Meet the Master: Sam Beckett

NO HANDS Masters have completed the full journey from zero strain bodywork, through potent and transactional bodywork to being able to offer truly Transformational Touch Therapy. Master Sam Beckett became a Master in 2014 and works in Walton on Thames. 

In her own words…

I first went to a Massage Therapist when I was around 24 and experiencing terrible shoulder pain. I was miserable in my job as an Advertising Sales Executive, work which was increasingly making me physically ill. The phrase fish out of water springs to mind! Anyway, I remember saying to my Therapist that I wish I could do work that would positively impact people's lives as her work had done for me. She said I could retrain as a Massage Therapist; I enrolled with the Middlesex School of Complementary Therapy that afternoon and qualified in 1998.

Although I qualified in 1998 I didn't start my NO HANDS training until 2011.A leaflet came through my front door every summer for about 5 years. I had just started getting a small niggle in my right wrist and I thought 'Well, they're clearly not a fly-by-night company, the dates work, what have I got to lose??!"

On seeing Gerry's live treatment on the first morning of my TRANSFORMING TOUCH course in Heathrow, I wondered what on earth I'd signed up for! I didn't like the look of it at all. You see, NO HANDS has been a long journey for me, even though I travelled it quite quickly. Back then, I remember thinking it all looked way too "intimate". However, once I'd felt the power of the Slump, I was curious. By day 3, I was hooked and signed up for Immersion immediately. Looking back, I think I wanted to find out why a NO HANDS Massage touched me on such an emotional level. I didn't know what it was, but there was something about the work that I wanted to give to my clients.

I started my practice in 1999 at a Chiropractic clinic so my clients mainly came to me for structural issues. When my eldest son was born in 2004, I decided I wanted to be a stay-at-home mum and so I worked at the clinic on Saturday mornings only. After I completed my first NO HANDS course (TRANSFORMING TOUCH), I went back into clinic and converted my entire client base to NO HANDS. I lost one client, however, many more increased their treatments and one said "Now that's what I call a Massage!"

By the time I had the confidence to introduce the NO HANDS music (I said it was a long journey for me!), a client said to me "There's Massage Therapy and there's Therapy Massage - that was Therapy Massage." When my youngest son started school, I decided there was only so much exercise, cleaning and coffee mornings I could do - I wanted to work more. However, the clinic is an hour away so it wasn't time-effective to take on more hours there. I began with mobile work, but became busy very quickly and lugging a table around was not exactly zero-strain for me! In order to sustain a full practice, I needed to work from home so with the support of my husband, I now have a purpose-built clinic in my back garden. It's a warm and quiet space for clients and I also run Master Support Sessions here.

When I first became a Master I felt a significant quietening of those internal, critical voices. I suppose I felt validated by a group of Masters whose opinions I respect and trust. Then I found I wanted to "give back" and became a Supervising Master and an Examining Master, aspects of being a Master that I absolutely love. Being a Master means not shying away from shining my light, resisting the temptation to play small. NO HANDS continues to be instrumental in my own self-healing.

My NO HANDS journey has challenged me on many levels and is helping me be the best version of myself. And it's a quote from Shakespeare that sums it up for me:

"This above all: to thine own self be true"