The first studio sat above a florist on the western end of Collins Street and had a plumbing issue that no landlord ever quite fixed. What it did have was a captive audience: city workers with tight shoulders who walked past the door twice a day, and a running group that met on the Tan every Saturday morning. Word travelled the way it usually does, one stiff back at a time.
By 2015 the studio had outgrown the room and moved to 171 Collins Street. Six years on we added the wet area, the quiet lounge and the second row of treatment rooms. The menu has barely changed since. We added the stone ritual in 2018 because clients kept asking for something slower, and we have resisted adding anything else that cannot be done properly in-house.
What has not changed is how a session begins. Somebody asks what you actually do all day, then writes it down. That record is what makes the fourth visit better than the first.
Not slogans. Things that shape how we book, treat and follow up.
Some therapists are better with a runners' hamstring, others with chronic shoulder tension or a stone ritual. We match the booking to the person, not to the next free slot.
If the problem needs a physio or a GP, we say so and hand over the notes. A studio that pretends to fix everything ends up fixing very little.
We book with buffer. No back-to-back turnover, no rush at the end to push you out the door. A sixty-minute session runs for sixty minutes, plus the intake.
Every therapist holds a nationally recognised qualification in remedial massage.
Founder and director
Opened the studio in 2011 after eight years working in AFL club physio rooms.
Lead therapist
Trained in traditional Hawaiian lomilomi and runs the stone ritual program. Mentors every new therapist for their first year.
Sports therapist
Works with three Melbourne running squads on pre-race taper and post-race recovery. Marathoners ask for him by name.
Studio manager
Runs the front desk, handles HICAPS rebates and the diary. If your appointment needs moving, she is the person to ring.
Massage is not a fixed recipe. Two people with sore lower backs can need completely different work on the table, and until the therapist has actually felt the tissue, there is no way of knowing which. That is why every session starts with a screen and why the treatment plan gets written in the room, not in advance.
It also means we say no to some things. We do not do deep tissue work on a fresh injury. We do not use a stone ritual on someone whose body is running hot from training. We do not book a ninety-minute session into a forty-five-minute gap. Clients sometimes find that frustrating, and we take it as a sign we are doing the right thing.
Simple bends, rotations and shoulder rolls before anything else. The screen tells us which side of the joint is doing the work.
Superficial tissue first, deeper work second. Rushing straight into the deep layers tightens the muscle rather than releasing it.
Short notes from every session, so a change of therapist does not mean starting over on the history.
A quick message a few days later to check how the tissue has settled. Reply if there is anything you want adjusted.
Fourteen years, a few moves, a lot of notes.
Opened above a florist with one therapist and a booking sheet that lived in a spiral notebook.
Four rooms, a proper reception and the first HICAPS terminal, which we have never regretted installing.
Marisol brought the heated basalt technique back from Hawaii and we built a quiet lounge to sit alongside it.
Added the second row of treatment rooms and brought the mentoring program in-house for every new therapist.
Mostly unglamorous, occasionally memorable, always on the table.
A short menu means every therapist specialises. No booking sheet full of half-taught techniques.
Firm, methodical work on the muscle groups most people neglect until they hurt. Layers of tissue worked from the surface deeper, always at a pressure you steer.
See the details
Heated basalt stones along the spine, worked slowly through the legs and arms, with a cold marble finish to settle the shoulders. Best for tension that ordinary massage has not moved.
See the detailsA mix of regulars, first-timers and one person who came in on a dare.
“I had been to six massage places before this one and they all felt like they were running a script. Here the therapist listened, worked out where the problem actually started, and I left with a stretch I still do every morning.
“Brought my teenage son in after a footy season that had left him hobbling. Nathan treated him like an adult, explained everything and wrote out a routine. He is back on the field and asking when the next session is.
“I tried the stone ritual on a dare from a friend and now it is the only thing I book. Two hours of heat and quiet twice a month keeps me from turning into a ball of tension by Thursday.
Short pieces on recovery, load management and why some things stay tight for years.
The tightness at the back is usually a muscle working overtime, not the one that needs the most attention.
Read the article
Weekly, fortnightly or every few months? Frequency depends on training load, desk hours and how fast you recover.
Read the articleWhether it is a first session or a regular booking, the door on Collins Street is open. Tell us what is going on and we will match you with the right therapist.
