one room, one therapist · tue–sat, by appointment · ring or WhatsApp 0161 445 3892 didsbury · two streets off the village

Therapy
An elevation of the treatment room: a massage table with a face cradle and a couch roll at the head, the therapist's stool beside it, a framed anatomy chart on the wall, and a linen shelf with folded towels. No machines, no gadgets — a room built around two hands and a table. the chart, not a guess face down, breathing easy the chart the stool the table · face cradle Two hands working the lower back of someone lying face down. The work itself, drawn from above: a back running the full width of the frame and cropped by both edges, with the therapist’s forearms coming in from the far side and both hands pressed flat across the lower back. One line marks the near edge of the table. No room, no equipment, no face.

your back,
taken seriously.

On the table —  hamstring release, shoulder and neck work, aftercare stretches — every condition priced with its honest session count below.

Rooms
One
Therapist
Mara · CNHC-registered
First session
75 minutes · £50
Cancelling
24 hours’ notice, no charge
Telephone
0161 445 3892

Before your back is anyone’s business

who has their hands on you

Nobody licenses massage therapists in this country. So here is the paper trail, in writing, where you can check every line of it.

You’ll know it’s working when you stop planning your week around the bad shoulder.

The room is Mara’s — one therapist, one table, nine years of backs, shoulders and stubborn hamstrings. Sports and remedial massage, which means the anatomy comes first: what hurts, why it hurts, and which tissue actually needs the work — not a routine performed the same on every body.

The sheets here are the reason this page can speak plainly: in a trade with no licence, a named qualification on a checkable register is the only thing separating a therapist from a stranger with a massage table. Check the register — please do. That’s what it’s for.

qualification Level 4 Diploma Sports Massage Therapy — the level at which remedial and sports work is taught, not a weekend course. level4 (RQF) routeITEC
insurance Certificate of cover Public and professional liability, in the practising name. renewseach March
register CNHC · Sports Massage reg. no.on request

Drawn, not reproduced — no therapist should publish a scan of a certificate, and this page doesn’t. Ask at the door and you are handed the originals, register number included. The fourth sheet is blank on purpose: the one thing there is no certificate for is nine years of backs.

Where it hurts, and how long

point at it, then say how long

Two questions decide nearly everything. A three-week shoulder and a three-year shoulder get different work, a different number of sessions, and sometimes a different answer altogether — priced by the problem, never by the hour.

How long has it been going on
Front and back body outline, with six numbered points

neckand the base of the skull

Trigger-point work through the upper traps, levator and the small muscles at the skull base — the ones behind that headache that starts behind one eye. Slow, precise, and never through pain you haven’t agreed to.

A first visit settles the guarding, then goes looking for what set it off. Three weeks in, the pattern hasn’t had time to recruit the neighbours.honest course — 1–2 sessions

A first visit takes the whole pattern, not just the loud part of it. By a few months the chest and the upper back are usually in on it too.honest course — 2–3 sessions

A first visit works out how much of this still moves. Some of it will change on the table and some of it won’t — you’ll hear which, on the day.honest course — 2–3 sessions, then we stop

where this one goes instead A neck that has been years, that brings pins and needles, or that changed suddenly, wants a GP or a physio before it wants a table. You’ll hear that at the consult, and nothing is charged for saying it.

What we never claim: posture “correction”. Your spine isn’t broken and massage doesn’t straighten bones — it quiets the tissue that makes sitting feel like work.

on the table
45–60 min
per session
£48–58
the short version
30–45 min · £38–48

shoulderand the desk pattern

The full pattern, not just where it shouts: chest and front of shoulder opened first, then the overworked upper back that’s been holding on all day. Thirty minutes of it is a genuinely different week.

A first visit calms it and checks what it still refuses to do. New shoulders answer quickly, and two stretches usually hold it.honest course — 1–2 sessions

A first visit opens the front before it touches the back. A few months in and the shoulder has quietly rearranged how you sit.honest course — 2–3 sessions

A first visit finds what still changes, and names what doesn’t. An honest read is worth more here than an optimistic one.honest course — 2–3 sessions, then we stop

where this one goes instead A shoulder that has been years, that wakes you at night, or that will not lift past a point, wants a GP or a physio first — and I’ll say so on the day, before you are on the table.

What we never claim: that a frozen shoulder melts in a session. It doesn’t. We can keep the rest of the shoulder honest while it thaws — that’s the true version.

on the table
45–60 min
per session
£48–58
the short version
30–45 min · £38–48

hipflexors and glutes

Deep, slow work through the erector group, glutes and hip flexors — the back that aches at the desk is usually being pulled from the front. You’ll get two stretches to take home, written down.

A first visit works the glutes and hip flexors slowly, both sides. Three weeks in, whatever started it is usually still findable.honest course — 1–2 sessions

A first visit takes the front and the back together. Months of favouring one side and the other side has taken on the job.honest course — 2–3 sessions

A first visit is an honest read: what still moves, and what has simply set. The plan is built on the first answer, never on the second.honest course — 2–3 sessions, then we stop

where this one goes instead A hip that has been years, or that hurts at rest and at night, is a GP conversation before a deeper elbow. You would have that conversation here, and pay nothing for it.

What we never claim: to fix a disc, or to know it’s “just muscular” without asking the screening questions first. Numbness or leg pain gets a GP conversation, not a deeper elbow.

on the table
60 min
per session
£58

lower backthe erector group

Deep, slow work through the erector group, glutes and hip flexors — the back that aches at the desk is usually being pulled from the front. You’ll get two stretches to take home, written down.

A first visit is screening questions, then slow work through the erector group. Two stretches to take home, written down.honest course — 1–2 sessions

A first visit works the front as well as the back. A desk ache of months is usually being pulled from the hip flexors.honest course — 2–3 sessions

A first visit says plainly what massage can still move here, and what it cannot. That sentence is the reason the plan below ends where it does.honest course — 2–3 sessions, then we stop

where this one goes instead Numbness, pain down a leg, or a back of years that is getting worse gets a GP conversation, not a deeper elbow — said at the consult, with no session charged for saying it.

What we never claim: to fix a disc, or to know it’s “just muscular” without asking the screening questions first. Numbness or leg pain gets a GP conversation, not a deeper elbow.

on the table
60 min
per session
£58

hamstringorigin to belly

Sports massage in its native habitat — hamstring origins, calf junctions, the lateral line. Timed to your training: flush work in a heavy week, deeper work in a cutback week, never the day before a race.

A first visit is flush work, not heroics. A three-week hamstring is still deciding what it is going to be.honest course — 1–2 sessions

A first visit takes origin, belly and the lateral line, timed against your training week. Deeper work in a cutback week, flush work in a heavy one.honest course — 2–3 sessions

A first visit reads what a few seasons of load have left behind. And whether massage is honestly the tool that shifts it.honest course — 2–3 sessions, then we stop

where this one goes instead A hamstring that arrived with a bang, or that has been years and keeps going in the same spot, wants a physio first. Never the day before a race, either way.

What we never claim: injury prevention as a guarantee, or a “release” of an ITB that anatomically does not release. What loosens is the tissue around it — and that’s usually enough.

on the table
60 min
per session
£58

calfand the soleus underneath

Sports massage in its native habitat — hamstring origins, calf junctions, the lateral line. Timed to your training: flush work in a heavy week, deeper work in a cutback week, never the day before a race.

A first visit is calf junctions and the soleus underneath, gently. New calf tightness answers fast, and often only needs asking once.honest course — 1–2 sessions

A first visit takes calf, hamstring and the lateral line together. A calf rarely works alone, and after a few months it never does.honest course — 2–3 sessions

A first visit is an honest look at what is tissue and what is load. Then a plan that ends, which is the only kind offered here.honest course — 2–3 sessions, then we stop

where this one goes instead A calf with swelling, heat, or one leg plainly unlike the other gets a same-day GP call before anybody touches it. That is a rule of this room, not a judgement, and it costs you nothing.

What we never claim: injury prevention as a guarantee, or a “release” of an ITB that anatomically does not release. What loosens is the tissue around it — and that’s usually enough.

on the table
60 min
per session
£58

The first session is 75 minutes at £50, whatever you pointed at and however long it has been — longer than a standard hour because the consult is real, not a form signed with your coat still on. If what you need isn’t massage, you’ll hear that at the consult and pay nothing. Cancelling: 24 hours’ notice, no charge — less than that and the session is owed, because one room means the slot went unused. Gift vouchers exist; ask.

Minute by minute

your first visit, written down

Nobody publishes this, so the first appointment stays a small unknown — and unknowns are why sore shoulders wait months. Here is the whole thing, timed.

  1. arrive 17:30
    sit down, talk first

    What hurts, how long, what makes it worse, what you’ve tried. A few screening questions — surgery, medication, anything that changes the plan. Coat still on if you like.

  2. undress 17:40
    what to wear, said once, plainly

    Undress to whatever you’re comfortable in — shorts are perfect for leg work. You’re under a towel the whole time; only the area being worked is ever uncovered. You’ll have the room to yourself to get settled.

  3. hands on 17:45
    on the table — you set the pressure

    Deep doesn’t mean grit-your-teeth. The useful level is “a good hurt you could breathe through all day” — and I’ll check, not wait to be told.

  4. recheck 18:20
    move it again, compare

    The turn of the head or the toe-touch from the consult, repeated. Sometimes it’s a big change, sometimes a small one — either way you leave knowing, not hoping.

  5. aftercare 18:30
    two stretches, written down

    Not a sheet of twelve you’ll never do — two that matter, on a card, with when-and-how. Water, and a heads-up that tomorrow can feel like a light gym day. That’s normal and it passes.

  6. done 18:45
    the honest next step

    If it needs another session, you’ll hear why and when. If it doesn’t, you’ll hear that too — a rebooking is a recommendation here, never a reflex.

Worth knowing before you spend a penny

Massage is a good tool, not a magic one — and you deserve the difference in writing.

Most tension patterns respond in two or three sessions. If the plan is longer than that, you’ll hear the reason attached to it — a marathon block, a shoulder that took years to set, a job that undoes the work weekly. What you won’t hear is a standing weekly appointment sold as maintenance for a problem that ended in March.

One session usually buys a few days to a couple of weeks of real change — and the stretches are what stretch it further. The people who get the most out of this room do sixty seconds of homework a day and come back monthly at most.

And some things aren’t ours: numbness, night pain that wakes you, anything that arrived with a bang mid-run. Those get a “see your GP or a physio first” — said plainly, with no session charged for saying it.

not ours — say so at the consult numbness, pins and needles down a limb pain that wakes you at night a sudden mid-run bang — physio first first-trimester pregnancy — ring first
A typical plan, drawn to scale. The gaps widen, and then it stops. There is no session four on this page because there usually isn’t one in the room — and a standing weekly appointment for a problem that ended in March is the thing this practice is built against.
01consult, then the whole pattern · 75 min
7 days
02deeper, and less of it
14 days
03only if it is still asking for one
28 days
no session four. Two stretches, and monthly at the very most.
  • a marathon block
  • a shoulder that took years to set
  • a job that undoes the work every week

The only three reasons a plan here runs longer than that — each one named at the time, attached to its reason, and never sold to you as maintenance.

At the table

what gets written down

Three lines per visit, in the same order every time. You are read them back before you leave, and you can have a copy of any of them.

A therapist’s forearms and hands gliding along the muscles beside the spine, client face down on the table.
Stillpoint TherapySession record
found
Right upper trap and levator holding hard; turning the head to the right short of the left by about a third. Desk sits low, screen sits lower. No numbness, no night pain, nothing new.
did
Forty-five minutes: front of the shoulder opened first, then trigger-point work through the traps and the skull base. Pressure agreed at “a good hurt” and checked twice. Head turn re-tested at the end — most of the range back.
next
Two stretches, written on a card, sixty seconds a day. Ten days. If the headaches are unchanged by then, that is a GP conversation and not a deeper elbow — and it would be said here first.
session 1 of 2review · 10 days M.K.
A real page never leaves the room. This is the shape of one — the three lines every visit here gets, and the reason the page can be this specific about what happens next. The photograph beneath it is the work itself: one working set, one grade, no models, and no invented client on top of it.

Starting

tell us what hurts

The room

Opening days
MondayClosed
TuesdayBy appointment · 12:00–20:00
WednesdayBy appointment · 12:00–20:00
ThursdayBy appointment · 12:00–20:00
FridayBy appointment · 09:00–17:00
SaturdayBy appointment · 09:00–14:00
SundayClosed

Evenings run late on purpose — bad backs have day jobs. One room means an honest diary: a first session is usually a few days to a week out.

Stillpoint Therapy 6 Warburton Street
Didsbury, Manchester M20 6WA
0161 445 3892

Two streets off the village, ground floor, no stairs. There’s water either side of the table and nowhere to be except here for the hour.

Start with what hurts

This is the intake sheet, in the order it gets filled in. Four lines is plenty. If massage is the right tool you’ll get times back; if it isn’t, you’ll get told that instead, which is free.

Stillpoint TherapyIntake · first visit

printed on every intake sheetNumbness, pain that wakes you at night, or anything that arrived with a bang gets a GP or a physio before it gets a table. You would hear that at the consult, and nothing is charged for saying it.