At unwind & recharge we support women experiencing stress, anxiety, or pain. You will notice your physical and emotional tension easing. You will learn how mindful touch can help calm your nervous system during stressful moments. You will become more aware of your body and its true needs, and feel more grounded and present. We achieve this through a unique combination of massage therapy (remedial, pregnancy, postnatal, therapeutic, oncology), mindful breathing, meditation, and somatic coaching. This clinic is exclusive to female clients. Private health rebates, home care rebates, and gift cards are available.

Individual in-person appointments: At unwind & recharge, each session is personalised, with time to listen and understand what you need on the day —combining skilled, intuitive touch with a calm, nourishing presence. The treatment may include gentle guided breathing and mindfulness to help you settle your nervous system, reconnect with your body, and leave feeling lighter, calmer, and supported.

Every session takes place in a safe, warm, and caring environment, allowing you to step away from the demands of daily life and enter a deeply restorative experience. Treatments may include mindful touch, breathwork, and meditation to calm the nervous system and support balance and resilience. When specific concerns arise, sessions can also include gentle guidance for supportive lifestyle changes.

We honour the whole person—body, mind, spirit, and emotions—and tailor each appointment to your individual needs, listening to your story as well as to your body’s “unspoken voice”.

We work exclusively with women and support you through all stages of life, with a specific focus on transitions such as young adulthood, pregnancy and the postnatal period, motherhood and career change, recovery after pregnancy loss, menopause and later life.

We are trained in:

• Pregnancy & postnatal massage
• Remedial massage therapy
• Therapeutic massage therapy
• Oncology massage
• Therapeutic touch/ Reiki
• Meditation & mindful breathing
• Somatic coaching

Individual online appointments: Online appointments are available to teach you self-massage, mindful breathing, meditation, and provide somatic coaching, all aimed at helping you manage stress, release tension, feel more connected to your body, and be more present.

Workshops (online or in person): In addition to individual one-to-one appointments, we offer educational workshops in

• Mindful self‑supportive touch and massage (for regulation, body awarness and more presence)
• Massage for carers and those they care for (for co-regulation, increased connection and gentle support for both)
• Simple massage skills for kids (because teaching safe human touch is important)

See Caring Touch workshops for more information

A gentle reminder None of the above offerings replace regular medical checkups with your GP. However, they will likely help you feel healthier, more in tune with your body and happier. This allows you to take an active role in your wellbeing while maintaining the critical oversight of a licensed medical professional who can assess your health status over time. The key is to view Massage Therapy and any other somatic explorations and teachings as complementary, not a replacement for your primary care physician’s essential role in managing your long-term health. Regular check-ups should remain part of your health routine, even as you explore other supportive therapies.

Please get in touch if you want to book any of these modalities.

We believe that healing and wellbeing extend beyond the treatment room. As part of our commitment to holistic care, we offer a curated collection of inspiring books that support self‑reflection, nervous system health, emotional awareness, and personal growth. Some of these books have informed our work. May they gently support you on your own journey, too. You are welcome to explore them in your own time. To support local, ethical and independent businesses, we encourage you to order through Eltham Bookstore, an independent bookshop set in the heart of our community in the leafy Shire of Nillumbik in Melbourne, Australia.

Books we recommend 

Accessing the Healing Power of the Vagus Nerve – Stanley Rosenberg

Atlas of the Heart – Brené Brown

Atomic Habits – James Clear

Dare to Lead – Brené Brown

Freedom from Pain – Peter Levine

In an Unspoken Voice – Peter Levine

Lost Connections – Johann Hari

Mediation as Medicine – Dharma Singh Khalsa, M.D. and Cameron Stauth

Mindfulness in Eight Weeks – Michael Chaskalson

Stolen Focus – Johann Hari

The Alchemist – Paulo Coelho

The Art of Living – Thich Nhat Hahn

The Body Keeps the Score – Bessel van der Kolk

The Brain that Changes itself – Norman Doidge

The Care Manifesto – The Care Collective

The Courage to Be Disliked – Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga

The Four Agreements – Don Miguel Ruiz

The Mastery of Self – Don Miguel Ruiz Jr.

The Matter with Things – Ian Mc Gilchrist

The Myth of Normal – Gabor Maté

The Power of Kindness – Piero Ferrucci

The Power of Now – Eckard Tolle

The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying – Sogyal Rinpoche

The Time Keeper – Mitch Albom

Together – Ece Temelkuran

When the Body Says No – Gabor Maté

Interesting videos

Exercise

The brain-changing benefits of exercise | Wendy Suzuki

The brain

How Your Brain Creates Reality | Lisa Feldman Barrett

Pain

Understanding pain and what can be done about it | Kidshealth New Zealand

Why things hurt | Lorimer Moseley

Stress

The Single Most Important Thing You Can Do For Your Stress | DocMikeEvans

How to make stress your friend | Kelly McGonigal

Touch

Why Touch matters | unwind & recharge

Happyness break: The healing power of your own touch | Kristin Neff

Baby massage in pictures | Raising Children Network

Positive touch ‘hand hugs’ | The Royal Children’s Hospital

Inspiring words

We have gathered these words as gentle companions—offerings of wisdom, presence, and remembrance. They speak to the healing power of touch, connection, and self‑care, and reflect the values that shape our work. You are invited to pause with them, return to them when needed, and allow what resonates to quietly support you on your journey.

“Emotional release and muscular release are interdependent – one does not occur without the other.”— Elaine Mayland

“A new stimulus that is perceived as safe and meaningful has the potential to shift our physiological state towards health. Most touch is too busy and too focused on local fixes to promote global feelings of safety via interoceptive, inward touch. Slow relational touch can consistently access primal human needs to be acknowledged, validated and accepted.”— Steven Haines

“Massage is the art of touch, the language of compassion, and the pathway to a more relaxed and balanced life.”— Anodea Judith

“The art of massage is not just about healing the body; it’s about soothing the soul and calming the mind.”— Cindy Williams

“The more we learn about touch, the more we realize just how central it is in all aspects of our lives — cognitive, emotional, developmental, behavioral — from womb into old age. It’s no surprise that a single touch can affect us in multiple, powerful ways.”— Maria Konnikova

“Too often we underestimate the power of touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.”
— Leo Buscaglia

“Rest and self-care are so important. When you take time to replenish your spirit, it allows you to serve from the overflow. You cannot serve from an empty vessel.”— Eleanor Brown

“Self-care is never a selfish act—it is simply good stewardship of the only gift I have, the gift I was put on earth to offer to others.”— Parker Palmer

“Touch is an exquisitely social sense, capable of allowing accurate communication of specific emotional states. Interpersonal touch is associated with well-being, promoting pleasant feelings, approach-related behaviours, and reductions in aversive feelings and acute pain.”— López-Solà

“Somatic awareness allows us to reclaim our inherent ability to heal and transform from within.” — Judith Blackstone

“The quieter you become, the more you are able to hear.”— Rumi

“…I have a lot of patients that derive enormous value from massage, and I think massaging in competent hands can be a wonderfully therapeutic thing and I fully endorse it.” – Prof Jason Kovacic, Director and CEO at Victor Chang Cardiac Research Centre

“Often the hands know how to solve a riddle with which the intellect has wrestled in vain.” — Carl G. Jung

“Touch heals. (…) Touch soothes the soul. It quiets the longing. It bridges the loneliness. It unites two people. Yet it is also a vital way to inform ourselves about the world. Out of curiosity, out of desire to know and experience, we reach out and touch- from picking up a mango from the stall at the stall at the roadside grower’s market to stroking the soft silk of a hand-painted scarf. Some things we have to touch to know. In this way, touch can enliven us. It activates all of our senses. It serves to enlighten us. (…) Massage is the art of healing touch that transforms. It softens suffering transmutes pain to calm and inner peace. It substitutes fear, pain, and harshness… with grace.” — Erica Tismer and Carolyn Flynn

“Massage has been my vehicle of resurrection and renewal. It has helped me to see the dreams trapped in my thighs, to feel the breaths held hostage in my belly, to sense the memories etched into the soles of my feet. And all I have to do is to stay present and follow the hands, like guides, through the wilderness of my body, back to my most essential self.” — Gabrielle Roth

“By connecting with our bodies, we can make real and lasting changes, we can find more joy and agency within us – we have a huge amount of adaptability and creativity inside of us.”— Steven Haines

“The throbbing vein will take you further than any thinking.”— Rumi

I have often seen also that people who are very sick, long to be touched, long to be treated as living people, not as diseases. A great deal of consolation can be given to the very ill simply by touching their hands, looking into their eyes, gently massaging them or holding them in your arms, or breathing in the same rhythm gently with them. The body has its own language of love; use it fearlessly.”— Sogyal Rinpoche

“We but mirror the world. All the tendencies present in the outer world are to be found in the world of our body. If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. This is the divine mystery supreme. A wonderful thing it is and the source of our happiness. We need not wait to see what others do.” — Mahatma Gandhi

“I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.” —Mother Teresa

“Connection is the energy that exists between people when they feel seen, heard and valued: when they can give and receive without judgement; and when they derive sustenance and strength from the relationship.” — Brené Brown

“Not the world, not what’s outside of us, but what we hold inside traps us. We may not be responsible for the world that created our minds, but we can take responsibility for the mind with which we create our world.” — Gabor Maté

“The person who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing. And can face with us the reality of our powerlessness – that is the person who cares”— Adrian Fleming

“I see it, feelingly”— King Lear, Shakespeare

“Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.”— Audre Lorde

“Sometimes we forget when people are sick or hurt that what they most need is to feel connected, to be loved, to be touched.”— Lissa Rankin, MD

“In a gentle way, you can shake the world.”— Mahatma Gandhi

The “skin is no more separated from the brain than the surface of a lake is separated from its depths.” — Deane Juhan

“Fear has not studied medicine. Although it claims expertise in every field and pretends to have learned it all, its diplomas are nothing but forgeries.” — Mariana Leky

“The body remembers what the mind forgets.” – Jacob Levy Moreno

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