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| Evening Advertiser 1st August 2006 |
Do you put up with pain because you think it’s just part of
life? There is an alternative, reports Graham Carter.
Have you heard the
one about the 90 year old woman who went to the doctor’s complaining of a
sore knee.
The doctor told her that it was only expected that such an old lady should have aches and pains. “Well, that can’t be right,” said the old lady. “because I’ve had my other knee 90 years as well - and that’s perfectly all right.”
Julie Nicholls doesn’t tell her clients this story to get a laugh. She tells
them to make a point about the alternative treatments she offers which go
under the umbrella of ‘Natural Therapy.’ And the message is that you
don’t have to suffer.
Julie says that many of the problems people have are
a result of stress, or something that has occurred in their past - what you
call a hang-up. And this can manifest itself in may different ways, from
seemingly unconnected niggly ailments to major emotional and psychological
problems.
But Natural Therapy is all about treating causes, not symptoms. Take neck and shoulders. “People think it’s only natural that the stress they have ends up in their neck and shoulders,” said Julie. “If you look at people, you can often see them walking about, all hunched up as if they are carrying burden of their problems on their shoulders.
“But if you relax your shoulders and raise your head, it’s possible to make the stress slip away and disappear. “It’s wrong to think that it has to end up somewhere in your body.” Julie’s therapy is based on the technique she trained in originally, called Trager, although she has now added various other strings to her bow by applying what she has learned from treating people with more complex problems, such as post traumatic stress disorder.
Listening skills, a common sense approach and a gift for ‘reading’ her clients’ situations are just as important. Other techniques she can use include Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR), in which clients follow the movement of her fingers with their eyes. This is believed to help by alternatively engaging the left and right sides of the brain.
All these approaches are straightforward and stress-free but the main thing they have in common is they turn the idea of ‘no pain, no gain’ completely on its head. They tackle problems not by meeting them head-on in an unpleasant way but by extracting positives and building on them.
Expect an ultimately enjoyable experience. Whether you are trying to address a physical or emotional problem, the treatment often involves gentle manipulation of joints and muscles.
Julie holds a limb, tells the patient to let her take the weight, and encourages them to relax. This seems easy. but Julie is extremely adept at ’reading’ your level of relaxation-and just when you think you’ve “let go” she shows you that you haven’t. Eventually, by making you more and more relaxed, you reach a feeling of much greater calm.
After this the trick is to “capture” this feeling Julie trains her clients to reproduce it at will, although it may take some practice and might require a few sessions. The technique can even be used for people who are faced with specific problems, such as job interviews or having to make a speech.
In the end, Julie’s approach succeeds because it addresses situations, sympathetically, practically and logically. without requiring that leap of faith that is necessary in other ‘alternative’ therapies. Natural Therapy can take the weight off your shoulders - and in more ways than one.
To find out more phone Julie Nicholls on 01793 495551 or visit body-mind-coaching.co.uk
