HEALTH therapist Mirjam Vermaas is doing her bit to reduce office stress in Bolton and Bury.

Her business -- Pressure Relief -- is a visiting massage service which she says has proved very popular since she started in March last year.

Mirjam, aged 36, who lives in Tottington with her English partner, was a management consultant in her native Holland for 10 years. But she decided on a change of career when she arrived in England two years ago.

Mirjam turns up at various offices with her portable massage chair.

She charges regular customers £10 per 20-minute fortnightly session -- and, to her surprise, just as many men as women are showing up for the sessions.

Mirjam works on necks and shoulders -- no clothing is removed -- to release tensions which are all too prevalent in working environments today.

"They come to de-stress," Mirjam said.

"You can see the difference when they walk out."

She said the massages had become increasingly popular in America.

Mirjam has regular customers at several companies in Bolton and Bury -- including the Bolton Business Centre, in Lower Bridgeman Street.

Dennis Vint, aged 64, who is development manager at Bolton Business Ventures, has found the massages useful when Mirjam has visited the Business Centre.

"I was sceptical in the early days," he said. "But now I am finding it helpful."