COVID-19 Guidelines

UPDATE - 27 February 2022

As the government has now lifted all national restrictions, clients will no longer be asked to complete a COVID screening form before every appointment, starting from Monday 28th February.

Additionally, our cancellation policy will no longer include a four-hour waiver for Covid symptoms. We will be returning to our original policy of 50% of the appointment fee for changes or cancellations made between 12 and 24 hours notice, and 100% for changes or cancellations made with less than 12 hours (including for Covid symptoms). With this in mind we appreciate clients giving us as much notice as possible should changes be needed to be made.

Regardless of these changes, our cleaning and hygiene protocols will remain unchanged, in an effort to reduce transmission of all winter viruses and to keep our clients and therapists as safe as possible.

UPDATE - 31 January 2022

Following the removal of Plan B restrictions in England, mask wearing for clients will now be at each individual therapist's discretion. Some of our therapists live with clinically vulnerable people or are clinically vulnerable themselves, and we thank you for understanding if your therapist would prefer you to wear a mask when you're face up or lying on your side during your treatment. Our therapists will all continue to wear their masks during consultations and treatments.

Clients may now use our waiting area if they are early for their appointment. Please ensure you arrive no more than ten minutes early as our therapists may still be in treatment before that time and unable to let you into the clinic.

UPDATE - 19 July 2021

Whilst many of the last restrictions are being lifted today, The Soma Room is dedicated to keeping our therapists and clients as safe as possible whilst infections continue to rise. As such, we will be continuing to wear masks and ask that our clients continue to do so upon arrival at the clinic, as well as during portions of their treatment where their face is exposed (i.e. whilst lying face-up and in a side-lying position). As before, clients do not need to wear their mask whilst face-down on the massage table.

Our cleaning and hygiene protocols remain unchanged. The only change you may notice is that we will no longer be wearing our plastic face visors, as these are no longer required by our professional associations.

UPDATE - 27 April 2021

Our therapists are now required to perform twice weekly Rapid Antigen Tests (self-tests). The results from these tests will be tracked and a record kept at the clinic.

As a close-contact service, we have been advised by the government to put in some stringent measures to limit the spread of COVID-19. As such, your treatments with us may look a little different for a while, and we appreciate your understanding whilst we navigate these waters together. We hope that the measures we are taking to minimise the risk of COVID-19 reassure you that we are taking our role as health practitioners seriously, for the safety of all who walk through our doors.

Before Your Visit

To limit our 'face-to-face' time, we now require all appointments to be paid for in advance, and this can be done either online or over the phone. If you have a gift certificate, or have paid for a package, you will need to have the code to hand when when making your appointment. Please email info@thesomaroom.com if you need any help locating your code.

A few hours before your appointment, we will email you with a short COVID-19 screening form. This will only take a second and simply asks you to confirm that you are not experiencing any symptoms prior to your visit.

If you do experience any symptoms of contagious illness, you can now reschedule your appointment without penalty up to four hours in advance. Changes or cancellations with less than four hours notice will incur a 100% cancellation charge.

If you or someone in your household is classed as being clinically vulnerable, we advise you to wait a bit longer before booking an appointment with us. We will unfortunately not be able to see any clients classed as extremely clinically vulnerable at this time. Please see the NHS coronavirus page for more information on these categories.

During Your Visit

Please attend your appointment alone, as we are currently unable to accommodate additional visitors in the clinic.

Please leave your belongings (coats, bags etc) in your car if possible. There will be a lidded plastic box in the treatment room for your clothes and other belongings, this will be sanitised between each appointment.

Upon entering the clinic, please wear a mask and spray your hands using the touch-free hand sanitiser provided.

Our bathrooms are still available for our clients to use, and will be sanitised regularly throughout the day and between uses.

Our therapists will be recording their temperature using an infrared thermometer at the start and end of their working day.

Throughout your session, your therapist will be wearing an apron and mask  - the mask will be changed between every client.

Although we would love to be able to chat with you during your session, we are currently being advised to keep conversation to a minimum. This reduces the likelihood of respiratory droplets being transmitted through the air, and will reduce the need for our therapists to adjust their mask (and therefore touch their face) during your treatment. If you require an in-depth consultation, please let us know and your therapist can give you a call before your treatment. Aftercare advice can be provided by email upon request.

Please ask if you'd like a blanket during your session - these will no longer automatically be provided but are still available if you would like one.

How we're keeping you safe

We have purchased three HEPA air filters for the clinic, which will be running continuously. They are meant for rooms of up to 140 SQM (so will be more than up to the job in our treatment rooms!) and filter 99.7% of airborne particles down to 0.3 micron.

Our therapists will be adhering to a rigorous, 30 minute cleaning and disinfecting schedule in between every client (twice as much time as before!), ensuring that every touch point is thoroughly wiped down before your visit.

Our therapists have all done both externally accredited and in-house training in COVID-19 hygiene and disinfection, as well as on-going training in the pathologies that can result after infection, and the treatment adaptions which may consequently be needed.

If any of our therapists show symptoms of COVID-19, they are required to immediately self-isolate and take daily lateral flow tests.

We have revised the furnishings and massage equipment in our treatment rooms, and have removed everything which can't be easily disinfected. We have consequently purchased new wipe-clean chairs, bins, pillow cases, shelving units, and even new wipe-clean rugs for under our massage tables! We already disinfect our massage tables and use clean sheets for every client (washed at 60 degrees).

We are fortunate to be a small clinic with only two therapy rooms, so the risk of bumping into other people is small. However, we have staggered our therapist's shift times to minimise the chances of two clients finishing a treatment at the same time.

We have purchased automatic sanitiser dispensers which are located at convenient points around the clinic. We are using Beauty Kitchen's organic, eco-friendly sanitiser - which smells amazing and is kind to the planet as well as your hands!

And finally...

We're looking forward to the day when things can return to 'normal', and we can once again greet you with an un-masked smile and a handshake. Until that day however, the health or you and your loved ones remains our top priority. Although some of these changes may feel strange, our therapists are just as professional, skilled and friendly as ever under their PPE, and we're thrilled to get back to doing what we love - which is reducing muscular aches and pains, soothing away stress, and making you feel amazing.

Last updated: 31st January 2022