Our Story
A tradition carried from Thailand to Waltham Abbey
Phrommarin Massage was opened by a therapist trained in the traditional schools of Thailand, where massage is learned slowly and treated as a form of care rather than a service. That training is the whole of our practice: no rushed sessions, no scripted routines, and no two treatments quite the same.
The Therapist
Ten years of hands that know what they are reading
Our founder began her training in Thailand as a young woman, studying under practitioners who had learned the work from their own teachers before them. Across a decade of practice she has worked with bodies of every kind — labourers, athletes, office workers, the elderly — learning to read tension by touch alone before deciding how to treat it.
She brought that practice to Essex and opened the studio on Highbridge Street so that people here could experience Thai massage as it is actually given in Thailand: firm, methodical, generous with time, and rooted in an understanding of the body that predates the modern spa by centuries.
The Studio
Two private treatment rooms
The studio holds two treatment rooms, each kept quiet, warm and dimly lit, with its own door and its own bed dressed in traditional Thai cloth. Two rooms means couples and friends can be treated at the same time, and that appointments rarely need to wait.
Thai Massage
Older than the word ‘spa’
Traditional Thai massage — nuad boran — is thought to be some two and a half thousand years old, developed alongside Ayurvedic medicine and Buddhist practice. It works along the sen, the lines through which the body's energy is understood to travel, using steady thumb, palm, elbow and forearm pressure rather than the gliding strokes of Western massage.
Assisted stretching is the second half of the tradition. Limbs are moved and opened with the therapist's own body weight, releasing joints and lengthening muscle in ways that pressure alone cannot reach. It is why people often describe leaving a Thai treatment feeling taller as much as looser.
Tiger Balm & Coconut Oil
The two ingredients in every treatment
Tiger Balm is a herbal ointment with roots in Chinese and Southeast Asian medicine — camphor, menthol, cajuput and clove suspended in a soft wax. In Thailand it sits beside the massage bed as a matter of course, and it does here too.
Worked into the skin, it creates a warming and then cooling sensation that opens the surface tissue and allows pressure to travel deeper with less force. It eases stiffness in the neck and lower back, helps clear tension headaches, and keeps working quietly for hours after the session ends.
Alongside it we use pure coconut oil — unrefined, warmed before use, and nothing added. It lets the hands move without drag so pressure stays even from beginning to end, absorbs cleanly rather than sitting on the surface, and is gentle enough for sensitive skin. Both are included in every treatment we offer, at no extra cost.
