Massage in the office

Getting a massage doesn't have to mean making time to keep an appointment in a treatment room. Bristol-based therapist Kate Stuart comes to people in their offices. Suzanne Savill reports

There is a massage table, towels, and a selection of oils. In fact, everything looks exactly as you might expect of a massage therapist's treatment room.

Except it isn't.

The room is actually a meeting room at the offices of Bristol-based payroll software company Qtac, and the massage table is a portable one that has been brought in by Kate Stuart.

She regularly visits the company, and others in the Bristol area, to provide on-site massages for staff.

When we meet a typical session has been taking place, with Kate massaging people with neck and shoulder problems associated with desk-based jobs, and giving sports massage to those who have sustained injuries playing sport.

At first glance it may seem that these staff are lucky to have such a benevolent employer.

However, Kate points out that it is not only employees who benefits from her treatments.

"For employers it helps generate goodwill among their staff. In effect, they're saying to them that they know they have busy jobs and can be under stress but they're prepared to offer something to help them," she says.

"It also means that staff aren't having to take time off work to go for treatments for problems such as sports injuries, as they can get sports massage when I visit.

"It's not costing them anything, as all they have to do is let me come in and use a room. People pay for themselves, although if an employer wants to offer a subsidy they can.

"It's up to the employer whether they let staff have treatments in their lunch break or make up the time in another way."

Peter Prater owner of Qtac payroll software, Cypherseal, and The Payroll Department, says: "It's a great way of offering a benefit to staff.

"The fact that staff can have a treatment with Kate like a massage during their working day is great for de-stressing.

"It is also a good way to boost morale, which is an important element of ensuring you have a happy workforce.

"We don't have to pay for the treatments – Kate comes in and offers them at a very good rate.

"The benefit to staff is that they can do it during their working day, which is great for mums or other people who may not have time to have these treatments after work. It also helps with the general health and well-being of my team."

Kate, 41, of Bradley Stoke, knows all too well what it is like to work in a pressurised office environment. She was an IT project manager until she volunteered for redundancy from her job in 2009.

Instead of trying to find similar work, she decided to completely change her career after experiencing the benefits of massage.

"I used to play softball for Great Britain and suffered a serious rotator cuff injury.

"I wanted to help people get back to sport and get back to fitness in the way that I'd been helped.

"I also knew from working in a very busy office how difficult I had found it to find time for the treatments that I needed, and how occupational and life stresses can affect the body and hinder performance."

So she set up her company Creating Change Naturally, and set about building a corporate client base, in addition to working with clients from her therapy room based in Bradley Stoke and at the Physioelite clinic in Stoke Gifford.

"I'd originally trained as a massage therapist in 2000 with a view to changing career direction, but due to many different factors at the time I decided to take a 'stop gap' job as a project manager instead," she says.

"Even though I had a full- time job, I decided to study further and expand my skills. I took courses in reiki and Indian head massage, going on to qualify as an ayurvedic Indian head massage therapist and Level 2 reiki practitioner.

"Both treatments are aimed at reducing stress and tension in the body – something I'd experienced day-to-day in my job and had also seen in others. It meant I already had a skill when I decided to take redundancy and stop commuting every day to Cheltenham and working long hours in an office."

After taking redundancy, Kate studied sports and remedial massage with the Oxford School of Sports Massage, achieving a BTEC Level 5 qualification, the highest of its type in the UK, and membership of the Institute of Sport and Remedial Massage (ISRM).

"That involved a lot of anatomy work and written papers, but it was worth it," she says.

In order to meet business executives after setting up her company with the idea of providing massage within other firms, Kate joined Business Network International (BNI), which has an Avon and Monmouth branch.

"I've found BNI a very useful way of being able to tell business people about the treatments I offer," says Kate, who joined in December 2009 and has so far received 31 new clients as a result of referral marketing.

Her list of corporate clients includes her old company, Vertex Data Services in Cheltenham, to which she now returns regularly to give massages to staff.

"Whatever the size of a business, its success is dependent upon its team of employees, so it makes sense for employers to invest in the well-being of their staff," says Kate.

"Happy, healthy employees who can manage stress and anxiety are a great asset to any company."

For further information about Kate Stuart's massage therapy go to www.creating changenaturally.co.uk.

To find out more about Business Network International Avon and Monmouth go to www.bni-am.com.