The hands & hearts
behind every session.
Seeing Hands Nepal employs blind and visually impaired individuals exclusively, not as a compromise, but as a deliberate commitment to both excellence and impact. Our therapists don’t just work here. They built this.
Every member of our team holds an ISRM internationally recognised qualification, the same standard used by sports and remedial massage therapists across the UK. They bring years of hands-on experience and a personal investment in the success of every single guest.
✦ Our Team
Meet the therapists
behind the touch.
✦ Our Manager
The bridge
between mission and market.
Seeing Hands Nepal is a Nepali-led social enterprise, independently directed and operated by blind people. At the helm is Manager Ashutosh Shilpakar, who brings years of experience in Nepal’s tourism and hospitality sector. He balances the enterprise’s social mission with business sustainability, drawing on his deep understanding of the local tourism economy.
For Ashutosh, the role goes beyond management — it’s a personal commitment to delivering service that is both authentically Nepali and internationally professional. His greatest pride is maintaining a stable, empowering workplace where blind and visually impaired staff are not just employed, but genuinely supported to build meaningful careers.
Ashutosh Shilpakar
✦ Manager
Ashutosh was in a 6- months long job search before a friend introduced him to Seeing Hands. He was interviewed and hired as an accountant before being promoted to an assistant manager — gradually taking on everything from buying groceries to coordinating with therapists and running the organization’s social media.
He knew Seeing Hands was a blind massage clinic when he joined, but that came with its own uncertainty — he simply didn’t know how to interact with visually impaired people. What if he said or did the wrong thing? Over time, though, that anxiety faded. He stopped overthinking and simply started treating his colleagues the way he would anyone else.
Today, Ashu hopes to see Seeing Hands grow — new clinics, maybe even an international presence — so that more visually impaired people can find not just a job, but a place where they belong.
✦ Our Advisor
The expertise
behind our standards.
Our advisor brings deep knowledge of the international massage therapy industry, the ISRM certification pathway, and the unique challenges of running a social enterprise in Nepal’s tourism economy.
ISRM
London Certified Link
2005
Advising Since Founded
Luna Shrestha Thakur
✦ Advisor
Luna Shrestha Thakur is founding director of Change Fusion Nepal which is a pioneer organization on establishing Social Entrepreneurship in Nepal. She led the Surya Nepal Asha Social Entrepreneurship Award for three years which awarded 5 different social enterprises every year from 2011 to 2013. SInce 2012, she has been supporting Seeing Hands Nepal as an advisor, friend, mentor on doing different works like establishing connections, establishing new clinics, establishing systems in the organization.
She also worked as Country Director for Spring Accelerator which helped 11 businesses in Nepal that impacted adolescent girls.
Rob Ainley
✦ Founder
Rob is a highly skilled and experienced therapist with a broad background in osteopathy, physiotherapy, shiatsu therapy and sports and remedial massage. He founded Seeing Hands Nepal in 2005 and developed and accredited the Seeing Hands training course, with special adaptation for blind learners. Over the following decade, he delivered hands-on training for several student cohorts, supported by volunteer therapists, many from the London School of Sports Massage, including ISRM founder Mel Cash. Drawing on more than three decades of experience managing a large therapy centre in the UK, Rob’s knowledge of the successful and professional delivery of massage services was integral to building Seeing Hands Nepal into a high-quality service that continues to maintain those standards today.
sue Ainley
✦ Founder
Sue is a highly experienced Director of Marketing and Strategy, with a strong background in developing new businesses and building brands across the healthcare and charity sectors. She established the Seeing Hands brand in 2005 and registered the organisation as a UK charity, securing funding and legal registrations, recruiting a network of trustees, volunteers and strategic partners, and managing the administration, accounts and donor reporting needed to support its early development. Sue also holds a Bachelor of Arts in Nepali and is PRINCE2 trained in project management. Her work to raise funds, build partnerships and establish the structures behind Seeing Hands was integral to giving the organisation the support it needed to grow into a completely self-sustaining social enterprise.
✦ Our Culture
Our culture in action.
We believe the best healing starts with a real human connection. That shows up in
how we work every day, with every guest.
Touch as communication
Our blind therapists communicate entirely through their hands. They ask, they listen, they feel — adapting in real time to what your body needs. No script, no routine. Every session is a genuine dialogue between therapist and guest.
Shared ownership
We don’t employ people to do a job. We train them to own a craft. Many of our therapists have been here for years, building client relationships and mentoring new recruits. They treat every session as if the entire enterprise depends on it — because it does.
Warm, professional, human
Professional excellence and genuine warmth aren’t opposites — at Seeing Hands, they’re the same thing. Our therapists check in constantly, welcome questions, and treat every person who walks through the door with the same care and respect.