Wye Valley Shiatsu
About Vicky
A space to land, to listen, and to move forward — gently.
My work begins with a deep curiosity about the body: how we experience ourselves through it, what we notice when we give it our attention, and what can become possible when we have enough time and space to really listen.
I bring my training, experience, attention and touch to each session, while respecting that your experience belongs to you. I want there to be room for your whole self — physical, emotional, spiritual and everything that may be harder to put into words — to be met with warmth, acceptance and without judgement or demand. For me, Shiatsu offers something quite precious: the possibility of deep rest alongside awareness, connection and aliveness; a chance to step away from the noise of everyday life and feel yourself more fully again
My Journey to Shiatsu
My relationship with bodywork began more than twenty years ago as I was initially drawn to Shiatsu by a desire for deeper relaxation. I subsequently qualified in aromatherapy massage and reflexology in 2004 and much of my working life at that time was in education and dance. I taught dance in schools and worked creatively with young people while raising our three children here in the Wye Valley. Movement, creativity and curiosity about how we experience ourselves through our bodies were already important threads in my life, although I didn’t yet know where they would lead.
In 2018, during a period when I needed to pause and reconsider my own relationship with work and wellbeing, I returned to Shiatsu as a receiver. Something about it felt immediately familiar: there was a conversation happening in the body that didn’t depend upon words. Shiatsu can be still and quiet, but also dynamic and alive. In some ways it reminded me of contact improvisation and creative dance — an attentive exchange between two people, responding and adapting moment by moment. Bringing together two parts of my life that had previously seemed separate: the creative and the therapeutic, I went on to train professionally in Shiatsu. I am a member of the Shiatsu Society and registered with the CNHC.
What shapes my Shiatsu
My practice is rooted in Zen Shiatsu and Five Element theory, alongside years of working with movement, creativity and the body. I listen in different ways: to what you choose to tell me, to what I observe, and through the contact of my hands. Sometimes there is conversation and sometimes very few words are needed.
When appropriate, I also draw on Clean Language, using open questions that help you stay close to your own words and experiences. It is another way of listening without needing to interpret your experience for you. All of this informs an intuitive and responsive way of working. Touch may be still or dynamic, gentle or firm, spacious or focused. I may notice areas of tension and ease, fullness and depletion, and respond to how things change during the treatment. At the heart of this is attention: meeting you and your body as they are on that particular day.
Why the body matters
I believe our bodies have an extraordinary capacity to communicate, adapt and change. Yet everyday life can pull our attention elsewhere. We think, organise, care, plan, respond and keep going, and sometimes it is only when we become still that we realise how much we have been carrying. This is part of what draws me so strongly to Shiatsu. I am interested in what happens when the body has enough support to soften and rest; when muscles no longer need to hold quite so tightly; when our awareness can move away from 'doing' and expectations and towards sensation, breath and the quieter experience of simply being. I am equally interested in what can emerge from that rest — not only relaxation, but curiosity, awareness, energy and possibility. I believe answers can sometimes be found by listening more closely to our bodies. My role is to support the space in which you can notice what is meaningful for you, in your own way and in your own time.
Movement, creativity and my wider practice
Movement has been part of my life and work for many years, and it continues to influence the way I practise. My MA in Creative Arts Practice (Arts, Health & Wellbeing) allowed me to explore this more deeply, particularly the relationship between movement, creativity, our emotional lives and the environments around us. Today that thread continues through Our Creative Bodies, where movement becomes a way to explore, create, notice and connect without the expectation of performance. It also feeds into REST — Ritual: Embodied Sensory Touch, my slower 90-minute bodywork experience, which brings together different elements of my wider therapeutic practice to create space for deep sensory rest.
Shiatsu, REST and Our Creative Bodies are different experiences, but the same curiosity runs through them: what might we discover when we give our bodies time, attention and space?
What you can expect from working with me
My intention is to offer warmth, compassion, curiosity and respect, creating a calm and attentive space where you don’t need to perform, explain everything or arrive with the right words. Shiatsu touch adapts and responds to you rather than following a fixed routine, allowing room for rest and quiet as well as whatever awareness, connection or possibility may emerge. Above all, I want you to feel that you have been listened to and met as yourself.
A space to land, to listen, and to move forward — gently.