Nigel Gilderson

Massage Therapist

Qualifications and registration

Nigel holds an ITEC qualification from Morley College and has trained in Thai yoga massage at the Howard Evans School. He has continued to develop his practice through treatment exchanges with practitioners of complementary bodywork styles.

Nigel came to massage therapy through his own experience of it. Dealing with his own musculoskeletal problems, he found that these techniques genuinely worked, and he decided he wanted to be able to offer the same to others. That personal starting point shows in how he works: attentive, patient-led, and focused on what actually helps rather than what looks impressive on paper.

He trained at Morley College (gaining his ITEC qualification) and at the Howard Evans School of Thai Yoga Massage, and has continued to develop his practice through treatment exchanges with practitioners from other bodywork traditions, learning as much through giving and receiving as through formal study. He also brings a considerable amount of physical intelligence from his wider professional life. Alongside his massage work, he teaches yoga, Tai Chi, and Qi Gong, spent years as a tennis coach, and was previously a PE teacher. That is a lot of accumulated knowledge about how bodies move, where they tend to go wrong, and what helps them recover.

In treatment, Nigel uses gentle, sustained pressure into deep tissue and neurological pathways, encouraging the body to soften and release rather than forcing it. He particularly enjoys working with back, neck and shoulder tension that builds up from long hours at a desk. He also offers Thai yoga massage, working fully clothed at floor level and using sustained pressure along connected lines of soft tissue to encourage release through the body. Outside the clinic, he dances, plays guitar, cycles, cooks, and keeps a daily Buddhist practice. He also speaks a little French.