New Website is Up and Running

To find out more information about Bodyworks Bodywise in Kelso, please come and visit my new website.

The Borders Integrated Healthcare Group

The Borders Integrated Healthcare Group is a brilliant non-profit making organisation  working hard to support complementary practitioners in the Borders. They produce a practitioner directory every two years that is freely distributed across the Borders and contains the contact details of qualified and properly insured complementary therapists working across the region. They are currently raising awareness of how complementary therapies can work alongside mainstream medicine through a regular monthly health feature in The Southern Reporter covering many different aspects of health and how to achieve it. If you are interested in improving your health and well-being then pick up a copy of the current yellow directory because it may be able to assist you to find someone who can help. All the information in the directory is also conveniently available online on the Borders Therapies website.

Neuromeningeal Manipulation - A revolutionary approach to treating nerve related pain.

I have just completed part one of the Neuromeningeal Manipulation courses run by The Barral Institute UK. The potential application of this work has blown my mind. The precision required to listen deep into the nervous system and discover the source of irritations that are causing nerve symptoms is astonishing. The level one course has equipped me to work, using my hands to search out and gently release tensions within the layers of the membranes that surround and protect the brain and spinal cord - from the outside - I am not a brain surgeon! By listening acutely to the tensions that the body is expressing under my hands, I am able to help those tissues to relax and ease the strain they are putting on surrounding areas of the body. These techniques are particularly useful when treating the ongoing side effects of whiplash injury.

New Skills

After recently attending the Visceral Manipulation course on treating the pelvis I am now able to work with people to an even deeper level. Many problems can occur in the pelvis following any kind of abdominal surgery, infection or pregnancy, labour and delivery. Many people complain of aches and pains, increased frequency of going to the toilet or urge incontinence (to name but a few problems)  that have developed or been made worse after surgery, infection or pregnancy but do not necessarily connect the the two events. As scar tissue forms after surgery or as inflammation heals it can stick layers of soft tissue together (called adhesions) that are meant to slide and glide along each other. This causes a strain in the bodys' connective tissue and can interfere with the functioning of other structures within the pelvis and beyond. In my experience, episodes of back pain that do not resolve spontaneously or with the help of some form of body work such as Physiotherapy, Massage etc. will often be the result of tightness of the soft tissues within the abdominal cavity rather than in the back itself. Using Visceral Manipulation to treat these areas of restriction can give relief from symptoms that people have put up with for years, getting by on anti-inflammatory drugs and painkillers that often have undesirable side effects. For more information on how Visceral Manipulation may help you, please see The Barral Institute UK.

Appointment times

I am currently available for appointments on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays between 9.30am and 4pm. I am happy to discuss evening appointments with people who cannot do daytime slots. I am based near Kelso and am willing to travel up to 25 miles.

Please call me on 07758976388 to make an appointment or to discuss whether I may be able to help you.

New year, new resolutions.

The New Year has arrived and with it, new resolutions. My new year's resolution is to try "to be the change I hope to see in the world".

I worked for many years in the NHS because I passionately believe in free health care for all and "from each according to their abilities, to each according to their needs". As I developed my skills as a therapist, I learned from the patients I saw every day, that people have different needs and not everyone has a problem that can be addressed within the time resources available to an overstretched NHS. This can be particularly the case for those people with chronic pain or other long-term conditions.

Rightly or wrongly it appeared to me that there was a great deal of talk about being 'patient centred' and about service quality but the real focus seemed to be on meeting targets and crunching numbers.

I left the NHS and moved into private practice as I no longer felt able to properly serve the people I was supposed to be helping in the time allowed to me. However, I have always struggled with the fact that, as a private practitioner, I had to charge fees that were out of reach of many people due to the overheads involved in working in a private clinic. Now that I am returning to clinical practice, I feel that I must work in a way that makes my diverse skills more accessible to anyone who may benefit from them. The combination of treatments I offer can help with a wide range of ailments and, in my opinion, should be available to all who need them. As a  result I have restructured my fees to reflect this. From now on, I am offering my services on a payment by donation basis. However I would require a minimum donation of £30 per session (usually lasting about one hour not including travelling time) in order to cover my travel expenses, car-related costs etc. The usual cost for a home visit would be between £50 - £70. I would also be happy to discuss bartering as a method of exchange.

I have to make a living from working as a therapist so if people are waged or otherwise financially able to offer more than the minimum I would be very grateful, but if they are not, I do not see why they should be excluded from being helped to achieve a better state of health and well-being.