What did you do before becoming a Tuina practitioner?
I became a Tuina practitioner quite young, I was 18, so straight out of school. At that time I didn’t have much of an idea on which direction I wanted to go in, so my dad (Errol Lynch) pushed me to do something I enjoyed, and originally that was personal training. I took a personal training course, and straight out of school it’s hard to get a job doing that because I was so young and also wasn’t so confident. My dad suggested I should do a Tuina course, so I did and got involved pretty much straight out of school.
What inspired you to become involved with Tuina?
I’ve been in and out of the clinic since I was a little kid, I think I was maybe 5,6,7 when I first started coming to the clinic, always playing around there. Didn’t think I’d actually work there but here we are!
How long did it take to train? How long have you been a practitioner?
I’m 25 now, so for the last 7 years. It took me a year to do the foundation course and then I did the Student to Master, which took 6 months.
What types of clients do you treat?
Various, so right now I mainly treat muscular pain, it’s usually postural problems, lower back problems, mainly caused from people working from home and sitting at a desk for too long. These are the types of issues we see often, so I specialise in that area. A couple of years ago, pre COVID, I was going into the London clinic every Wednesday and I got a lot of experience there treating athletes and footballers, who have very different issues such as hamstring and groin problems.
Why do you think everyone should try a Tuina treatment?
This is potentially deep! I feel society doesn’t pay enough attention to its health, health in general is on the decline and as I mentioned earlier, people’s postures are poor. I see everyone walking around, I’m a personal trainer too so I see it in the gym, people work from home, have poor posture and don’t take care of their health. Just 1 session at Touch Tuina can make an impact and inspire you to take better care of yourself!
What’s your favourite part of the job?
I feel like when I massage now, I’m in the flow, like when I’m playing football or going to the gym, I’m in the creative flow, I’m thinking, I really enjoy it, and of course helping people, seeing people get better is a nice feeling!
Are there specific treatment areas you specialise in?
I treat lower back and upper back every day, so this is a key area, I also do reflexology. My knee treatments are very successful, people come with knee problems and tend to leave without knee problems!
Do you have any favourite success stories with clients?
I was quite early into my Tuina days and a lady called Maria, who works at the York clinic too, taught me her knee routine. After that, I had a lady come in for half an hour and I’ll never forget this, she had a problem with her right knee so I had half an hour on her right knee and a lot of clients, you can’t tell if they like the treatment but this lady she got off the bed she ran around the room, literally ran around the room! I was like ‘what’s going on?’, and she was like ‘my knee my knee, it’s so much better, it’s like magic!’ I was thinking ‘oh crazy!’, I didn’t know how to react, and she was like ‘have you got another half an hour to do my left knee?!’ I said ‘I thought the right knee was the issue?’, and she replied ‘now the left knee feels worse!’. So I spent another half hour treating her left knee and I was thinking ‘perfect treatment, I’ll see her every week/ couple of weeks now on.’ I never saw her again, which shows I did a good job!
If you’d like to book an appointment with Dexter at our York clinic, just get in touch!
