Mary Smith - Administrator at Nottingham Trent University describes her experience:

“I’m a recent convert to the power and importance of massage but, not being the most relaxed of people, I still approach a massage session with butterflies in my tummy and an underlying fear of the relatively unknown. It’s difficult to verbalise the experience of having a massage because, by its very nature, massage is non-verbal. Importantly though, my butterflies and fear soon subsided after meeting Regina Dengler, director of Touching Well, and settling myself for an hour and a half of pure pampering.

Regina practises what, in my personal experience, is a fairly distinctive style of massage. In equal measures, she soothes and works your body’s muscles, employing gentle massage techniques combined with more vigorous stretching and physical manipulation. I was conscious too of how physically demanding it must be to give this type of massage, as Regina seemed to use her whole body to counteract and dissolve the tension in me.

During the course of my visit to Regina, I was struck by how aware I had become of my physical aches and pains. As I have stated, I don’t find it particularly easy to relax and as a consequence, I experience the physical discomfort that comes from subconsciously holding the tension in your body for hours on end. Regina deliberately worked the muscles of my back, shoulders, legs, hands, arms, neck and face to coax the tension out of them, which I found to be a physically liberating experience, accentuated by the beautiful and uplifting music filling the room.

At my most relaxed, I felt that I experienced a shifting of my thoughts from distinct ideas and words to more abstract feelings and sensations. It took me several minutes to come back to my senses after the massage but this is all part of the process. Regina left me to prepare myself for leaving the cocoon of relaxation to go back into the hustle and bustle of everyday life.

It was nice just to have had that time out where I had lost all sense of how many minutes had passed or of having to be anywhere but with myself. I left Touching Well feeling at once relaxed and invigorated, deciding to forget the bus and walk home instead. As I battle with dry, lifeless-looking skin, I was delighted to find that my skin felt amazing after my massage and that I was veritably glowing.

As I had friends visiting that evening, they each commented on how well I looked – I’m not sure they would have agreed had they seen me pre-massage but I was happy to accept the compliment!” .