A Dundee therapy centre will offer a new treatment for people struggling with long Covid.
Butterfly Effect Holistic Centre on West Wynd offers a range of different massages, aromatherapy and reflexology.
Now founder Maggie Wallace is preparing to take on a new type of therapy, in the form of a hyperbaric oxygen chamber.
This is used to speed up healing of infections in which tissues are starved for oxygen, wounds and other conditions.
Maggie believes it will benefit people with long Covid.
“You basically chill out in a little box and you’re flooded with oxygen,” she explains.
“It has lots of applications for MS, Parkinson’s, heart disease, stroke and long Covid.”
The patient enters a special chamber to breathe in pure oxygen in air pressure levels 1.5 to 3 times higher than average.
The goal is to fill the blood with enough oxygen to repair tissues and restore normal body function.
Taking pressure off the NHS after Covid
As well as expanding into new therapies, Maggie is already working to take some pressure of a strained NHS.
Through offering workshops on self-massage, reducing stress and managing pain outwith a medical environment she wants to teach people about natural health and wellness.
Through her 12 years in business, the massage therapist has made working with her local community a priority.
Before the pandemic she offered one free treatment per month to a carer in crisis, which she hopes to start up again soon.
“It was really hard for me to come back from Covid,” Maggie says.
“I’d spent all my savings, I had nothing left in the pot, so I had to diversify.
“I had to open up to a wider audience, but I’m only one person with one pair of hands, so the only way I could do that was to grow.”
Butterfly Effect Holistic Centre in the future
In the past six months, Maggie has expanded her business and hired two new staff.
Centre coordinator Karen and massage therapist Jodie were both long term unemployed before starting at Butterfly Effect.
In her move from self-employed to employer, Maggie received help from Business Gateway, an organisation providing free business support.
After learning about how to employ staff, market the business and employee procedures, the massage therapist is ready for expansion.
“The girls are training up on the existing business as I’m sidestepping into new parts of the business,” Maggie says.
“I’m looking to develop my own skin care range, which will be tailor made to the client’s individual needs.
“I’m studying all the legislation for that now, as well as the hyperbaric therapy which I’m really excited about.
“We’re hoping in the next three years to move to a disabled-access-friendly ground floor.”
Conversation