WHEN Bolton ambulance medic Elaine Jamieson first had an alternative treatment for her bad back, she wondered if she was wasting her time and money.

Having gone down the usual medical routes, with no success, she decided to try out the Bowen Technique — a hands-on therapy that is applied so gently many patients admit they initially feel it is pointless.

The 42-year-old, who has worked as an ambulance emergency medic in Bolton for 17 years, said: “The first treatment I ever had, after about 10 minutes I was thinking, I don’t think I’m going to be coming back for any more of this.

“I thought it was the strangest thing ever.

“Then I got chatting to the lady who was a qualified midwife who had given up midwifery to do Bowen.

“I thought, there must be something in it.”

She went back for the second treatment, after which she remembers feeling exhausted and, much to her relief and delight, her pain had gone following the third.

She said: “That was when I realised it was something I had to get into.”

Impressed with the results, she went to college to learn the technique, qualifying in 2011 and three weeks ago she started treating people at St George's Multi-Therapy Centre, St George's Road, Bolton town centre.

Many who have trained in the technique come from medical backgrounds and Elaine often treats people when they have exhausted traditional treatments and are at the end of their tether, including patients whose pain has led to depression.

It was 12 years ago when her own problems began, when she suffered a neck injury and then a back injury in 2009, while carrying a patient at work.

Elaine, from Ormskirk, said: “I went for the normal courses of treatment, MRI scans.

“It was still as bad as it was.

“I’ve always been pretty healthy, sporty and active.

“It was just one of those things.

“People can get out of bed in the morning and they’ve done something to their neck during the night.

“It was awful, I couldn’t bend down to put my socks on.

“If I was loading the washing machine, I would be on all fours and it would take me 10 minutes to get up again.

“It was a massive problem.”

After having unsuccessful traditional treatments and physiotherapy, she heard about Bowen through a friend and decided to give it a go and then became a Bowen therapist.

She said: “I do a little bit of treatment and then leave you.

“Do a little bit, let the body react to what’s happened, come back and do a little bit more.

“It seems to be so little hands-on yet the effects are so profound.

“I think the main concept of Bowen is the body heals itself.

“It’s putting the body into a state where it can effectively heal itself of the problem.

“It’s been in the UK since the 1980s.

“One lady had four treatments and left me saying she had never felt so good.”

The most common conditions she sees are back, neck and knee problems but symptoms which have been reported to respond to the Bowen Technique are as varied as whiplash, digestive problems, pregnancy and fertility issues, hay fever and tennis elbow.

The non-invasive, holistic therapy treatment costs £35 a session, phone the centre on 01204 361 463 for more information.

ALL ABOUT BOWEN 

The technique was first developed in Australia by Thomas Bowen, who was born in 1916 and died in 1982.

He had no formal medical training and was a deeply religious man who described his approach as a gift from God.

He was fascinated by the different postures people had and how this related to their symptoms of ill-health.

A treatment consists of a series of gentle rolling moves with frequent pauses between moves, giving the body time to benefit from each set.

Practitioners treat the body as a whole or can target a specific problem, as they are able to pinpoint stress build-up in muscle groups and then release it.

A Bowen treatment addresses fascia tissue — the sheet of connective tissue that covers the structures of the body — as well as the muscles and skeleton.