Meet Rachel
Meet Rachel, your massage therapist
With a background as an internationally acclaimed contemporary dance artist and teacher, Rachel (PhD) brings over 33 years of embodied experience to her massage practice. Additionally, with over 25 years experience of yoga teaching, she has guided both professional dancers and the general public toward greater body awareness and wellbeing. At this point in her career, she is channelling her deep understanding of the body into the healing arts, establishing herself more fully as a massage and bodywork therapist and eventually, acupuncturist.
Rachel’s unique background allows her to approach every treatment with a profound understanding of the body’s intelligence, supporting clients in releasing tension, restoring balance and reconnecting to their own innate vitality. Having navigated numerous dance-related injuries throughout her career — a professional hazard in such a physically demanding field — she brings deep, lived insight into the injured body. This personal experience makes her especially attuned to the needs of dancers, athletes, and anyone recovering from physical strain, chronic tension and performance anxiety.
A Unique Partnership
Rachel holds a Certificate in Therapeutic Massage from the National Association of Massage and Manipulative Therapists and is qualified in Cupping and Gua Sha Therapy from the Northern College of Acupuncture. She is currently in the final year of her BSc (Hons) in Acupuncture, training with the aim of joining her husband, Duey, at Holme Valley Acupuncture as an acupuncturist.
Together, they will form a unique and complementary partnership — combining their extensive therapeutic knowledge, hands-on expertise, and shared commitment to holistic health. By joining forces, Rachel and Duey will offer an integrated bodywork and acupuncture practice that supports clients on multiple levels, blending Eastern and Western approaches to healing in a deeply informed and personalised way.
The National Association of Massage and Manipulative Therapy, NAMMT
NAMMT requires members to be fully qualified in the chosen modality they practice. It is a professional association, only open to practitioners who hold qualification in massage to GCMT standards. GCMT, as a professional body, focuses on maintaining the highest professional standards for massage and soft tissue therapies, including ethics, professional conduct, and informed consent. By seeing a massage therapist that is a member of the NAMMT, you can be assured that they have undertaken professional training and are fully insured. Find out more about the NAMMT here:
