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What is Body Stress Release?

"The Thing That You Try When You Think You Have Tried Everything!"

Body Stress Release is unlike anything else you have tried before. Rather than "forcing" or "crunching" things back in place, we work with the body as a whole, offering a gentle and effective way to help your body to release stored tension. It was developed in South Africa in the 1980s by two chiropractors, Ewald and Gail Meggersee, and is now practised in 12 countries worldwide.

Our body is designed to be self-healing, it has mechanisms that constantly monitor all of its functions and is continuously adapting to internal changes due to all sorts off stress either physical, emotional and/or chemical (see below). Proof of this is that the body is capable of healing wounds and fractures, counteracting harmful chemicals and adapting to sudden changes in temperature.

However this incredible self-healing capacity is undermined when there is an overload of stress which may have been built up over a lifetime, or sudden since a specific injury or emotional shock. But even if stresses are mild, they tend to accumulate over the years, causing the muscles to gradually lock up. These locked-up muscles put pressure on the underlying nerves disturbing the communication system between the nerves and the brain, reducing the efficiency of the natural healing process. This may lead to chronic health problems, pain, numbness, a loss of flexibility and a lack of energy. This is simply the body's way of telling you something needs to change, but without being forced.

Body Stress Release is a gentle but incredible powerful pressure based technique that offers a highly effective way to help your body to release locked-in tension and stimulate its natural capacity to heal itself. While lying fully clothed on a specially designed couch your practitioner locates areas of stored tension by using the body as a bio-feedback mechanism. Gentle pressure tests are conducted, working along the clients spine and other areas of the body. The results of the tests are "monitored" by the practitioner observing the muscular responses while holding the clients feet. A light but definite pressure is then applied to encourage your body to release the stored tension. BSR is very gentle, relaxing and often highly effective where other techniques have failed to deliver results.

So the Practitioner assists the body in releasing deeply held muscle tensions, the classic symptoms of which can be structural (such as long term back pain/discomfort, neck pain, recurring headaches, recurring joint problems) to more general stress related issues (such as insomnia, hampered functioning of internal systems and general day to day experience of 'feeling stressed'). Body Stress Release is for everyone. Clients, including infants, the elderly and mothers during pregnancy, are often amazed that such a gentle technique can be so effective in relieving their aches and pains. Please remember that you do not have to accept your pain and "learn to live with it" and it has nothing to do with age!

3 types of stress

Chemical stress
Chemische overbelasting
The sources of chemical stress include pollutants in the air, insecticides, medicine and certain food additives and preservatives. Harmful chemicals may be consumed, inhaled, or even absorbed when contacting the skin. This could include paint stripper, varnish, bleach, air pollutants, cosmetic products, additives in food and drink. They maybe consumed, absorbed through the skin or inhaled. This may cause headaches, migraines dizziness, sickness, nausea, vision disturbances.
Emotional stress
Life is a roller coaster of emotions. These include fear of the future, financial worries, competition in the work-place, disintegrating family relationships. At times we experience sudden violent emotions, such as anger or shock, or we undergo milder but ongoing forms of mental strain, e.g. anxiety, depression and resentment. We may become aware of the physical effect of emotional pressures, as the diaphragm, jaw, neck and shoulders tighten in a defensive posture, to armour us against the onslaught of life's stresses.
Physical stress
The body is designed to withstand a certain amount of physical force - bumps, jerks and falls, but if the mechanical stress goes beyond the body's limit of adaptability, the effects may become stored as body stress. The cause may be sudden and violent, such as a car accident, a severe fall, of lifting a heavy object incorrectly. Or, there may be a gradual accumulation of milder mechanical stress, e.g. habitually sitting incorrectly, doing inappropriate exercises. In a severe case the intervertabral disc may bulge or prolapse, and possibly pinch on a spinal nerve.
© BSR Wassenaar