Our therapists know

In the last few years, everyone has a family member or friend who has immigrated or semigrated or is planning to. The pandemic disrupted our rhythms and literally gave us pause to reconsider what was important to us. Many felt they wanted to move away from the big city to somewhere closer to nature. Others decided to try their hands in a new country, finally making the leap when the borders opened again. And though this process has brought adventure and freshness into many a life, there is also much lost when one moves. And not just the obvious. 

Going to a new city, or, more difficult by far, a new country, means not only leaving your family and friends. It also means leaving an all-but invisible network you didn’t even know you had. You have to find a new waxer – a seemingly simple problem to fix, but it can really bring home what goes missing in a move. You need a GP, a gynae, a dentist. You need to find the library and a good supermarket and then you need to learn the aisles and sales patterns and peak times and where to park. You need a recommendation for an acupuncturist, but before that, you need to get onto a street group from whom you can ask for recommendations. In short, you need a community to come home to and to feel at home with – and this includes the whole mesh of people who supported you without you even knowing it was happening. 

When you collapse into a chair at toast&co the therapist in front of you takes her time to get to know you. When you come back a month later, she remembers you and greets you warmly. Maybe she recalls some small detail you mentioned from your life, and asks after it, and it makes you feel seen. This is what Selina, who runs our facilities at the toast&co Birdhaven branch, specialises in. She remembers people’s orders, so after a while you don’t even have to ask anymore. She just arrives with your usual.

Thobekile also has an excellent memory for what kind of pressure you prefer for your foot massages. Pearl tunes into how you feel that day – she is so intuitive, she is almost like a talk therapist who happens to be an excellent beauty therapist too. Khosi has the most delicate way of applying eyelashes, giving you a natural look and looking you in the eye while she does it. 

Our therapists know and care. They pay close and careful attention to each person who passes through the doors till a community is created, so you can relax in the knowledge that you belong somewhere. This is what it means to be home in the world.