Your first session,
in the order it happens
Nobody is going to ask you to undress. That's the question most people wonder about and hardly anyone asks, so that's answered first. Here's everything else.
Nobody is going to ask you to undress. That's the question most people wonder about and hardly anyone asks, so that's answered first. Here's everything else.
You are probably picturing a table, a towel and sixty minutes of somebody working on your back. The first ten minutes are none of that. They are a conversation, and it decides the rest.
Jonathan decides what to work on in the room, based on what he finds and what you tell him. That is why spending a whole hour on one shoulder is normal, and a general full-body routine is not. The questions are not paperwork. You are telling him the things he cannot find with his hands.
Interrater agreement figures in the section below are from a systematic review and meta-analysis of manual palpation; see the research note.
And the boundary is the same here as everywhere else on this site: if it turns out to need a diagnosis, a scan or a prescription, Jonathan will say so and point you to the person who can, rather than work around it.
They're a conversation, and what you say decides what the rest of the session is for. It helps to come ready to answer five questions. Four of them change what happens on the table, and one only changes what he tells you at the end.
He’s looking for the injury and the movement behind it, so expect to be asked what you were doing when it started.
Jonathan will ask this, and it is not small talk. Where it hurts shows where the strain ended up. What you were doing shows how it got there, and that is what you can change.
It focuses the session on the movement, not just the pain, which is why a whole hour on one shoulder is normal here and a full-body routine is not. If the honest answer is "nothing, it just appeared", that's useful too. It rules out an injury and points to how you sit, stand or train instead.
Where the strain really comes from →It is the first thing Jonathan asks, and it is easier to answer out loud than in writing. The intro call is complimentary, and it is with him, not a receptionist.
Say what you were doing →Lots of places describe this work as breaking down knots and realigning muscle fibres. There's nothing to realign: muscle fibres don't go out of line and back in again. And when researchers tested how well therapists could agree on where a knot was just by feel, agreement scored 0.45 on their scale, which is low. Two experienced therapists scored 0.63, and two inexperienced ones 0.22. So experience helps, but it's still not the exact science the phrase suggests. That doesn't mean what you feel under a thumb isn't real. It means the usual explanation for it doesn't hold up.
Interrater agreement from a systematic review and meta-analysis of manual palpation; see the evidence note.
There is no gown, no towel routine and no leaving the room. Come dressed as you would for training. The session starts with a chat, not with you wondering where to put your things.
What were you doing when it started?
He’s looking for the injury and the movement behind it, so expect to be asked what you were doing when it started.
Jonathan will ask this, and it is not small talk. Where it hurts shows where the strain ended up. What you were doing shows how it got there, and that is what you can change.
It focuses the session on the movement, not just the pain, which is why a whole hour on one shoulder is normal here and a full-body routine is not. If the honest answer is "nothing, it just appeared", that's useful too. It rules out an injury and points to how you sit, stand or train instead.
Lots of places describe this work as breaking down knots and realigning muscle fibres. There's nothing to realign: muscle fibres don't go out of line and back in again. And when researchers tested how well therapists could agree on where a knot was just by feel, agreement scored 0.45 on their scale, which is low. Two experienced therapists scored 0.63, and two inexperienced ones 0.22. So experience helps, but it's still not the exact science the phrase suggests. That doesn't mean what you feel under a thumb isn't real. It means the usual explanation for it doesn't hold up.
Interrater agreement from a systematic review and meta-analysis of manual palpation; see the evidence note.
There is no gown, no towel routine and no leaving the room. Come dressed as you would for training. The session starts with a chat, not with you wondering where to put your things.
Johnathan made me feel completely at ease from the moment I arrived. He quickly identified the source of tension in my back and worked on it with precision.
Review 01 of 03
Quite possibly, especially after the first one. Soreness usually comes on within a few hours, is worst on the first day, and has usually gone within 48 hours, sometimes 72 after a heavy session. It's worth knowing in advance, because the most common reason people don't come back is feeling sore on the Tuesday and assuming something went wrong. Bruising, numbness or anything sharp is not normal. If you get any of those, call rather than wait.
Then say so. That's completely normal. Lots of people turn up with nothing more precise than one side that feels wrong, and "I don't know" is a real answer that rules things out. The questions above show how much can be worked out from things you do know: when it started, whether there's a date coming up, and whether it's one thing or several.
No, and most people don't. The talking happens at the start, because that's where it's useful. After that it's just checking in about pressure and what you're feeling. Some people chat as they go and some go quiet, and neither makes the session work better. You're never expected to keep a conversation going.
Same lengths and same price, but a different aim. Sports massage focuses on something narrower, usually one injury or an event coming up. If neither applies, deep tissue is usually more useful. Either way, it gets sorted out properly in the first ten minutes, so don't worry too much about picking the right one. There's a longer answer in the journal piece on why both cost the same.
Not at all. It depends on what you want, and that's what the free call is for. This is focused work on a problem, not an hour of relaxation. If relaxation is what you're after, it's better to find that out on a five-minute call than forty minutes into a session. He'll tell you if it isn't the right fit.
Possibly, and Jonathan is the one who will say so. He is not a physiotherapist, and this is soft tissue work, one-to-one. If what you have turns out to need a diagnosis, a scan or a prescription, he will tell you and point you at the right person rather than keep you on the table.
You're booking the honest view at the end as much as the session itself. That's something no web page can give you.
Book a sessionOr start from where you are: something already hurts, or nothing hurts yet.
