The Little Cottage Massage Company

Unless you were lucky enough to make the decision to work in a trade (or some sort of active job) it is likely you sit (literally and metaphorically) in a desk for your job.

Now before the builders start coming for me, yes, trades have their own problems. Your knees, hips, shoulders, backs, I accept your body takes a beating in a different way.

But desk workers often tell me:
"I've got terrible posture."
Maybe you do, maybe you don’t! I'd argue most of the time it's not a posture problem.
It's a movement problem.

Your body isn't designed to sit still for 8 hours, staring at a screen, occasionally standing up to make a coffee and then sitting straight back down again.
💙Your hips get tighter.
💙Your glutes basically clock out and get lazy until you try and run after the kids at the weekend.
💙Your lower back starts picking up the slack.
💙Your shoulders creep towards your ears (I am sure you are aware I have mentioned this before).

And because it happens gradually, you don’t really notice it.
The good news is you don't need some revolutionary exercise programme.

💡Walk to speak to a colleague instead of emailing.
💡Take the long route to the kettle.
💡Stand up when you're on the phone.
💡Go and refill your water bottle even when it's not empty.

Just use any excuse you can find.
The body loves movement and honestly doesn't care where it comes from.

If you spend most of your day behind a desk, what's one thing you already do to break up all that sitting?

Photo: My lovely brother in law who took pity on me and sent a photo of him working. He is the grateful for the evidence!

Thought for the day - including a photo of me looking thoughtful! 🤣

What I often notice in clinic is that people struggle to admit they're stressed.

Not because they don't feel it but because they think they should be coping better.

They'll tell me they're tired, their shoulders are constantly tight, they're getting headaches, or they can't switch off.

Then they'll quickly add: "But I'm fine really."

Or my absolute favourite is, "Everyone's busy, aren't they?" (Yes, yes they are but they are not you!)

What many people don't realise is that stress is incredibly common. You're not failing, and you're certainly not the only one feeling it.

Acknowledging you're stressed can be a really difficult thing to do but I strongly believe it's the first step towards doing something about it.

And often, once people give themselves permission to admit it, they realise they've been carrying far more than they thought.

Your body is often the first to notice when life is moving too fast.

One of the most common things I hear is, "I didn't realise how much tension I was holding."

Here are some signs your body may be asking for a slower pace:

💙Tight shoulders, neck or jaw
💙Constant muscle tension
💙Feeling exhausted, even after resting
💙More frequent headaches
💙Struggling to switch off and relax

It is important to note not every ache needs fixing however, sometimes your body is simply asking for more rest, less rushing, and a chance to recover.

I have the following appointments available.

I look forward to welcoming you.

Love Denise x

Massage therapists get sick too ...

My day is soup, sewing bee and Humphrey cuddles.

Back to normal next week gang!

Also my forehead looks massive in this photo. 🤔🤣

Client goals = clients who really understand and appreciate you and your business.

These beautiful sunflowers were a gift from a wonderful client.

🧡🧡🧡🧡🧡🧡

Do you remember when you'd wake up with an "unidentified b**r injury"?

I definitely do, with a mystery bruise with absolutely and no idea how it happened.

Well, two days ago I woke up with an unidentified sleep injury (herr hum – yep so rock and roll!).

I couldn’t reach backwards (thankfully it wasn't forward because then massage would have been problematic)!

Could I think of anything I'd done to cause it?

Nope.

I deduced (after a great deal of moaning), I'd probably slept in a position that my body wasn't too happy about.

Sleep can be a cause of aches and pains - crooked necks, sore backs, painful shoulders, numb arms, you name it and it can happen!

We spend around a third of our lives asleep (that's roughly 26 years, I looked it up), so if we're regularly lying in poor positions, those hours add up.

If you're waking up feeling stiff, sore, or out of alignment, it might be worth looking at:

💙 Your sleeping position
💙 Your pillow support
💙 Your mattress
💙 How often you're changing position during the night

And if those unidentified sleep injuries keep showing up, massage can help relieve the tension and restore movement while you work on the cause.

Me?! I did a lot of moaning, self massage in my deltoid area and ironically - sleep!

Your body should recover while you sleep, not come out of the night with a new injury.

This is a post by my trainer in Myo Fascial Release.

It is professionally written and not explicit in some of the behaviour we can witness as massage therapists.

I have regularly been asked, "Do you do body to body massage?" Or " Can you massage me all over with oil?"

Or the builder who thought he was being hilarious when he worked on our property asking, "Does it come with a happy ending?"

There are times where you can laugh this off with friends but essentially it boils down to the fact you are being asked if you are a pr******te.

So do I support lone female workers when they say they do not want to work with men? Yes absolutely.

I do work with men but we have a very clear policy on this in our household.

Think about it, when was the last time this happened to you in your job role?

Masseur, masseuse or massage therapist: do the words matter?

‘Masseur’ and ‘masseuse’ were once accepted professional titles. Derived from French, ‘masseur’ referred to a man who provided massage and ‘masseuse’ to a woman. They were not originally derogatory and did not imply sexual services or poor training.

In Britain, the Society of Trained Masseuses was established in 1894 following the Victorian ‘massage scandals’. At a time when massage had become associated with prostitution, trained practitioners wanted to distinguish legitimate professional practice from disreputable activity.

The organisation later developed into what is now the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP). Its history reminds us that ‘masseuse’ once carried genuine professional standing. However, language and its social meaning change.

During the twentieth century, ‘massage parlour’ became widely used as a euphemism for establishments associated with sexual services. Against this cultural background, ‘masseuse’, and ‘masseur’, acquired connotations that many modern massage therapists now find sexualised and professionally diminishing.

The problem became particularly visible during Covid. English regulations and UK Government announcements repeatedly classified legitimate massage services under ‘massage parlours’. Many qualified massage therapists felt this language failed to recognise their education, professional responsibilities and standards of practice.

The older terms also continue to appear in current journalism, including some BBC reporting. Their use is particularly unhelpful when the report itself concerns inappropriate or sexualised behaviour towards massage therapists. Referring to those professionals as ‘masseurs’ or ‘masseuses’ does nothing to clarify the professional identities, boundaries and standards at the centre of the story.

Not everyone who uses these words intends disrespect. Some people know them only in their original sense, while some practitioners and organisations continue to use them as traditional occupational titles.

The General Council for Manual Therapies nevertheless asks journalists, editors, employers, organisations and members of the public to use ‘massage therapist’.

It is clear, gender neutral and better reflects the education, skill, ethical responsibilities and professional standards expected within modern massage therapy.

A title cannot prove someone’s competence, and using an older term does not automatically indicate disrespect.

However, language influences how a profession is understood.

Words change. Professional recognition matters.

👉Please call us massage therapists.👈



The Sports Massage Association Scottish Manual Therapists Organisation LCSP Register of Remedial Masseurs & Manipulative Therapists Complementary Health Professionals Massage Training Institute - MTI

Word search anyone 🤣 can you find the very obvious message?

Gosh - at least I make myself chuckle. 😁

“Can you sort my bum out?”

Not a sentence I expected to hear in the school playground.

But yes. Yes, I probably can.

What most people actually mean when they're asking me about their bum is that their glutes are causing them problems. Sometimes it's the big glute muscle (your glute maximus), sometimes it's the deeper muscles underneath that are being particularly annoying.

The good news is there are a few things you can do yourself before you start sitting awkwardly on one cheek, pretending everything's fine, or walking on the wonk, which incidentally is one of the worst things you can do.

One of the simplest things is using a spiky ball. Lie on a bed, find a tender spot in the glutes, let your body weight sink into the ball, then wait.

The temptation is to poke about, roll all over the place, and attack the muscle like you're tenderising a steak.

Don't.

Let the muscle soften around the ball and do its thing.

If that's not shifting it, that's where I come in.

A lot of glute pain responds really well to some hands on treatment and a bit of detective work to work out what's actually winding the area up in the first place.

So if your bum is being a pain in the arse, remember we're usually talking about your glutes.

And yes, I can probably sort your bum out.

Anyone else have a job that sounds massively inappropriate when taken out of context? 😆