About Me ...

Working in banking when I left school at 16 my life revolved around my passion for cycling, either training or competing regularly across the country. My first injury surprisingly came only after years in the saddle, overtraining and punishing myself week in, week out and this back injury eventually got me off my bike and onto the treatment table. After some agonising months I was finally cured by a mixture of osteopathy and deep, soft tissue massage body work. Whilst I carried on competing for sometime, somehow the period of rest and the treatment I had received made me look at my sport and activity in a different way.

I then ‘discovered’ Astanga Yoga and have now been practicing this for over 10 years. Alongside this encouraged by the therapist who had treated me and by my Yoga master I engaged upon a programme of study and took many local and small scale massage courses to see if my initial interest was worth pursuing and to give me confidence of working with people. I then changed the direction of my life further still by leaving my career in corporate banking and travelling for over a year during which time I practiced yoga in different cities with different masters taking me across California, Australia, South East Asia, trekking in Nepal leading to India and Yoga heaven where months were spent negotiating the country and developing my practice. I also managed to use my massage and yoga skills on fellow trekkers and received a whole host of treatments in all of the places visited to gain a wide range of experience of the many differing kinds of therapy possible combining my knowledge of hard training and the now deepening yoga practice which had given me a whole new understanding of the body, its capabilities, muscle actions, usage and stretches.

Upon returning to London I started working in Medical Sales managing a territory for a provider of diagnostic imaging (MRI scans etc) which in actual fact gave me an even greater exposure to the medical world dealing with Orthopaedic Consultants and Radiologists reading the scans and giving results. I set up symposiums for Physical Therapists to gain an understanding of the use of such technology in their own practices and learned a great deal myself in the process. I was lucky enough to have regular contact and visits to the club doctors and treatment rooms of many of the top level London football, rugby and county cricket clubs. What it also did for me over the years was convince me that I actually wanted to do something practical/physical that might make a difference and which to me I could perceive as worthwhile and that I was actually contributing something.

Whilst continuing to work within the medical world (and paying the mortgage) I embarked upon the study programme of the London School of Sports Massage which is widely regarded as the gold standard of Sports Massage training programmes. The course brought together all of the previous experiences I had gained and developed and coupled with my Yoga practice and bodywork knowledge it gave me the qualification I sought as well as a whole host of other techniques I never dreamed a simple ‘Masseur’ would possess. I passed with honours and built up a small but loyal clientele whom I treated outside of my everyday job and was lucky enough also to work with AFC Wimbledon and every other week alongside an Osteopath friend to further build my experiences and confidence. I saw so many injury scenario’s and situations that I knew that I wanted to eventually do this as a full time career.

- Moving to Norwich in 2004 allowed me to move on from my medical management job and switch the balance between the two so that I could ‘set up’ from scratch and provide my range of ‘body work’ services in and around Norwich and Norfolk on a full time basis. My practice centres around deep tissue massage but includes a whole host of techniques including Neuromuscular or passive/active muscle stretching – hands on body work within the recipient tolerance levels to work towards alleviating the ache, pain or restriction which can be of great benefit in its own right or alongside other treatment or therapy.

I have many special interests but most of all like to try and make a connection with my clients whatever their background, sport or working life, put them at ease and give 100% each session to try and solve any problems or ward off any potential dangers.

I find myself happy in my work and glad to be providing services to the ‘full spectrum’ of people in a number of locations in and around Norwich and Norfolk. I look forward to speaking to you soon.

Regards
Steve Dickinson