What is Intimate Physical Therapy?

We’re all so busy with everyday lives that we often forget to stop and look after ourselves, we may go to the gym or update our hairstyle or try to eat better, but how often is sexual health considered - not just pregnancy, contraception and STIs? Sex is about full body sensations and stimulation in places you didn’t consider, not just penetration, as the media would make us think.

So, what is intimate bodywork?

Our intimate bodywork is a type of physical therapy. Massage in itself is intimate, one human touching the naked skin of another human; intimate bodywork takes that a little further by offering touch on ALL areas of the body. It includes sensation play, use of sound and smell, different textures and pressures to get your nerve endings woken up and tingling. Intimate bodywork is a chance to connect and explore intimacy on a different level that forces you to concentrate on yourself, allowing yourself to let go or explore any changes in your body.

The bodywork we offer ranges from intimate and connecting to thoroughly erotic depending on the mindset of the client. It begins as a Swedish style massage to relax you and get you used to our touch or your own touch before slowly increasing sensuality with lingering touches, teasing and some body contact. It has been said that it feels like a natural extension of a normal massage, you can be adventurous and explore things a partner hasn’t wanted to or you’ve been too nervous to try or work on anxieties or issues you’ve been struggling with. Many people that have tried tantric massage, erotic massage or nuru massage find that their experience with us is in some ways similar but is more what they were originally looking for. We prioritise those experiencing sexual health or intimacy issues, but whatever your motivation, we take great pride in what we do and strive to tailor your treatment to your individual needs.

By providing a person with a non judgemental, honest, open environment where it is not only okay to feel arousal but appropriate, a intimate bodywork/physical therapy session is probably one of the most fulfilling experiences a person can have, enabling both the body and mind to relax in a way that regular massage does not. By reducing tension and stress or an anxiety of the body, the mind regains its calm. As the body becomes more sensually aroused, the sensory messages transmitting from the skin and erogenous areas reaffirm to the mind that we are safe. Hormones such as oxytocin, progesterone and testosterone are released, causing our muscles to relax; the mind becomes still, and for a few hours we can literally exist here and now, ‘in the moment’.

‘Sensual massage is an ancient natural medicine for today’s stressful times’

A little history on sensual massage and touch.

From our earliest Homo Sapiens ancestors who lived 250,000 years ago to probably as recent as 5000 years ago, tactile intimate touch between humans would almost certainly have been offered and received unconditionally. It would be given without cultural, religious or social controls and probably not seen solely as sexual communication but also as a system to establish co-operation. It would have stimulated group security and collaboration, ensuring, in times of danger and stress, the support between one human and another. It would have helped determine hierarchy, established trusting relationships, promoted teamwork and loving bonds.

Not much has changed in our biology since those early times, and for most of us, the pleasure and desire to be touched by another is still very much within us. When we are touched the skin receptors pass the response information through to the central nervous system which in turn influences the autonomic nervous system. The autonomic nervous system connects to the deepest and most ancient part of our brain known as the Stem or Reptilian brain. This ancient part of the brain can be traced back to over 200 million years of mammal evolution. It is concerned with our most basic primary needs such as survival, physical maintenance, hoarding, dominance, preening and mating and from these basic urges activate the emotions of love, hate, fear, lust, and contentment.

In early man, the distinction of intimate behaviour being appropriate or inappropriate would not have existed; there would have been no social, cultural or religious rules controlling our natural desires and need for intimate touch. There is no greater affirmation of an individual’s acceptance than to touch and be touched intimately, to care and be cared for, without condition, expectation or obligation.