LIKE the man who "bought the company", Sylvia Hemming was so impressed by treatment of her and her father's bad backs that she decided to study the technique herself.

She said she saw her father's chronic back pain much improved and when her own aching joints, which she had accepted as a way of life, were also relieved by the manipulations of a McTimoney chiropractor, she wanted to know more. Now she runs a whole clinic for complementary therapies in Moreton.

"I had what I thought was leg ache since my early teens," she said. "I used to just accept it, but I found out after treatment that it was sciatica."

The treatment was a success for her and she said: "I realised that we can live without pain."

She said she asked the therapist so many questions that she suggested Sylvia study the subject in more depth and 12 years ago, she qualified as a practitioner, running clinics from her home in Gray's Lane since then.

As well as helping people with back pains, practitioners of the McTimoney chiropractic technique claim to particularly help people with pains in their joints and bones, with migraines and tension headaches, with muscular aches and pains and with whiplash and sporting injuries.

They examine all the joints in the body to see if they are out of line and can readjust them with special techniques using just their hands. If a problem is detected which needs medical attention, patients can be referred back to their GP with a letter requesting further examinations of x-rays.

Sylvia explained how they aim to look at the whole body, instead of just the part which hurts, and often clues to the symptoms can be discovered and the problem treated at source.

One example she quoted was sciatica, where a back pain manifests itself in the leg. She also gave the example of a patient who had neck ache. The root of the problem ended up with his feet. He was walking out of line, which sent his pelvis out of line, which sent his spine out of line, bending his neck.

Eight years ago, Sylvia recognised the value of remedial massage for her patients which could help supple them up ready for their chiropractic treatment. She offered bed space to a practitioner and gradually, more treatments have been offered from the two rooms at her home.

There is now also an acupuncturist, an aromatherapist, a homoeopathist, a reflexologist as well as practitioners offering Alexander Technique sessions, Indian head massage and Reiki and another expert offering sound therapy, neuro development therapy and nutritional therapy.

Sylvia said she wanted the centre to offer well-recognised treatments rather than some of the more controversial therapies and said there were many advantages for patients for them all to be at the same base. The main benefit is that - with patients' permission (there is the same confidentiality as with a doctor) the therapists can discuss cases with each other to see if they could benefit from different approaches.

She said: "We see a lot of people at the end of the line here, who have often tried mainstream medicine without results and it's great to see people develop and improve - or tell them if you can't help, there is still something else to try.

"I think people are much better informed now and they want to get something to treat the cause rather than the symptoms. They are more inclined to take responsibility for their own health.

"There are also a lot of people who aren't ill but they are not feeling as good as they should be - some think they are over 50 so they should expect some aches and pains - but I'm not content to settle for second best.

"When you're in good health, you can get so much more out of life."

The therapies will set you back about £30 an hour. The centre also has a website which includes a feature on a particular topic (arthritis, for example) on which all the practitioners detail their treatments: www.natural-therapies-clinic.co.uk.