Across the road from Love Lucy Boots, in the middle of Westbury’s old main street, Chris Carpenter has built a quiet and deeply considered practice dedicated to helping people move more freely and comfortably in their bodies. Acacia Healing, his clinic at 34 William Street, offers more than massage therapy. It’s a place where clients are invited to understand the root causes of their physical discomfort and begin the process of realignment and recovery.
“I’m a remedial massage therapist by trade,” Carpenter says, “but I’ve been training to do what I call structural body work. It’s a fascia release technique.” His method focuses on working systematically through the body to address imbalances, rather than treating pain in isolation. “If you come in with neck pain, that’s very unlikely to be a neck problem,” he explains. “It’s much more likely to be, let’s say, a rib cage problem.”
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This approach often surprises clients. Rather than focusing directly on the sore spot, Carpenter looks at how different parts of the body affect one another. “There’s no perfect posture,” he says. “It’s what is best for you. And the idea being that then you are at ease.”
Carpenter started Acacia Healing in 2019 after moving from Brisbane to Deloraine. His first treatment space was above the pharmacy in the centre of town. After relocating to Westbury in 2021, he moved the clinic to its current location in mid-2022. “Getting this clinic space is a huge boon,” he says. “It really makes the idea of the wellness centre real. As soon as I got the foot into this door, it was like, ‘Hey, this is happening.’”
That vision continues to take shape. The clinic has expanded back into Deloraine and is now preparing to lease additional rooms behind the Westbury post office. The plan includes treatment rooms, a Pilates studio and a space for talk therapy, nutrition, and other complementary health services. “It’s that incremental expansion, incremental improvement,” Carpenter says. “Which is the ethos of my personal work as well.”
His team is growing in step with that vision. Melinda Triffitt, who joined a year ago, offers remedial and relaxation massage and has completed training in structural body work. She also provides pregnancy massage and scar release therapy, with a focus on women’s health.
Manon Liefin, who started earlier this year, specialises in relaxation massage and has introduced lymphatic drainage to the clinic’s offerings. Carpenter’s wife Jess, a clinical herbalist, will soon begin seeing clients, bringing strong knowledge and empathy to her practice.
Carpenter places a strong emphasis on internal referrals within the team and on building networks with other practitioners in the region. “Most people don’t know what they need when it comes to health,” he says. “So I really hope that we can provide as much of a range of services to meet the needs of the people that come to see us as possible.”
What he values most, though, are the moments with new clients who have tried other treatments without lasting results. “What I really love most about my work is that initial consultation,” he says. “When I can see the spark of hope light up in their eyes. That moment where they go, ‘Yes, this is what I need.’”
“We’re pretty interested in building community as well. So we wanna do regular community events, things like that — maybe a monthly community lunch.”
Despite the disruptions of COVID, including the forced pause on hands-on work, Carpenter says the business has been steady. The real shift, he says, came when he secured the current clinic space. “That’s a turning point,” he says. “It makes everything feel more possible.”
Carpenter speaks warmly of his life in the Meander Valley. “I love the pace of life,” he says. “I can’t walk down the street without raising a hand and saying hello to someone.” The seasons, the connection to community, and the natural beauty all stand out. “A place where people come to be a tourist is a great place to live,” he says. “You get to be surrounded by that all the time.”
