Teresa Elizabeth Hart is a fully qualified and registered massage and sports injury therapist, providing the finest selection of massage therapies and massage treatments at Three Part Street.
Massage Hereford: Dancing days. Me in my can-can outfit aged 19.
I was very lucky in my childhood, being brought up in the wilderness of North Wales and with a freedom of spirit not easily found today. I believe it is this free spirit that has led me on many paths of adventure and discovery, being unafraid to leap into the unknown.
My early career as a dancer in a ballet troupe in Rome and touring Europe, gave me a rich experience in the different cultures and culinary delights of all the Mediterranean countries. I experienced even more when I travelled to the United States and worked on a yacht which chartered, during the winter season, in the Caribbean and took short cruises from out of Los Angeles, at other times, the length of the Californian coast to Mexico and Costa Rica, and for one summer cruising and racing the East coast, from Bermuda to Maine. To keep fit on these long sea voyages I had learned Aerobics which I loved so much that when I returned home, I became a fitness instructor and taught Aerobics for many years.
During this time I heard about Lotte Berk, and was quite influenced by what happened to her. A dancer and an émigré from Germany, escaping to England during the war, she had a terrible accident from which her doctor told her she would neither dance nor walk again. Adopting a strict exercise routine and in just 2 weeks, she proved the doctor wrong by walking into his surgery!
How did she do that? I wanted to know.
As time went by, I felt the need to learn and understand more deeply the mechanics of the body, I wanted to know about the anatomy and the physiology of the body. I also wanted to know how the body heals from accident or injury.
To begin my understanding I studied massage and then sports injury therapy through the Clare Maxwell-Hudson School of Massage.
After several years of experience in massage, I understood how the body will naturally heal itself given the correct support; but, I had also observed how common the connection of poor digestion to pain was.
It became clear that it is not just good nutrition and regular exercise that returns a body to good health but also how important it is that the body is able to thoroughly digest and absorb that which is ingested.
In 2005 I took time out to travel and experience massage, and learn about nutrition and healing in other countries.
I first went to Austria, home to F.X.Mayr and visited his Cure Clinic in Maria Worth, where, along with focussing on cleansing the gut , daily massage treatments are vigorously applied to aid in the process.
I then went on to India, whose culture is steeped in the ancient art of massage and Ayurveda.
I attended the Ayushakti Clinic in Mumbai, built in a slum area by Dr. Naram specifically to treat the poor, but quickly gained interest in the west because of the positive results the clinic had in helping to improve people’s health.
The Ayurvedic treatment given is called Panchakarma, which is a therapy for thoroughly cleansing the gut , supported, daily, by a variety of massage techniques. The same philosophy as Dr. F.X.Mayr, but with added pronouncement on emotional and spiritual healing. Ayurveda is a medicine that is several thousands of years old and it’s ancient healing method had a powerful impact on me.
During my time in India I also studied Yoga.
Yoga was the final and unexpected experience. Practising this discipline daily gradually made me aware of how it brings calm and balance within myself every day. It increased ease and range of movement almost equal to my young dancing days filling me with renewed strength and vitality.
Returning home I felt enriched from my experiences which had given me a fuller understanding of what it means to have good health, how to go about achieving it and then maintaining it.
I have opened this small well-being retreat and massage clinic to hopefully benefit others from my learning and at the same time see it as a natural way in my life’s journey.
