Sarah Till Holistic

A little hello from me 👋

There have been a few new faces here recently and with my new sign finally up at the end of the driveway, it felt like a good time to properly introduce myself.

I’m Sarah and I run Sarah Till Holistic from my peaceful little treatment room overlooking the gardens here in Hastings, just a few minutes from Havelock North.

I offer holistic massage, pregnancy massage and my Integrated Massage & Energy Reset all created around the same simple idea: giving women somewhere they can slow down, soften and feel looked after for a while.

My approach is gentle, intuitive and nervous-system led. I love the science of what happens when we feel safe enough to deeply rest but I'm equally fascinated by the quieter, harder-to-explain parts of healing too. My work has gradually evolved to hold space for both.

Most of the women who find me are carrying a lot - busy lives, changing bodies, stress, caring for others, or simply the feeling that they need some time to come back to themselves.

There is no rushing here. No conveyor belt of appointments. Just warmth, quiet, thoughtful touch and space to exhale.

And apparently, after nearly a year of quietly working away, I now have an actual sign to prove I exist. 😂

If you're new here, welcome. I'm very glad you've found me. 🤍

And if you've been thinking about booking yourself some time to slow down for a while… well, maybe this is your sign. 😉

✨Book online via the link in my bio

Sarah x

A little leap of faith ✨

When I first created my Integrated Massage & Energy Reset it was honestly a bit of a leap of faith.

I knew I wanted to bring together the slow, nurturing massage I love with Reiki, energy work, stillness and sound.

I knew how I wanted it to feel.

But I’m not sure I completely understood what I was creating yet.

Over the past few months as more women have chosen the Energy Reset I've started to understand it through them.

The treatment begins with slow back massage - a gentle way of beginning the conversation with the nervous system and allowing the body time to settle.

From there we move into energy work. I use a combination of polarity holds and Reiki, working through the chakras before allowing the treatment to become more intuitive - sometimes pausing in places, sometimes working hands on and sometimes just above the body.

Some women become deeply still.
Some experience colours, images, emotions or physical sensations. Others simply feel wonderfully relaxed.

There is no right way to experience it.

There is no expectation that you need to do anything during this part of the treatment.

Sound from a singing bowl and koshi chimes transitions us back to massage and grounding through the body.

What I offer is a warm, quiet space where, for 90 minutes, very little is being asked of you. And sometimes there is nothing to understand at all — just a really lovely massage, deep rest and the feeling of having been cared for.

Both are more than enough.

The introductory price of $145 will finish at the end of August. If you’ve been curious about trying an Integrated Massage & Energy Reset, you’re very welcome to book in before then.

90 minutes | Introductory price $145 until 31 August

Booking link in bio

A chance to slow down, become still and simply notice what arises.

Sometimes, in that kind of quiet, there may be space to hear yourself a little more clearly.

The Messy Middle

Winter always makes me reflect.

There’s something about the garden being stripped back to its bare bones that creates space for thoughts to flow.

When I left flower farming it took me a while to go back to the garden. I was obviously burnt out without realising it. But gradually we've started transitioning the annual long beds into woodland. And it feels great.

The flowers have made way for trees, bulbs and shade-loving plants. It would be easy to mistake this space as empty. But beneath the surface, it’s quietly becoming something entirely new.

Watching this transformation has made me think about how often we expect ourselves to stay the same.

But we don’t.

Sometimes we outgrow the lives we once lived. Sometimes life gently nudges us in a new direction. Sometimes our bodies ask us to slow down. Sometimes we discover a path that feels more like home than the one we carefully built before.

Transitions are rarely neat.

They can feel uncertain, messy and deeply uncomfortable while we’re living them. But it’s often in that liminal space - when we’ve let go of who we were but haven’t quite become who we’re becoming- that the deepest growth takes place.

Looking back, I can see that every meaningful chapter of my own life began there. Nature never rushes a transition. It sheds, rests, roots and begins again in its own time.

Perhaps we’re allowed to do the same.

I’ve come to realise that many of the women who walk through my door are navigating a season of transition too; whether that’s pregnancy, perimenopause, burnout, grief, recovery or simply feeling that life is asking something different of them.

I can’t change those seasons. But I can offer a quiet space to pause, breathe, reconnect with your body and find a little steadiness while you move through them.

Photo 1: one of the old annual flower beds now part of the woodland

Photo 2: the old dahlia walk which will be repurposed in spring

Photo 3: Erlicheer

I’m excited to be heading to Christchurch this weekend to train in pregnancy massage. It feels like a very natural extension of the work I already offer; creating a calm, nurturing space where women can soften, rest and reconnect with their bodies during another significant season of life.
Over the following weeks I’ll be completing my case studies with some lovely expectant mums before officially adding this new offering.

For now, consider this a little glimpse of what’s to come.
Watch this space. 🤍

So many women are living from the neck up.

Holding everything together. Thinking ahead. Managing everyone’s needs. Pushing through tiredness, tension and overwhelm because life doesn’t leave much room for anything else.

And the body adapts.

Tight shoulders become normal.
A clenched jaw becomes normal.
Shallow breathing becomes normal. Feeling slightly “on” all the time becomes normal.

Until one day you realise you can’t quite remember what it feels like to be fully at ease in your own body.

That’s one of the reasons massage can be so powerful.

Not just because it eases muscular tension, but because it creates a space where your body can stop bracing for a while. A space where your nervous system gets the message that it’s safe to soften. Where you can come out of your thoughts and back into sensation, breath, stillness and rest.

Back into yourself.

This is the part of my work I care about most; creating a space where women can exhale, feel held, and reconnect with the quieter signals of their own body again.

If you’ve been feeling wired, tired, tense or disconnected from yourself, I’d love to welcome you in. Book an appointment via the link in bio 🤍

The Spaces In Between 🤍
I've been away on holiday which is always a beautiful chance to experience, absorb and reflect and I noticed something. Some of my favourite moments weren’t the things we’d planned (and I'd done a lot of planning). They were the spaces in between. The little pockets of time that happen spontaneously.

Sitting in a Savannah square eating breakfast and looking up at the huge live oak trees and feeling their wisdom. Closing my eyes to feel those first warm rays at sunrise as we whizzed down an empty beach on a golf cart looking for fresh turtle nests. Sitting with a cocktail when an impromtu bluegrass band starts playing. Moments when not a lot is happening. These small pockets of room in our lives when we're not rushing, producing, organising or responding.

The moments we often dismiss as unimportant and yet they're often the moments we remember.

It reminded me why the work I do is so important. Creating pockets of space for women to come back to themselves and just be. Because sometimes what we're longing for isn't another thing to do.; it's a place to pause.

I'm settled back home in the kiwi winter and feeling grateful for the reminder that life isn't only found in the big moments. Sometimes it's found in the spaces in between.

Book your own little pocket of space. Link in bio 🫶

Most modern lives have very little white space.

This morning I went from a gym workout, to a quick cup of tea with the gym girls, to an appointment across town, to circling for a carpark, to grabbing groceries, to rushing home hungry and throwing eggs in a pan before the next thing began.

And when I finally sat down for a moment, I had that thought:

That was actually quite a lot for a nervous system.

Not a traumatic day. Not a bad day.
Just constant input. Constant movement. Constant switching.

I think many of us live like this now.

We move from one thing to the next without ever fully landing anywhere in between.

Our bodies often stay slightly braced, our jaws tight, mind racing, breathing shallow, always preparing for the next thing.

This is one of the reasons I believe massage therapy matters so much. Not simply for muscles but for the nervous system.

For many women an hour on the table may be one of the only moments in the week where nobody needs anything from them, there’s nowhere to be, their breathing slows, their shoulders drop, their body stops anticipating the next demand.

A little white space 🤍

And sometimes that space is where the body finally remembers how to soften.

Space available for you. Book via the link in my bio.

A client described her session this week as a “wonderful forced stop.” and how it was a "great start to the week with how I want to go forward."

That moment where your body finally lets go of holding everything together. We don’t always realise how much we’re carrying until something gives us permission to pause.

If life has felt a bit full lately then this is your reminder that your body doesn’t need you to push harder. Sometimes it just needs space to soften. An hour of nervous system massage can really set you up for the day or week.

Holistic Massage appointments and Massage and Energy sessions available next week 🤍

Sarah

Mother’s Day always used to be one of the busiest times of my year. Running around with my arms full of flowers to create bouquets to say “I love you.” It was hectic but still really beautiful too.

This year feels a little different.

Instead of something beautiful that fades, I get to offer something that lingers. A moment of deep rest, a soft reset and a chance to be truly cared for.

If you’re thinking about what to give your mum (or someone who feels like one) then a holistic relaxation massage can be a way of saying "this is time for you."

For Mother’s Day I’m including a small extra with each gift voucher purchased. A 10ml roller bottle essential oil blend which she can choose on the day of her treatment. It's a beautiful way of extending the treatment and taking a small ritual home with her.

You can choose a 60 or 90 minute holistic massage or the Integrated massage & Energy Reset to claim the oil blend gift.

Vouchers are available now via the link in bio 🤍

It’s been quite a week.

My daughter graduated from Canterbury University after four years of study. Such a proud moment and we were so lucky to take the time to really enjoy it and celebrate her 🤍

Then yesterday I stepped into something completely different and spent the day learning hot stone massage with Sandra came over from Australia with her beautiful jade stone kits and her specialised, therapeutic approach.

It was such a lovely group of practitioners. So many of us drawn to not just working with muscles but supporting the nervous system too.

I’ve come away with a lot to reflect on. There were parts I really loved - the warmth, the pace, the way the body softens so quickly and the weight of the stones feels so comforting.

Over the next few weeks I’ll be gently exploring how this weaves into my treatments. I've only just realised how creative I can still be with massage therapy which is a total joy.

Always learning. Always refining. 🤍