ROCK stars, dancers and pentathletes are just some of the people who have benefited from the healing hands of Tim Willcocks. Complementary therapies can come in useful in some unexpected places as Bowen technique expert Mr Willcocks, of Graham Road, Malvern, can testify.

Mr Willcocks remembers when a woman asked him for help with her knees during an exhibition at a school in Forest Row, a village in East Sussex where he was trying to promote the technique.

Mr Willcocks used Bowen, a gentle rolling motion of the thumb and fingers, on her knees.

Little did he know then that she was Jimena Gomez-Paratcha, wife of rock star Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin.

He said: “She was so gobsmacked about the benefits of Bowen that at first she didn’t say anything.

“She came back with her husband and she had been crying.

She said ‘I was so grateful for that’.

“Her husband later came to me for treatment.

“I didn’t know who he was – it was only afterwards that I found out he was from Led Zeppelin and one of the top guitarists in the world.

“He told me he had ‘guitarist’s slouch’. I helped him.”

Bowen is a non-invasive complementary therapy, developed in Australia, where the therapist uses only thumb and fingers to roll over muscles and tendons at precise locations.

It is used to help people with a variety of problems from frozen shoulder and back pain to damaged knees and has even been credited with helping asthma, hayfever and migraine sufferers.

At the age of 22 Mr Willcocks first learned about the benefits of Bowen when he suffered a caving accident in Ireland after he was celebrating finishing his finals in an engineering degree from the University of Dublin.

Mr Willcocks, who suffered an injured pelvis, said: “I was unconscious for three weeks after the accident but I believe Bowen has helped keep me in shape and has helped me to get over that.”

Mr Willcocks, who is based at the Malvern Natural Health Centre and the Fold at Bransford, near Worcester, is now taking part in a national survey by the Bowen Therapists’ European Register to establish the advantages of the technique and raise the profile of it as therapy.

This year until Monday, June 15, he is offering half-price treatments to find out about knee and ankle pain research and how Bowen has benefited people locally.

He took part in similar studies for shoulder and neck pain last year and back pain in 2007.

For shoulder and neck pain, his survey showed that 30 per cent of the 15 people involved showed a full recovery and 56 per experienced improvements. Fewer than 10 per cent reported no change.

In the back pain study in 2007, which involved about 25 people, 37 per cent reported a full recovery, 57 per cent noted an improvement and nine per cent reported no change.

Emily Bright, 29, of East Grinstead, Mid Sussex, is a former pentathlete who could not walk because of the pain in her knees and has had treatments from Bowen practioners, including Mr Willcocks.

Miss Bright has also tried conventional medicine, including cortisone injections to help decrease inflammation and reduce pain within the joints. But she has also fallen back on complementary medicine like Bowen technique.

She said: “It has definitely been of benefit to me. I was first treated with the Bowen technique eight years ago.

“I have found it incredibly helpful. They treat the whole body rather than just the area that is sore.

“I am now doing triathlons rather than pentathlons and I would not be doing any of it without Bowen.”

Another person to benefit from the technique is Chris Parrott, 62, of Malvern who suffered a loss of mobility following a stroke on Wednesday, March 11.

Although Mr Parrott has had conventional medication to bring his blood pressure down, it is Bowen he credits with giving him back his strength and balance so he can pursue once again his passion for dancing.

Mr Parrott, who is involved in country dancing at folk festivals with his wife, said: “Bowen is one of the best things I have discovered. It was massively important to us to be able to dance again.

“I can now hop about and carry heavy loads which I couldn’t do a couple of months ago.”

Mr Willcocks is also pleased that the NHS Worcestershire was exploring other ways of dealing with back pain other than painkilling injections which has now been backed by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), which recommends the use of acupuncture and exercise classes instead.

The move has sparked controversy among back pain sufferers as mentioned in a series of articles in your Worcester News.

But Willcocks said: “I think it’s great – I would like to see more reliance on complementary therapies.

“It’s a lot better than just putting a sticking plaster on the problem, which is what these injections tend to be.”

Joy Maund also practises Bowen from her home in Northwick Road at Worcester Natural Therapy Centre.

She said: “The benefit of this treatment is that it’s very holistic.

People can come to you with a knee problem or a back problem but that is just where the pain is.

That can be symptomatic of a problem elsewhere.

“Bowen to me has an advantage over osteopathy which often treats the area of concern where as Bowen looks at the whole picture.

“Very often people will come to you with knee problems during the course of their treatment they will say ‘Actually my asthma has improved’ and ‘I’m not getting headaches anymore’.

“It is treating all these things indirectly as well.

“It can also be used on anyone from any age group from babies to the aged.

“For older people osteopathy can be too forceful.

“If you’re elderly you can’t always take that amount of manipulation where as Bowen is more gentle.”

FACTS ABOUT THE BOWEN TECHINQUE

● Tom Bowen (1916-1982) devised the technique in Geelong, Victoria, Australia.

● The Bowen technique consists of small precise moves on specific points of the body, which are light and gentle and can be used on the young, fragile and elderly.

● Bowen therapy comes in a wide range of forms – Bowen for sports injuries; fascial Bowen for children with cerebral palsy, autism or ADD, neurostructural integration technique and neural touch, which integrates the Bowen technique with other developments.

● Experts say the technique can be used to help people with frozen shoulders, neck pain, hayfever, asthma and migraines.

● The Bowen Therapists European Register (BTER) is the largest registration body for the whole range of Bowen therapists. All the therapists are fully qualified and insured.