Date: 25 05 2025

In this blog post CNHC registrant board member, Jennifer Barnes, shares her experience of working as a massage therapist and sports massage therapist within a countryside setting and gives tips on how to promote complementary therapies, healthy living and wellbeing to a rural community.

The thought of rural working and living may conjure up images of rolling hills, chocolate box houses and the sun shimmering on a babbling brook. Yet rural landscapes can be as hard work as they are beautiful and rewarding. Practitioners must adapt to the environment, weather, season and customer demands. Whether in service provision or product creation, rural work is both rewarding and relentless. This applies to those who live within countryside communities too.  

Accessing healthcare services brings its own unique challenges in the rural space and complementary and natural treatments can be both difficult to locate for the public and tricky to navigate for the therapist – yet complementary therapies provide an invaluable service for these communities. The challenges include:

  • Transport
    There is minimal public transport to many rural areas to access complementary therapy services. Some clients may be unable to drive and rely on others for transport. In addition, before and after a treatment some people may not feel comfortable using public transport, for example, if they are in pain, struggling to walk, worrying about smelling of essential oils or having oil in their hair in public on the way home. Some therapists may choose to offer an ‘at home’ service where they visit the person in their own home or set up a clinic which is along a key bus route and promote this option to their clients. Roads can often be flooded or affected by snow and not often cleared in rural areas. Collaboration with other healthcare professionals to share costs with a shared clinic space or using a community hub to deliver therapies can provide support and a social aspect for therapists as well as exposing clients to other wellbeing opportunities in the locality.
  • Lack of community activities
    Group wellbeing activities often occur in urban areas as there is a larger population to warrant the delivery of the classes and enough attendees to pay for the activities. Inviting therapists to host a workshop or talk in a village hall is a positive way to promote wellbeing in rural areas. 
  • Inequalities
    In rural areas there is usually a stark contrast between the more affluent living directly alongside those on a lower income, so the picture is often confusing about the take up of services and how to provide appropriate messaging to an audience of prospective clients with a wide range of budgets. One way this can be overcome is by offering treatments of varying durations and prices to appeal to a diverse range of people. 
  • Complementary therapies are often seen as a luxury or one-off activity for a special occasion
    Rather than investing in one’s own preventative health, there is a heavy reliance on the NHS alone. Another barrier is that many types of rural work often involve long hours so time away from animals, crops, machinery and family is often difficult to schedule and makes prioritising oneself very difficult. Messaging around the benefits of preventative healthcare, promotion of public health messaging and statistics around the reduction in time off sick from work and other benefits can be used as marketing tools. In addition, the notion that complementary therapies are only for a ‘treat’ on high days and holidays could be a way to first introduce clients to a service by promoting gift vouchers for birthdays, Mother’s/Father’s Day etc. Farm diversification can provide opportunities around tourism, accommodation and glamping. Try advertising therapies to holidaymakers through the farms’ websites and welcome packs.
  • High-speed broadband
    Depending on which figures you read, there is a disparity of around 50% less access to a good standard of broadband. Accessing consultations and appointments via video calls is a great alternative to face-to-face in many instances but many do not have good enough internet or phone signal to do this in rural areas. However, telemedicine has increased in popularity, particularly since the pandemic, due to convenience and minimal time having to be taken out of work.
  • Mobile treatments
    Being able visit your clients in their home is a good alternative to expecting them to travel to you. However, the price you will have to charge can often be more than in the city, as you may have to take more time and fuel to travel to your client. Having family members or friends all treated at one location can be a good solution, allowing the therapist to expend only one set of travel costs.
  • Isolation for clients
    Many people who live on their own or in rural areas can feel isolated and unaware of the services which are available if they are not on social media or seeing people frequently to gain recommendations for therapies. They may be further isolated due to a mental health condition or a mobility issue.
  • Isolation for practitioners
    Support networks are often easier to access in urban areas, so consider business or wellbeing sector online networking events, groups or webinars alongside one2one remote coaching, mentoring or supervision to feel a sense of belonging with others in practice.
  • Access to healthy foods and physical activities
    Poorer health outcomes in rural areas can be compounded by other environmental factors. Many remote areas rely on frozen and tinned produce in times where they may be unable to travel due to bad weather conditions and the long distance from shops offering a wide variety of produce. Those on a low income who are reliant on food banks would also receive long-life products from food banks and government schemes.
    In addition, in urban areas there are a wide variety of organised physical activities available to suit all abilities such as swimming pools, seated exercises, walking or team sports which are not usually available in rural areas. You can make your clients aware of phone apps such as ‘Too good to go’ and ‘Olio’ where individuals and businesses can post nutritious foods which may be going out of date for free or at a reduced cost, enabling people on a limited income to access a healthy diet. Sharing opportunities for social engagement and physical activities in rural communities such as those hosted in village halls or posting on social media on apps such as ‘Nextdoor’ can let the local community know of walking groups, village cricket clubs and other facilities and activities.
  • Professional boundaries
    Being a member of your local community while maintaining professional boundaries can be challenging. You may see a client in the village shop and say hello but not want to say that you will see them at their appointment later as they may not want other people to know that they are coming for a treatment. The familiarity when you live and work in a small community can mean being mindful of potentially causing issues for clients. For example, they may not want their family members finding out about how they are spending their money or time or why they need to access your service. Clients will often know each other, discuss personal situations, and practitioners must ensure to not provide their opinion or discuss other clients with them. 

Considering just some of the challenges highlighted above can help us to reflect as practitioners on our approach to working with, networking alongside, and advertising to rural and remote communities. We can promote building resilience within communities by empowering and informing them about the variety of support services that are available online and in person alongside signposting to rurally focused charities such as Farming Community Network (FCN), We are Farming Minds, NFU Mutual and RABI (the Rural Action Bureau for Income). This may be through talking on local community radio, providing talks to local interest groups, holding a trade stand at a local countryside show or organising social events. The messaging may be linked to awareness days such as men’s mental health, breast cancer awareness, or a Macmillan coffee morning hosted in a village hall, village cricket club, pub or church.  

Building trust, rapport and familiarity with consistent messaging can bring about positive outcomes for incorporating complementary therapies into rural life.