Updates, Availability and Offers.

LATEST UPDATES

UPDATED EDIT 09/03/2025 at 6:30pm

Loads of appointment times this coming week, including tomorrow morning (Mon 9th). Book now before someone else does or we make other plans.

TEMPORARY SUSPENSIONS. Until further notice, Val is only offering 60 and 90 minute tantric massage sessions. She is not offering Swedish naturist massage due to repetitive back strain. If you usually book a two-hour tantric massage session you are welcome to enquire and Val is likely to still do this for clients who usually book this length of time.

WHEN YOU ENQUIRE…. Please tell us your full name and the type of massage you want. Sending a text that says “Can you do a massage on Friday?” tells us nothing about what sort of massage, how long for, what time you are thinking of, who you want the massage of, whether you’re new to us, and what your name is.

JANUARY NEWSLETTER (in italics below)

Quite a short newsletter this time round, compared with what we usually send. We really wanted to get this newsletter out earlier, but we’ve not had a good start to the year, and we’ve been hampered by prolonged illness which never seemed to come to an end. Plus we’ve had obligations towards parents. We have had to cancel or reschedule more appointments in the last six weeks than in the whole of the last fourteen years put together. It’s really not like us at all, and it irritates us to have to do it. Let’s hope things get better.

 JANUARY/FEBRUARY OFFER.

Okay… better late than never; there’s just a short window of opportunity for this. Massage workshop for couples, just £150 until 16th Feb. (Usual fee £180). Available any day of the week except Sundays. As we always state, although we say “couples”, we are actually referring to any two adults who know each other and will attend together. See website under the Day Courses tab.

 WHAT FOR 2025?

Before Christmas we advised clients that Val was suspending the provision of Swedish massage due to ongoing repetitive back strain. This suspension will continue indefinitely, so clients who might be holding out until Val resumes may find that they are waiting a long time. At best, Val might resume after Easter, but clients should be aware that she may choose to never resume this type of massage at all. However, Val continues to provide tantric massage in the normal way. Swedish massage (both conventional and naturist) is now only available with Bri. Clients who only ever booked Swedish massage with Val are welcome to book with Bri if they like, but obviously Bri is a male therapist. But if this doesn’t matter to you then that’s okay with us. A few clients have already made the switch.

OTHER COMMITMENTS. As previously mentioned on our website and newsletters, our parents care needs continue to take up considerable amounts of our time, energy and mental resources. This has proved extremely challenging at times, and the smile we greet clients with sometimes disguises what’s going on behind the scenes. This will continue throughout 2025 and it is imperative that we manage our time and schedule appointments in ways that serve both our clients, ourselves and our obligations towards parents. Please plan and book ahead as far as you can rather than on the hoof!

When a client comes for massage, it’s not just the room that we need to set up and get heated, we need to prepare ourselves mentally too. We can’t just flip into “happy holistic massage mode” five minutes after a challenging situation with our parents. We need a few moments to get into the right frame of mind.

 WEBSITE CHANGES

There have been a few tweaks and changes to our website recently.

Most notably, details of Tantric massage and Swedish Naturist massage will now appear on separate sub-pages under the “Types of Massage” tab.

 CONSTRUCTS

I’ve probably blogged or posted about this topic before, but there’s always new readers and visitors to our website and massage room… and some topics are well worth repeating.

At the end of my counselling degree course in 2017, the main tutor went round the room and asked all of us out of all the topics we’d covered, which topic we felt had the most personal effect on us. Every person in the room replied “Constructs”.

Constructs are the beliefs we form about the way we think things “ought” to be, and they can serve to inform you, and they can also cause you no end of trouble in your own life and personal relationships. Most of them are based on traditions and opinions; ie they are subjective rather than objective. Some examples of constructs are:

• You ought to wear a black tie for a funeral.

• No sex before marriage.

• You should learn to drive.

• Real men drink beer and use power tools.

• You must eat turkey at Christmas.

• You ought to visit your grandmother at least once a week.

• Monogamous is the only morally correct way to be.

• Blue is for boys, pink is for girls.

• If you don’t work forty hours a week then you’re lazy.

I could write thousands of these examples. People with rigid and inflexible constructs often struggle with anger management and getting along with others, because they don’t sufficiently acknowledge the differences that occur between humans. They also create issues of “right” and “wrong” out of things that are actually just a matter of opinion or personal preference rather than moral absolutes.

Take the statement… “You ought to wear black at a funeral”  Really? Says who? “It shows respect” How? How does it show respect? And how does not wearing black show disrespect? These are just made-up constructs. (For the record, I have no problem wearing black at a funeral, lol. I’m just making the point that it’s a social construct; there’s no “right” or “wrong” about it).

The question is which constructs are serving you well, and which constructs are actually borne out of others restrictive views and opinions that are holding you back from being your authentic self?

The three main giveaway words that tell you it’s a construct are “should”, “must” and “ought”. Now there are some things that you really should do, like paying the right amount of tax or not robbing a bank! But most of the time when someone says “You should…” they are stating an opinion but presenting it as though it was a fact. When someone says “You should… you must… you ought” ask yourself “Who said so? What makes them ever-so more knowledgeable on this issue? What authority do they hold? Who made them god?” If it’s a good suggestion, go with it. If not, don’t.

FAKE NEWS / FAKE REPRESENTATION

I occasionally hear about small organisations suffering from rogue and hostile online operators who just love to mess things up with unfair and unjust fake news, fake reviews or even faking the actual website/small business itself.

One online retailer recently sent out and email asking all it’s customers to be aware that fakery was occurring, especially reviews.

It got me thinking about we might be perceived and represented on certain sites, or dark corners of the internet. Several years ago we dared to look, and we were so appalled by what we saw that it almost made us quit. I don’t mean we were just appalled about what we saw about ourselves, I mean we were generally appalled by the nature of the whole thing and the skanky way massage therapists are gossiped about on the internet. Due to the cryptic alias’s of the contributors we couldn’t always work out who might have said what, and in some instances we suspected that some remarks were made by people who hadn’t even visited us, or who were parroting a mixture of other comments. Where we could work it out, those clients were instantly banned, and we’ll do it again at the drop of a hat. We have zero tolerance of neanderthals and fucktards who gossip about us on shady place on the internet.

The whole exercise was so deflating!

All we can ask is that if you’re the sort who goes routing on the internet to see what else you can find about us before booking, then please be aware that the internet is inhabited by all sorts of characters… and that some of them are unsavoury, some are nutters, and some may even be fake!

PLEASURE REBELS

To some people, Val and I are radical, liberal free-thinkers. To others, we are pretty tame and contained. It depends entirely on who you compare us to. Val is quite happy with how she is right now… the status quo. So am I on the whole, although I do like to browse the internet once in a while and see what’s going on out there. And it’s fascinating once you look beyond the first few lines of google search, or try varying your search phrases.

We are aware that some of our clients go to different places for different services, and that we are just one of several outlets that they get their kicks and enjoyment out of.

Well if anyone is curious, try the website on this link below. I can’t vouch for the people or the setup because I have no personal experience, but I have followed them for the last twelve months via newsletters and social media, and I have to admit there’s one or two gatherings I just might try for myself one day. The online stuff you can shove; I can’t bear online courses or sessions of any description. Give me something tangible and real any day. They also have links to other people who do other stuff, and often hold sessions on the outskirts of Manchester. By “stuff”, I mean things like bdsm, shibari etc. Look on the “work with me” tab and then go on the events page. You’ll see what I mean. Over the course of the year there’s quite a bit going on; they don’t advertise it all at once. I think it was the name “pleasure rebels” that got my attention, because I reckon that’s a description of me turning my back on my ridiculously restrictive and narrow-minded religious upbringing, lol.

www.pleasurerebels.com