Looking back again over the last 35 years as a therapist, I recall the first day I stepped into the Northern Institute of Massage which at the time was located in Blackpool. The NIM was founded in 1924 when massage was still being used a lot in hospitals. When they stopped using it in favour of electrotherapy (mainly because many more could be treated at a time, not necessarily because it was better) many schools shut down but the Northern as it was called, and another college keep going, keeping the knowledge alive. It was recommended to me by an Osteopath who had a practice across the road from it who also did some teaching at the college. I had dilgently been studying the first lessons of the course before attending the first practical session taken by the imposing figure of Mr Ken Woodward the principal. It was a great time chatting with fellow students and learning this new therapy. Back then masage was still associated with seedy massage parlours which was a travesty for such a very effective form of physical therapy.Some sports teams did use it but still then a lot of ‘physios’ were former players who just dashed on with the bucket and sponge even in first division soccer clubs as they still were then. Fast forward to today and every club has a massage therapist, probably every professional and many amateurs sports teams employ one. There are lots of training schools, lots of different massage modalities to choose from. The first thing we learnt was swedish body massage, and I was able to work P/t in a gym in Blackpool, it was good experience and enabled me to really get to learn the techniques. Clients were few but the ones I had returned regularly. Through contiuned study, I eventually qualifed in Remedial Massage and opend a clinic treating people for musculoskeletal injuries and sports injuries. Not many people then admitted to having massage treatments, often for reasons already stated, now it is very common place. How many people have now not had a massage?

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