Body Stress Release had its beginnings in 1981 when Gail and Ewald Meggersee started their Claremont practice in Cape Town South Africa, but over the past 35 years this technique has grown and reached international acclaim in over 24 countries worldwide!  This growth is testament to the effectiveness of the technique, usually spread by word of mouth by our client base.

We decided to check in with a few of our Practitioners ‘Down Under’ (from East to West and somewhere in between!) to find out what running a BSR practice in Australia is really like.  At the moment Australia has a total of ten BSR practitioners with the majority located in Queensland and Western Australia and more recently the addition of practitioners in Tasmania and Melbourne.

Bronwyn Bossely (Bronny) is based on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland Australia, on the East Coast Australia where the weather is humid and the insects are abundant!  Bronwyn works from home and has a big client following (although COVID-19 has recently slowed that down with national lockdowns that have impacted us worldwide).

Bronwyn began practicing after she had her own successes with BSR: “I was injured with a herniated disc in the lower back and in the end the only modality that helped me was BSR – so based on that I went to South Africa to study with Gail and Ewald Meggersee” she says.

One of her most memorable clients was a client that she worked on (during her apprenticeship in South Africa) who was a gentleman who she had to attend to who had been shot in the neck a few times!  That’s certainly a client that is not easy to forget!

On the opposite coast of Australia (Western Australia), we have Vera and Vinnie ‘O Haloran.  Earlier this year they were in self-isolation (or “Iso” as the Aussies love to call it).  They were introduced to BSR in 1996 through a friend of theirs who had had great results with BSR.  At the time Vinnie was a retired bank manager and Vera was working in a hospital in Pretoria.

They took the leap in their mid-fifties and decided to study BSR and they graduated in September 1997.  Initially they set up a practice in Pretoria, but 10 years later they made a decision to immigrate to Australia.  Vinnie opened up his practice and Vera assists on the administration side, and they have been successfully operating for 13 years.

Vinnie describes his (somewhat idyllic sounding) setting “we have a practice room which is alongside the flat that we live in, here in Bunbury, Western Australia. We are fortunate to live on a very large plot of land in a quiet suburb.  This affords us an exceptionally tranquil view, and atmosphere, in addition to the rich bird-life that surrounds us. We hear and see all sorts of beautiful Parrots, Magpies, wild Pigeons and Doves – to mention only a few. Our clients often remark on the birdsong that we enjoy”.

Many of Vinnie’s clients suffer with lower back pain as many of them do manual labour (sheep-sharing, scaffold work, managing vineyards, driving huge trucks, attending to the City and town gardens).  Vinnie and Vera find their work extremely rewarding, as Vinnie says, “Looking back, throughout the many years past, it is with such pleasure and satisfaction, that we can recall the general up-lifting experiences, of being able to successfully help, and alleviate people from pain, through the medium of Body Stress Release”.

Charmaine Jacobs lives in Tasmania – an Island off the southern coast of Australia.  Tasmania is known for its vast, rugged wilderness areas, largely protected within parks and reserves, and many boast that it has the cleanest air in the world!  Charmaine has lived in Tasmania for 11 years, and first came across Body Stress Release when she was in Cape Town in 1997. 

Charmaine describes her reaction to her first few Body Stress Release appointments, “I was blown away with my body’s response and the fact that for the first time in decades I could actually turn my head!”  Charmaine had suffered from a herniated cervical disc so her neck rotation was an issue.  After her BSR experience she really wanted to do the course but, as a nurse with limited funds she wasn’t able to.  It was on her wish list for many years, but various obstacles got in the way, from work permits to work contracts. Eventually in 2017 she took a leap of faith and joined the course in South Africa.

One of her most exciting cases was actually a dear friend of hers who she had nursed with in previous years “ Charmaine  says,  “My friend had had a laminectomy 18 months prior to my doing the course, and had suffered a Deep Vein Thrombosis about 2 months post-operatively.  The weekend before she saw me she had been to work (wearing her back brace, her anti-embolismic stockings, a knee guard, and an elbow guard) in an attempt to manage her pain”.  

Charmaine convinced her friend to try BSR, and after her first release she experienced quite an intense physical and emotional reaction. After her second appointment a few days later, she called Charmaine to say she had spent 3 hours playing tennis!  Charmaine was thrilled and her friend was over the moon as she had not been able to play tennis for the past 15 years!”   Charmaine says “As she is a friend her amazing journey has meant so much to me as I have seen her being in pain and distress and then to be feeling so much better and able to move more freely has been very rewarding and affirming of BSR”. 

Charmaine has been in Tasmania for 11 years in total and describes it as a lovely place to live:  “it is very beautiful, it is incredibly safe and everything works well!   A surprising example of that is when we experienced an unexpected power failure a while back – some fault somewhere in the cables.  A week later we received a cheque in the mail for $80.00 and an apology from the electricity department!  That really was a wow feeling!!  We have a lovely little house and a spectacular view which we would never have been able to afford in South Africa on a nurses salary”.  Charmaine counts her blessings, but she is quick to say that a piece of her heart is still (and always will be) in Africa.

These are just a few amazing stories from our Aussie practitioners, part of the global BSR community ready to serve your needs – where they are.  For more information and to find the practitioner closest to you come to our global network of BSR:  www.bodystressrelease.com

Here is some more information on lower back pain.