Home - Susan Findlay

Welcome, I'm Susan Findlay

Join me on one of my massage courses to have a pain free, long lasting career

My name is Susan Findlay and like most of the people I teach, I came to remedial soft tissue therapy by way of a journey.

My journey began with classical dance and gymnastics back in my home country, Canada. When your body is the tool that you work with, you learn to take notice of it and it was this interest in the human body that led me to retrain as a nurse.

Fast-forward to 1992 and I stepped off the plane onto English soil and my future life. After briefly working for the NHS, I made the choice to be my own boss. Still in the health and fitness field, I worked with GPs and health centres, setting up different schemes for a range of clientele. Holding 20+ movement classes a week and running multiple health programmes, I discovered a love of teaching and enjoyed the rewards of helping clients to reach a goal.

Massage and remedial soft tissue therapy helps to bring all my skills together. I gained my certification in 1996 and began teaching in colleges and lecturing across the UK two years later. Although I am the director (and senior lecturer) of NLSSM, I have never given up the practical side of the profession and I still run my own clinic in North London and Wales. Keeping up with the real world helps to keep me inspired and that helps to make me a better teacher.

I’m passionate about providing the very best quality of training and that goes beyond my teaching. I sit on the board of the General Council for Massage Therapies as well as having been a Profession Specific Board member for CNHC, I am currently a trustee with the Circle of Comfort charity in Scotland. I enjoy taking an active role in progressing our profession and working with medical professionals.

Going back a bit now, having been involved in the 2012 Olympics was a great honour. The London 2012 organisers invited me to join the selection committee helping to put together a huge team of sports massage therapists to be on hand throughout the games. I also volunteered for both the Olympics and Paralympics which to this day brings a smile to my face remembering all those amazing memories. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity and I know that the experience will continue to feed back into my teaching.

I’m not a natural born writer. My position as a teacher and lecturer have given me opportunities to share my knowledge with a wider audience through writing. I admire those who are at ease with this skill, I find it a challenge but over the years and with much support and encouragement from my editor (my husband) I regularly write for a number of periodicals. I am the feature writer for Massage World as a mentor and have been since 2006. I have also written for The Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies, Embody, Today’s Therapist and Co-Kinetics over the years.