Harmonia Therapies: Keeping Business and Bodies in-sync

Attracting success

Founding the business 18 years ago through her love of yoga, Harmonia Therapies’ Rachel Hawkes has always been very clear with her business aspirations: to help people take control of their health. However, since its conception, Hawkes has noticed a palpable resistance to the pursuit of a holistic lifestyle: “Most people come to me with pain or issues and want a quick solution. But I look at the body as a whole system, and maintain the ethos of prevention over cure, which is often unfamiliar to people.”

However, despite uncertainty, Hawkes’ stellar reviews and flawless track record helped her to steadily grow her business and employ two other therapists, each with their own specialties, to provide her clients with a superior experience, an experience which, ironically, is often focused on reducing the number of times a client returns: “If I notice, for example, that one of my clients is struggling with jaw pain, this is often caused by anxiety-induced tension. I can refer them to our hypnotherapist to get down to the cause, and soon they may not even need to see me! Therefore, it’s so important to look at the body as a whole system and empower the individual to take care of themselves.”

The holistic haven

Harmonia Therapies went from strength to strength and moved into their Churchill Square suite at the end of 2018, after searching for the perfect place to set up a wellbeing hub, a task not as easy as it sounds. Rachel explains that, for her business, it’s not as simple as just an office space: “Lots of my clients schedule in late night appointments and wouldn’t feel safe walking long distances in the dark to get to their car, so the onsite carparking, streetlights and security are great.”

More than offering a practical solution for herself and her clients, Rachel was mindful that the location needed to provide the perfect atmosphere for both body and mind: “Our suite at Capital Space is clean, but it doesn’t feel like an office and it’s not too clinical. We’re allowed ambient lighting and calming water displays. My only downside is that we can’t light candles, or the fire alarm will go off!”

Harmonia’s growth continued at our Churchill Square Business Centre until the start of a certain pandemic in 2020. “This was by far the biggest challenge the business had to face,” Rachel recalls. “Being self-employed, we were very much just left to our own devices and the uncertainty of the situation made everything worse.”

Unexpected side effects

At the height of lockdown, restrictions posed a significant threat to Harmonia Therapies, who were never sure when they would finally be allowed back into their practice. However, something strange happened during the summer of 2020, after restrictions started to ease: Harmonia found that they were being approached by a host of new clients who had never tried holistic therapies before. Rachel explains the cause behind this: “Working from home saw many people hunched over desks for far too many hours in, for example, kitchen chairs, that were not designed for long periods of time, without breaks. When you’re in an office, you get up and chat to people, you make tea, we don’t get this at home and our bodies have become too rigid.  It’s no wonder their physical and mental health suffered.”

However, she continues, the pandemic also saw a shift in perceptions and helped people to take their overall health more seriously: “Many of our new clients had always wanted to try something like this, but had always found that they never had time, in between the long working day and the commute. When they started working from home, many people found that they finally had time to start taking control of their health.”

We are all hopeful that as people return to normal life and get back to their offices that they still prioritise their health and wellbeing more than they did before the pandemic!

To find out how Capital Space could benefit your growing business,
call 0800 107 4667 or email info@capitalspace.co.uk