The last few weeks have been crazy, surreal and a mass of different feelings! I hope if you are reading this you and your loved ones are safe and well. At the moment we are waiting for guidelines about level 2 and whether some of our in-person services can start again.
I decided to write this post firstly to introduce you to Body of Work, if you didn’t know us previously, and give you some insight into what we do and why.
I am Ali, the owner of Body of Work in Lower Hutt. We are a hub of practitioners with the aim of working collaboratively for the best outcomes for our client’s health and wellness. We celebrated our third birthday just days before we went into this lockdown to prevent the spread of Covid-19. It seems strange now to imagine having so many people in one place.
I set up Body of Work because I realised that as human beings our experience of pain and rehabilitation is very complex. As a massage therapist my scope of practise was limited, and it was difficult when I couldn’t provide all that I knew my clients needed.
My aim was to gather various types of practitioners together that addressed different aspects of wellness. We now have a team of 8, that includes massage and manual therapists, an acupuncturist, naturopath and exercise therapist all working within the studio. We present educational workshops and host other practitioner’s workshops such as meditation, mindfulness and yoga. We also use a wider referral network including physiotherapists, podiatrists, psychologists and life coaches.
Any of these services can be used in an adhoc way but our point of difference is that they can also be used collaboratively.
Obviously, the initial set up of Body of Work was intended to be in one physical location together, working in a collaborative way. However, these past few weeks have given us an opportunity to look at how else we can use the skills we have. Some of the team have made simple adjustments to keep working, Tanya has been taking Pilates classes online and continued seeing one on one rehabilitation clients virtually, and Gina has continued with naturopath consultations online. For the majority of us (acupuncture, cupping and massage) who use touch as our therapy it has been more challenging.
But, we have realised our skill set is more than just our hands on skills. It is, in fact, just a portion of what we do. We can listen to your pain story, consider what you are feeling in your body and devise how best to help. Most of what we do involves empowering you to understand your body and what might be happening, we can suggest alternative ways to relax, teach you some exercises or movements that can be helpful. If hands on treatment is necessary it can be adapted, we can teach you to use pieces of equipment that you might have at home or some simple skills can be taught to a ‘bubble buddy’ to help relieve some pain or tension.
We have realised that this type of work can continue to be offered post this lockdown period and allows our expertise to be available and accessible to more people who need it.
We will be launching Body of Work Personal Plans soon and there will be an online option for them. If you would like to learn more about these, you can contact me ali@bodyofwork.co.nz
