Roy Millard

About Roy Millard LCM Dip MFHT

I am a fully qualified massage therapist, offering a variety of massage treatments. I am a registered member of the Federation of Holistic Therapists.

As well as helping people with the usual aches and pains, I am particularly interested in giving the benefits of massage to those with long term conditions, particularly anxiety and stress-related ones. I am experienced with sufferers of fibromyalgia, and would like very much to assist those recovering from and managing the symptoms of eating disorders. (I have some experience of working with anorexia.)

The link between mind and body is a key area of interest to me, and I strongly believe that massage can be profoundly helpful in building and maintaining a healthy connection between the two.

Massage can also help with promoting healthy attitudes towards the body. It can assist an individual in focusing on how their body really is rather than how they think it should be; it can assist in tackling poor body image.

My service is highly tailored to the individual, depending upon their needs and desires, ranging from general relaxing full-body to more localised work to treat specific conditions. Sessions can run from 30 minutes to two hours, and can be one-off or part of a more regular arrangement.

LCM Dip

MFHT

In 2009, I very nearly lost my job. I was 49, and therefore not likely to be readily re-employed by any organisation looking for new talent.

It felt right to start thinking about what else I might do with my life, come the time when I involuntarily (or voluntarily) left my current employer.

I've never been one for hobbies and sports, so there was nothing to build on there. However, I had since childhood been interested in how the human body worked. It fascinated me. Indeed, I would have pursued medicine as a career had physics not fascinated me even more. In recent years, for several reasons, not least a greater appreciation of my own state of health and wellbeing that comes with hitting middle age, that interest in the amazing human body started to be rekindled.

I have a scientific mind but had come to the view that conventional drug-based medicine was not the be-all-and-end-all of maintaining good health. Equally important are how we live day to day. There are the obvious things like diet and exercise, but also our attitudes and behaviours have a profound effect on our wellbeing. The ability to relax, accept ourselves for what we are, and be cheerful and optimistic, can help keep us healthy. I didn’t know much about complementary medicine (and felt some scepticism about it) but what I didn't realise at the time was that I was actually being drawn towards it.

I had experienced several massages in my life, and enjoyed the experience. The ability of massage to draw together scientific knowledge of workings of the body, to promote mental and emotional wellbeing from physical touch, and to assist in recovery from physical ailments, strongly appealed to me. So, with only a very vague idea of where it may lead me, I decided to try out learning to massage.

I was not at all sure that I would take to this new activity, it being so different to anything I had done before. How would I feel about touching complete strangers? Would I be able to learn something so completely new to me? How would people react to me? But there was only one way in which I was going to find out!

Over ten years on, I now have a diploma in deep tissue massage from the London College of Massage, additional diplomas in related and other forms of massage, and seven years of practitioner experience.

I left my previous employment in 2017 [voluntarily!], and have made a full transition to massage therapy as my main – and extremely rewarding – occupation.