leave the body. That pause helps your body fully land, supports the nervous system to integrate the work done, and cultivates what is called interoception - our inner sense of what is happenin

My name is Angel and I’m 30, I use they/them pronouns, and I’ve lived with chronic pain, out of control behaviours and bipolar disorder for years. Dissociation is part of how I’ve survived — shutting off from my emotions, from my body, from the world around me. There are still days when that’s my default. I still have very difficult moments. But the difference now is I have something to come back to. A relationship with my body that isn’t always terrifying.

It could be said that we all have an ideal amount of touch we’d like to receive at any given moment in time, and an actual amount that we ac

A perspective on the use of touch in therapeutic settings. When is it ok to touch?