A revolutionary complementary therapy from South Africa is having widespread success in providing relief, in many cases permanently, for a number of different complaints.
Beginnings of Body Stress Release
Fear of becoming totally paralysed while still in his 30’s led South African, Ewald Meggersee, together with his wife Gail, to pioneer the therapy known as Body Stress Release (BSR)
Ewald had suffered all his life from the age of five when he fell out of a tree and lay unconscious for a week. No one had been able to find the source of the shooting pains and cramping he suffered in his lower back and legs and the eventual temporary paralysis. Although Ewald experienced temporary relief from regular chiropractic treatment, the pain always returned. Eventually with nothing to lose, both Ewald and his wife Gail decided to go to America to train as chiropractors. They hoped to discover something which others had missed – and find a way to identify the source of Ewald’s pain and reverse his worsening condition. During their studies they met a retired Chiropractor who had researched a completely different approach to chiropractic manipulation. “He talked of listening to the body and using it as a biofeedback mechanism, that would be self-healing.
On their return to South Africa they built on his method of reading the body’s feedback response to areas of muscle stress and contraction. They discovered that the body protects itself from stress in a highly organised way and normally adapts to the various stresses and strains of everyday life. If the stress gets too severe, the body suffers overload and locks the stress into itself in lines of tension and contraction. This body stress leads to pain, numbness or stiffness and also interferes with the body’s self-healing defence mechanisms, with the body less able to cope with or adapt to stress. This is why a person with long-term body stress may also feel tense, tired and lacking in energy and enthusiasm for life. Headaches, backache and indigestion may follow.
How does Body Stress Release work?
Working with the body’s natural desire to be stress free, BSR is a gentle procedure that does not require force.
So much of the body’s energy system is taken up with being defensive and protective to muscles which over a lifetime lock up in corset-like layers, one after the other. The key to BSR is to switch the musculature system to being supportive while damaged tissue heals. This involves restoring communication within all parts of the body.
One of the many attractive features of Body Stress Release is the fact that it is very gentle, and non-intrusive, with clients being treated whilst fully clothed. It is suitable for people of all ages, from the newborn baby, to the elderly.
Principle of Body Stress Release
The principle behind the therapy is to help the body heal itself. Practitioners do not diagnose or treat any specific conditions or disease. Instead, they locate the lines of tension and locked-in stress in the body and release these by using a gentle but precise stimulus. If stress has occurred recently, the process of releasing is usually very rapid. However, if the stress has been stored for a long time, the stress releases may have to be carried out a number of times over a period. This is because the tight, protective layers of the muscles tend to relax by degrees back to their normal tone.
How does Body Stress Release differ from Chiropractics?
BSR differs radically from it’s chiropractic roots in that it uses information provided by the body itself to determine where abnormal muscle tension is undermining the efficiency of the nervous system and disturbing its ability to co-ordinate its functioning.
Body Stress Release has been available in Britain for the last few years. It is a completely safe and natural way to help people overcome their aches and pains. Those people who have already discovered it have experienced dramatic relief for a number of different problems including back pain, headaches, migraines, whiplash, tennis elbow, neck and shoulder pain. The list of complaints to which it can offer relief is extensive.
The Body Stress Release Academy near Knysna in South Africa attracts applicants from all over the world – accepting only 12 students at a time. A medical background is not necessary, as we look at the body from a totally different paradigm to almost all other methods available.
Paul Masureik a South African living in Lightwater had Body Stress Release for his own neck and back problem whilst on holiday in South Africa three years ago. He was so impressed with the results that he decided to train to be a practitioner himself.
