Nico Thoemmes (Certified Rolfer)

“Welcome, I’m Nico and I have been practising as a bodyworker for 17 years as a massage therapist and a Rolfing® Structural Integration Practitioner.  I grew up in Bristol and became enchanted with yoga as a teenager (before it was cool) a practice that helped prise me from the angst of teendom. Yoga led to physical theatre and then in turn to Contemporary Dance and a full blown love affair with the interplay between movement, dance and touch otherwise described as somatic practices.

I moved to London to train in Contemporary Dance at the Laban Centre, a conservatoire for dance and movement studies founded set up by the eminent Rudolph Laban, known historically as the father of European modern dance, Laban was a visionary, humanist, teacher and theoretician, whose revolutionary ideas bridged the gap between the performing arts and science. At Laban I first encountered Rolfing and despite its less than ideal name (sorry Ida) it felt like a homecoming of sorts. I had been experimenting with various massage and touch based therapies since I was 19 and was considering what to formally study and I found many approaches either too flimsy or too harsh and painful. Within Rolfing® I discovered the balance between focused deep pressure and an intelligent therapeutic process. My Rolfing training took two years to complete under the guidance of several senior tutors from the European Rolfing Association.   

I am currently in part time practice as a Rolfer and founder of Wellship, a project that grew from my love of sauna. In 2013 co-founded the Morning Gloryville sober dance movement and am a staunch advocate of dance as something society should do more. 

My vision is to help in the process of legitimising bodywork and bringing it into the 21st century, promoting it as a therapeutic art, just as valid as talking therapies; healing minds and emotions as much as bodies. 

Please don’t hesitate to get in touch or book yourself in. 

Nico x