🏳️‍⚧️ About Kars

I built the space I needed but couldn't find.

I'm Kars (they/he) — massage therapist, yoga teacher, and founder of Home Body. My work is built around a simple idea: that queer, trans, and neurodivergent people deserve wellness spaces that are genuinely safe — not just well-intentioned.

Kars Dodds, founder of Home Body — LGBTQ+ massage therapist in London and Brighton
Kars Dodds
they / he
Founder, Home Body
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20 years of dance training
Movement & body literacy
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FHT Member
Insured by Balens
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London & Brighton
Studio + mobile
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Trans & queer led
Built from the inside
01
The beginning

I was a dancer first.

Before any of this, I spent years training and performing as a professional dancer. Movement was everything — the way I understood the world, the way I processed emotions, the way I existed in my body.

But the professional dance world is a particular kind of place. It has rules about bodies — how they should look, how they should move, who they should be. And slowly, I realised my queerness didn't fit inside those rules. Not in the way I needed it to.

I didn't leave dance. Dance left me no room to be myself — so I found somewhere that did.

02
Coming home

Massage became the way back.

When dance couldn't give me what I needed, massage and yoga became something else entirely — a way of reconnecting with my own body on my own terms. Not as a performer. Not as someone being watched or evaluated. Just as a person.

As a neurodivergent person, I know how easy it is to live in your head. I know the difference it makes when you can get out of it — when you can actually feel present in your own skin. That shift in quality of life, in capacity for enjoyment, in just being alive — that's what I want to give people.

Bodywork became my way home. Now it's how I help other people find theirs — especially those who've felt like wellness wasn't built for them.

03
The gap

I kept seeing the same pattern.

Working in wellness — mostly for larger brands and companies — I noticed something that bothered me. There was always the intention to be inclusive. The rainbow imagery. The statements about diversity. The language of welcome.

But intention isn't the same as safety. I never truly felt that the spaces being created were genuinely safe for me and my community. The inclusion was surface-level — retrofitted, not built in. Tokenistic at best.

And I wasn't alone in feeling that. The queer and neurodivergent people around me felt it too. We'd talk about dreading certain spaces, about the extra energy it takes to navigate wellness environments that weren't designed with us in mind — the assumptions, the binary language, the practitioners who meant well but didn't understand.

I saw the gap. I felt the gap. So I decided to fill it.

04
Home Body

This is my calling.

Home Body exists because I needed it to. It's built from the inside — not by an ally who read the right books, but by someone who is trans, queer, and neurodivergent themselves. Someone who has been on the receiving end of wellness that didn't quite fit, and who knows what it feels like when it finally does.

Every part of how I work — the consent check-ins, the intake process, the language I use, the way I adapt in real time — comes from that lived experience. It's not a policy. It's just how I know things need to be.

If you've ever left a massage feeling like you had to translate yourself — had to manage someone else's discomfort about your body, your pronouns, your needs — I want Home Body to be the opposite of that.

You shouldn't have to work hard to feel safe in a wellness space. Come home to your body. That's what this is for.

How Kars works.

The philosophy behind every session — and why it feels different to anything you've tried before.

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Nervous system first

Most massage works on the surface. Kars works with what's underneath — the body's stress response, the places where tension actually lives. Because loosening a muscle that's braced for danger doesn't last unless the nervous system feels safe too.

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Consent as architecture

Consent isn't a form you sign at the start and forget. It's built into every part of how a session runs — checked in actively, revisited, never assumed. You're in control throughout, always.

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Personalised, every time

There's no fixed formula. Each session is built from scratch based on what you bring that day — your goals, your body, your nervous system, how you're actually feeling. Techniques are tools, not templates.

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Built from lived experience

This practice wasn't designed by an outside observer trying to be inclusive. It was built by someone trans, queer, and neurodivergent — from the inside out. That's not a selling point. It's just the truth of what this is.

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Two decades of movement

Twenty years of dance training gave Kars an unusually deep, embodied understanding of bodies — how they move, where they hold tension, the relationship between emotion and physicality. That background lives in every session. It's not just massage technique. It's a whole way of reading and responding to the body in front of you.

What makes a Home Body session different
Real intake process Goals, preferences, access needs — discussed before every session, not assumed.
No gendered assumptions Pronouns, language, and approach adapted to you — without you having to ask.
Sensory-aware practice Neurodivergent clients welcome — sessions adjusted for sensory sensitivities as standard.
No rush, ever Buffer time built into every session. You'll never feel processed or hurried out.
Complimentary add-ons ASMR, aromatherapy, hot stones — included free because they should be standard, not extras.
Pre/post op & natal support Specialist care available for surgical and pregnancy journeys — without awkward conversations.

Training & credentials.

The qualifications behind the practice — and the experience that doesn't show up on a certificate.

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Qualifications & Training

  • ITEC Level 3 — Holistic Massage
  • Deep Tissue Massage
  • Pre & Post Natal Massage
  • Lymphatic Drainage
  • RYT 200 — Registered Yoga Teacher
  • Neuro-Somatic Yoga — certified practitioner
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Professional Memberships

  • FHT Member — Federation of Holistic Therapists
  • Insured by Balens — specialist complementary therapy insurance
  • Fully compliant with FHT code of ethics and professional standards

20 years of dance training

No qualification captures what two decades of dance training gives you — an unusually deep, embodied understanding of how bodies work, where they hold tension, and the relationship between movement, emotion, and physical experience.

  • Professional-level training in movement and body mechanics
  • Deep understanding of muscular tension patterns in performers
  • Somatic awareness that informs every treatment
  • Yoga teacher training — breath, nervous system, presence
FHT Registered
Insured by Balens
ITEC Level 3 Qualified
Neuro-somatic yoga certified
RYT 200 yoga teacher
Consent-led

Ready to feel at home
in your body?

Book a session in London or Brighton, or enquire about a home visit across Greater London.

All add-ons complimentary · FHT Registered · Insured by Balens