THE BSR TECHNIQUE AND ITS ORIGIN
The BSR Consultation
The practitioner will take a clear case history before doing the initial body stress assessment. This includes making notes of past accidents, fractures and operations, as well as establishing what the client is experiencing at present – as this provides information about where the tension could be stored in the body. Next, the practitioner will do tests on your body, by pressing in a line of stress to create a short irritation that can be monitored via the legs. Once the sites of stress have been mapped out and located, the practitioner performs a series of releases. This is done with a thumb or finger with a slight pressure or impulse and initiates an organised sequence of messages to the brain, alerting it to the stored tension and encouraging the body’s self-healing response. The process is light but precise – the body doesn’t require a forceful stimulus to respond, since this will most-likely only cause more stress in the body. As a result the BSR technique may be used across all ages and levels of health from the very young to the infirm.
Note! The day itself and the day after your release, it is strongly recommended to take a ‘’rest day’’. This means no heavy, physical work should be performed or at least minimized as much as possible.
BSR is a process
As BSR is a process, initially three appointments are made for someone who is new to BSR. Then, depending on the body’s responses to the releases, you will be advised regarding follow-up appointments.
Most people consult a BSR practitioner when they experience lots of (different kinds of) stress and therefore are seeking tension relief, especially for lower back, leg, shoulder and neck pain as well as headaches. These symptoms are all noted, only as they provide insights as to where the tension may be stored in the body. After giving the release, the practitioner explains the relevance of the sites of the found body stress, using charts to link possible cause and effect, e.g. a person with numb hands can see on the nerve chart the connections from the painful lower neck to the hands. Along comes the advice regarding how the client himself could possibly increase the amount of stressed picked up by the body.
Please note, Body Stress Release is a complementary health technique. Body Stress Release is NOT an alternative to traditional medicine, always consult a doctor if you have any complaints! However, it is a gentle, complementary technique that stimulates the body’s (self)healing mechanism.
The origin of the technique
BSR was founded in South Africa in 1981 by Gail and Ewald Meggersee who pioneered this life enhancing, non-manipulative BSR technique. BSR has grown to include practitioners in 22 countries, 3 international associations and 2 training academies worldwide – this global growth is testament to the success of the technique.
The two South African founders Ewald and Gail Meggersee, developed BSR as a response to Ewald’s chronic pains and signs of paralysis. As a 5-year old he fell out of a tree, resulting in him being unconscious for a week. He then suffered from unbearable pain and cramps in his calves and back. No doctor could find the cause of this.
When he was in his thirties, Ewald would often wake up screaming of pain or he would wake up to realize that from his hips down he was temporarily paralyized. Only chiropractic treatments helped him to keep his pains under some sort of control. Scared he would have to spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair, Ewald and Gail decided to go to the USA to study the only thing that helped Ewald to relieve some of his pain. And they hoped to discover something which had not been seen by the many doctors they consulted.
In the USA they were lucky enough to meet Dr. Richard van Rumpt. He was a retired chiropractor who was researching an alternative technique to chiropractic. Rumpt believed that the body communicates information about its state of being, and that everybody should carefully listen to this. As a result, this so-called bio-feedback mechanism could help the body heal itself.
Gail and Ewald returned to South Africa, realizing that chiropractic manipulation might be too harsh for a body that is recovering from trauma, they continued developing Dr. Rumpt’s analysis. They developed a gentle technique, now known as Body Stress Release. Thousands of people visit(ed) Body Stress Release practitioners in order to restore their overall well-being.
Since 1987, BSR has proven to be effective all over the world. Practitioners can be found in, amongst others: South Africa, Kenia, Zambia, Canada, the Caribbean, The Netherlands, Portugal, Germany, Switzerland, France AND Austria!