“I wanted something that was super relaxing and super safe,” says founder Sam Chi. “And that has always remained the case, no matter what I’ve built.”
Zen Den began twelve years ago in the basement of Sam’s home on Prospect Place. “I literally just started massaging in the cellar of my house,” she explains. “It was super cute, and then it kind of evolved from there.”
Over the years, Sam worked from a number of shared wellbeing spaces around Swindon. None of them fully reflected what she wanted the Zen Den to be.
“None of those encompassed the Zen Den as a space,” she says. “I always had my dream to have my own space.”
That opportunity came when she was shown the current Old Town premises, which was previously a single-room marketing office. Sam said she knew immediately what she wanted it to become.
“I said it needs to have a living room space,” she recalls. “I want my clients to feel like they’ve come into a home. I want the minute they walk through that door, their shoulders to drop and feel like they’re leaving the outside world behind.”
The interior has been carefully reworked to retain original brickwork and industrial features, softened with colour and texture. Sam said keeping those elements was important.
“We wanted to keep the old features,” she says. “That’s really important to me. I love that about Old Town. It helps make it feel cosy.”
Massage remains at the heart of the business, but Sam’s route into holistic work began elsewhere. Before founding Zen Den, she worked as a secondary school teacher specialising in religious studies.
“I felt really passionate about helping kids understand that we’re all in this huge melting pot,” she says. “Everybody has their own right to believe what they want.”
After becoming a parent, she realised she needed a different kind of balance. “That’s kind of where this all evolved from,” she explains.
In the past year, the business has expanded again. Sam’s partner Jerome has joined Zen Den and trained in massage and deep tissue therapy.
“He’s got his own client base now, and he’s really well thought of,” she says.
Yoga has also returned through a strand called Retreats for Peace, alongside training in breathwork and meditation. Sam believes these practices need to be accessible in daily life.
“If someone said to me, shall I practice yoga or breathwork and meditation, they’re synonymous,” she explains. “But in people’s everyday lives, they can do breathwork and meditation every single day. I know people won’t get up and do yoga every day.”
One of the most unexpected developments has been Zen Den’s work with children and teenagers. It is currently the only place in Swindon offering massage specifically for young people.
“We’ve got kids with anxiety, kids that aren’t neurotypical, kids that are school refusers,” Sam says. “Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that would become its own entity.”
Parents and carers are often the starting point. “It’s usually the parents who have been themselves,” she explains. “They’ve experienced it and said, ‘My teen would absolutely love this.’”
Consent and trust are central to how sessions begin. Sam spends time talking to young clients and introducing them to the space before any treatment.
“Touch is a really intimate thing,” she says. “You can’t just go and touch anyone without making them feel comfortable.”
From this work, a new idea is beginning to take shape. Sam is planning a Community Interest Company focused on children and teenagers.
“It’s so much in its infancy that I’ve literally only just decided on the name today,” she says.
Her vision is for a larger, homely space offering workshops alongside more familiar youth activities. Movement, creativity, breathwork and emotional regulation would sit alongside social spaces.
“There would definitely be a room with a pool table, young people running a café, inviting parents in for coffee mornings,” she explains.
Jerome would also be involved, drawing on his background in breakdancing and street culture. Sam said the aim would be to reach young people who might not engage with traditional wellbeing activities.
“There will be kids who aren’t going to want to sit and meditate for half an hour,” she says. “But everything that goes on in the space will involve learning how to breathe properly and ground themselves.”
She is clear the space would be open to all young people, regardless of background.
“So often you get provisions like this keyed to disadvantaged backgrounds,” she says. “That is totally not what we’re going to be about, because every child and teen needs this.”
Asked what message she would want people in Swindon to remember about their own wellbeing, Sam was clear.
“Laugh every day,” she says. “Put your feet on the ground when you wake up. Take a few deep breaths. That immediately puts your nervous system into a state of ‘I’m calm, I’m grounded.’ Whatever’s about to happen, you’ve started from a balanced place.”
