Meet Mary

Qualifications

BSc Health; Physical Education and Recreation, Diploma Holistic Massage, Diploma Sports Massage, Certified Infant Massage Instructor

Specialist Fields

Sport and Therapeutic Massage Therapist

Background

The only way I can tell you why I became a massage therapist, is to tell you a bit about me. Many years ago I was in a serious car accident which left me with severe whiplash. During my rehabilitation I was introduced to remedial massage to help with muscle tension, soft tissue damage and headaches. My improvement increased dramatically and I was sold after that!! I was so interested in the massage and soft tissue approach to rehabilitation, I chose to explore the possibilities of a career change.

A move to the UK in 1996 and a clean slate gave me the opportunity to pursue my change of career and I took a holistic massage course in Bristol in 1997 at the Bristol College of Massage and Bodywork. I joined Courtyard Clinic in 1998 and began sharing my love of massage with others. During my work and seeing the needs of patients, I expanded my knowledge and skill base by pursuing a sports massage Diploma in Cardiff in 1999.

Tailoring the massage, I now bring both holistic and sports massage as a merged approach and therefore consider myself a remedial massage therapist. This encapsulates the umbrella of protective care and allows me to delve deeper into the reasons/causes for injury and enables me to have open communication with each patient to provide best quality care through the trust and respect developed. My skill base has grown over the years and includes therapeutic, sports, rehabilitative and neurological massage treatments as well as taping and ultrasound. I have carried out an independent study with riders and their horses – how an injury to one can affect the other. I am also a certified infant massage instructor.

I celebrate the success of each patient, no matter how small, and strive for perfection with their care. A recent unique success and one to go down in history was preparing a patient for the London marathon, running for charity dressed as an eyeball – and has now achieved Guinness Book of World records status!! This is what I love about my job – just when I think I can predict cases an eyeball walks into my life!

I absolutely love what I do, am inquisitive by nature and massage gives me purpose. I enjoy coming to work every day knowing that I am helping people have the best quality of life possible.

Being the token Canadian on the Courtyard team I talk a bit funny, am very outgoing, bubbly and am always smiling! I do enjoy playing music whilst treating to create a relaxing environment, however whales and panpipes will not feature in my treatments (classical is more my thing). I am a self-confessed techno peasant but have wowed people at the clinic recently with an upgrade into the 21st century with an mp3 player – although my 9 year old had to download the music for me so I guess i’m not quite there yet!