​Cynthia is a freelance qualitative consultant who came to see me in 2015 with recurring neck and shoulder pain that was making it hard for her to do daily tasks. She wanted to be free of this pain so that she could get on with her life. But she didn't expect Amatsu to change other things too.
​This is her story

Maybe you've had an accident, an injury, an illness or an operation. You are inside this body that you no longer really know. The things you could do easily are now more of a challenge or impossible. You are having to adapt your life around what you are now capable of. You have possibly been given an estimated recovery time, but it still can feel scary and demoralising not to be able to function as you once did. You may feel emotionally fragile and vulnerable as you navigate this temporary new you. 
I have always empathised with my clients on their healing journeys, but                                                    now I actually know how they feel.

It's bad enough being in pain, but it is even worse if you don't know why or where to turn next. You may find yourself in a 'lost place' where conventional approaches have failed and you have no idea what to do for the best. You may have been advised to strengthen your muscles, but the pain you are feeling is preventing you from doing so. You are worried that you might be making things worse by exercising. 
Georgia May is a 23 year old Television Researcher who had been suffering for severe back pain for over 5 years when she first came to see me for Amatsu. She had tried so many approaches and was giving up hope of getting out of pain. This is her story.

If you wake up in the morning with an aching face, tight jaw or a headache, you are certainly not on your own! It is estimated that around one in 3 people suffer from bruxism or teeth grinding or clenching. You might not do it all the time, only noticing that feeling occasionally, or it might be something you notice you do quite a lot, even during the day.
Quite often it is your dentist that points it out to you when you go in for your twice yearly check-up as they can see that you are actually wearing down or damaging your teeth as a result. They might offer you a mouth guard to help to prevent the damage but that doesn't help you to stop doing it.

If you have ever suffered from whiplash, you know how debilitating and painful it can be. It's not just the stiffness and the soreness (which is bad enough!), but it's also the pain you get when you lie down and sit up and generally try to move normally. You may have been a bit more fortunate in that your symptoms cleared up in a few days or possibly weeks, but for some people, the pain from the whiplash goes on and on. Many people start to get to the end of their tether and wonder if they will ever go back to living a normal life particularly if they are not getting any relief from physio or other conventional methods.

If you have been in pain for a while, chances are you have tried a few different things. After seeking help from your doctor you may have started looking elsewhere to complementary therapies, yoga or Pilates. But what do you do if you don't see results quickly? You can start feeling frustrated, depressed..and it is costing you a lot of money.  
Philippa is an education consultant who came to see me in September 2014 suffering from severe hip pain. This is her story..

If you are like many of my clients, you may be in pain but don't know why. You haven't done anything to yourself and yet all of a sudden, you find yourself living with a pain that is affecting your life. Josephine Charlton is freelance PR consultant. She lives a busy and active life with her partner, two young children and a dog. A couple of years ago, she started experiencing pain in her knee. As far as she was aware she hadn't strained or sprained it. She hoped it would get better by itself but it was getting worse.
I'd like to share Josephine's story with you..

You might say 'I know I've got terrible posture'. You get sore and aching shoulders and neck, you feel really stiff and your neck makes a disturbing crunching sound when you turn it. You find yourself trying to stretch it out and this might give you temporary relief but that feeling of tightness soon creeps back. You sometimes catch sight of yourself in the mirror or see photos of yourself and you think ' I really must stand up straighter/put my shoulders back' but it's easy to slip into bad habits again. It's hard to remember when you are so busy in life and you only really think about it when you are hurting. And maybe that seems to be getting more often these days. 

I was feeling terrible. I had been having a great time with friends and I didn't really realise the extent of what I had done. I got through the rest of the weekend determined to enjoy the festival and then I went straight on holiday, so I was walking around..or trying to at least. It was so painful but I had never damaged myself so much that I was unable to walk. I thought it would get better. I saw 2 doctors who did various tests on me and said that it wasn't broken.  I was trying to get on with my normal day to day life but the 10 minute walk between the train and my office took me half an hour and I was always missing the train. It started to really affect me emotionally and looking back I know I was quite depressed. I didn't want to go out and see anyone because of the pain and I lost touch with my friends for some time.
Just before I met Lorna I was thinking, I really need to find someone to help me with this, I just can't go on like this. And then, by fate I met Lorna at the Lambeth County show. 
I had no hesitation about trying Amatsu. I am quite up for trying things anyway and at that time I was so desperate for anything to happen that I would give anything a go. When I spoke to Lorna, she was friendly, engaging and approachable. It gave me a glimmer of hope. I genuinely believed she could help me.
After the first session, the most immediate outcome was the miracle of me walking! I know that Lorna doesn't like me saying this as not everyone gets such a huge shift straight away, but it was such a massive breakthrough for me! It had been 6 weeks since I had had the injury and I got to the point where I was thinking, I am not going to be able to walk properly again. Just the fact that I was able, after my first session, to put my foot flat on the floor again and for my body to work in harmony again with my ankle was amazing.  I remember telling everyone afterwards that Lorna had taught my foot how to walk again!
After a few of weeks of working together, Lorna said that she felt things were not progressing as they should and suggested that I go back to the doctors and insist on an Xray which I hadn't been offered before. It turned out that it was in fact broken but as it had been 6 weeks since the injury I was given a boot to wear as opposed to a cast and told to have physiotherapy - but I stuck to Amatsu. 
In future sessions, Lorna also observed that I was compensating by throwing my hip forward to enable me to walk. I started to become more aware of how I was moving and I began to observe it in myself on a day to day basis. After a few more weeks of treatment, I was feeling so much better that I wanted to push myself and get back into the London routine of rushing around everywhere, but I realised that as a result I was falling back into the old bad habits to allow me to walk fast rather than walking properly, so I slowed things down again and could move more easily.  I started to listen to my body.
I now feel like my whole posture is a lot better and in later sessions, Lorna found that I had some issues in my neck that were also affecting my walking. I feel like my body generally feels better particularly over the later sessions now that my ankle has recovered. 
I have been telling so many people about Amatsu - even a guy I saw in the street with a leg brace! But I think anyone who has had an injury could benefit from Amatsu. What surprised me when we thought it was a sprain was that when Lorna knew I had had it for 6 weeks, she said it would have been great if I could have found her sooner. I had always thought that you would need to wait for a while until the body starts healing, but when you think about it, that doesn't make sense at all. It would be healing in the wrong way. I came to Lorna with this particular problem, but I would like to continue to see her because I think that it does my whole body good to have an MOT. 
I just think Amatsu is fantastic. I didn't know what I was looking for but I am so pleased that I met Lorna and got to know about Amatsu. I still don't really understand it but it worked so brilliantly for me!

Can you identify with Jessie's story? Have you have been affected emotionally by your pain or felt that you will never be able to live your life normally again? Come on over and join the conversation..

We all have accidents. We might be running for a bus and trip over a loose paving stone and fall over. We might play a sport and hurt ourselves going for a ball that is just out of reach. We might be wearing new shoes and somehow manage to twist our ankle. These things just happen. We pick ourselves up off the floor or put our foot down gently. Can we put weight on it? We stretch our arm out.Can we move it OK? We pat ourselves down and although we have to limp a little or we feel a bit battered and bruised, there's no blood or bones poking out! We're OK.
But maybe two or three days later we still don't feel right. We might have stiffened up or still be unable to walk properly. We may feel somehow out of balance. But these things wear off eventually, don't they? Well, sort of...
So what should you do if you sprain or strain yourself?