How did you first get into Tuina?  

I often think about the differences of life before and after Tuina! I’ve played sports all in my life, I was growing up going to a sports primary school and a Sports Academy secondary school. After school, my job was a professional basketball player for quite a few years. Unfortunately, I suffered some serious injuries, ACL, mascot injuries, knee surgery, ankle surgery, so my career ultimately came to an end. 

When I moved to the UK, I was working as a basketball coach In an American school, and a physical education teacher. The very first time I came to Touch Tuina I was a patient, because I had a bad injury again in my shoulder. They were really good and they fixed me after a few weeks, so I was able to go back and play again. This is how I first met with Touch Tuina. It worked really well and I found what I experienced in the clinic very interesting, so I had a conversation with Errol about how I could learn more about Tuina.

At the time, I didn’t know it was something I wanted to train in, but he told me that it was a student teaching clinic as well and I was welcome to study there. I signed up for the introduction day and I really liked what I heard, the way it sounded and what my future could look like as a practitioner. I signed up for the full course and that was eight years ago. That’s how my Tui Na journey started!

How has Tui Na changed your life?

Physio massage has always been very important for me through my career, because I always had small, big, minor, severe injuries through playing basketball. I finally found a treatment that worked really well for me. Not only helping with my injuries, also the knowledge the practitioners gave me on how I can prevent injuries from happening going forward and really look after my body. They were showing me new things and teaching me different stretches and exercises to get my body in tip top shape. That is what really drew me to Tuina. 

The biggest difference in life before and after Tuina is I’ve found something that I wouldn’t call work, I’d call it a passion and it’s like an ongoing journey. I’m always learning, having new experiences and it’s very exciting every day to come to the clinic. It doesn’t feel like work at all, it’s a life journey, an experience and I’m not the only one here who feels like that. We all love what we’re doing and it’s amazing to do something that doesn’t feel like you have do it, we all really want to do it!

Is there anything you do differently to before you worked here?  

These days, I don’t just think about sports, I think about life as a whole, like learning the pholosophies of Traditional Chinese medicine. Also, learning and understanding how the body works, how the muscles and organs connect to each other. Everything is connected, and learning about and understanding that is the path to a much healthier life, for us and for our clients. I focus on my nutrition more now than when I was growing up, especially more than when I was playing Basketball. I’ve realised just how important stretching and rehabilitation is. I also know more not just about the connection between muscles and exercise, but the body and mind as well. Looking back, I can see that I suffered some injuries when my mind wasn’t 100% there.

So, life before and after Tuina is certainly very different. Tuina and Traditional Chinese Medicine has taught me that keeping the mind healthy is as important as keeping the body healthy as well, and I’m so happy to be able to share that with our clients and help them along a path to better health too.

If you’d like to book an appointment with Peter to experience one of his treatments for yourself, just get in touch!