Bodywork · East London
Felt — holistic massage and bodywork in Forest Gate, East London. Slow, attuned massage for the nervous system. David Darch.
Let your body be heard.
Slow, attuned bodywork that calms
your nervous system and gently
encourages you to let go.
An invitation
What are you carrying?
Each session follows your body rather than a fixed routine — drawing on Lomi Lomi, deep tissue, trigger-point and somatic techniques, moving between deep and barely-there, dynamic movement and stillness.
Potential benefits include:
- ▸ A renewed memory of what deep rest feels like
- ▸ A release of tension your body forgot it held
- ▸ A felt sense of safety
- ▸ A reminder that here and now everything is OK
- ▸ A moment's respite for the over-stimulated and dysregulated
- ▸ An experience of stillness, especially when meditation feels out of reach
Micro & macro
As above, so below...
Trigger Point Therapy: Releasing tension precisely; detailed muscular and nervous system release combined with Dan Joy's Lomi Lohi: holistic soothing and calming of the whole. Down-regulation of the nervous system.
The big picture and the fine detail.
It's the same message at both ends of the scale:
'It’s OK... Here, it’s safe for you to let go.'
Twenty years learning to heal myself
I had no choice but to learn how to heal myself from chronic pain. I tried everything I could find. Much later I came to understand that my nervous system had locked into a high-alert state.
I learnt to accept and become curious. I learnt to listen.
Now when I work I experience a body's resistance and tension as if I'm working on my own body. Through years of trial and painful error I came to the conclusion that, more often than not, the most effective way to release tension in the body is to calm, to soothe, to acknowledge with gratitude and to gently encourage letting go.
Nothing in the world is as soft and yielding as water.
Yet for dissolving the hard and inflexible, nothing can surpass it.
The soft overcomes the hard; the gentle overcomes the rigid.
Everyone knows this is true, but few can put it into practice.
The approach
A conversation with your body
It's important to me to understand what you’re bringing to our session, and what you want to leave behind. Then I work slowly, with curiosity, discovering and working with 'what is' rather than performing a set routine.
I use a wide range of pressure and technique, depending on what your body needs to feel safe and let go. My approach is to have a conversation with each muscle and it's connective tissue through my fingertips — to hold the muscle, to thank it for its intention to protect you, and to gently let it know it can relax now. That energy returned back to the body becomes part of your vital, alive self.
As a musician with a love for improvising I've learned to listen... and respond intuitively.
The earliest fabric in human history.
No loom, no thread, no knot. Just warmth and unhurried pressure.
Something becomes whole through being held.
Our session is an opportunity for your entire system
to expand and experience more spaciousness.
It's an opportunity for you to feel
as deeply as is right for you, right now.
It's an opportunity to feel seen,
heard, and held.
This might not be for you if…
- ▸ You want your muscles systematically ironed out
- ▸ You believe massage needs to hurt to do you any good
- ▸ You'd rather not hear what your body has been trying to tell you
- ▸ You want a garage-style service: drop the body off, collect it later
This is for you if you're… ready to let go
Kind words
What people say
“The experience today has shifted something inside me — brought me closer into connection with the path I want to align to. I'm grateful beyond words that can be expressed. I'm blessed to be a recipient of your heart's magic.”
“My first session with Dave was ninety minutes of depth, presence and letting go, in massage form. It was a new form of massage for me, combining focused work on particular muscle groups with a process of moving energy in and through different parts of the body. Dave was incredibly attuned to what was going on with my body that day, and I had complete trust in his ability to give me the reset I needed. This is what massage should be like — a personal experience with care at its heart. I need more of this in my life and couldn't recommend it more.”
Full circle
A curse or a gift?
What seemed like the crushing end of my music career turned out to be the greatest blessing. Twenty years of listening to, and accepting my pain taught me how to attune and meet others where they are.
The whole story →felt. /fɛlt/ past tense of feel
- 1. Understood by the body before the mind has words for it.
- 2. A pre-verbal awareness that you sense in your body.
- 3. A felt sense; not a mental experience - but a physical one.
→ Gendlin, “the felt sense”, Focusing