She has improved the performance of a marathon runner, managed to get a lady off anti-depressants in one therapy session and helped cure a six month old baby who was paralysed after having a stroke while still in the womb. EMMA HARROWING meets the Norwich woman trained to talk to your body to make it better.
 
Imagine this. You have just been told that you have diabetes and that you have to get regular shots of insulin otherwise you risk falling into a coma.
 
Now imagine that just by going to see a therapist your body starts to produce insulin again and you are no longer reliant on injections.
 
It sounds nothing short of a miracle. Yet local therapist Linda Thursby has cured this problem and more besides using a little known therapy technique called BodyTalk.
 
“I'm not a miracle worker at all,” says Linda who offers BodyTalk and a range of other therapies at The Barn Therapy Centre in Intwood. “BodyTalk is a way of understanding how the body works and how each part of the body connects to another part.
 
“With my client who was diagnosed with diabetes, the kidneys had stopped communicating with the brain and so it was just a matter of getting the kidneys to function again.
 
“In fact you could say that our bodies are similar to an electrical circuit, any area or circuit that is put under pressure will either blow or weaken. BodyTalk can reconnect these circuits and ensure that the brain and the body work as a team. This helps promote good health.”
 
According to Linda, if you experience a headache, have backache, or any physical, emotional or mental trauma it is caused by your body 'blowing a fuse'. BodyTalk is a therapy that can reconnect this broken circuit, increasing the flow of energy by realigning the body with the brain.
 
The therapy works by finding out what parts of the body are unresponsive or are blocked. Linda taps on your head and near your collarbone in order to find out where these blockages are. Once these are diagnosed she will then use various techniques in order to unblock and reconnect the body in order to help it heal.
 
Although I understand the place alternative therapies have in easing the symptoms of illness and disease, I am a bit sceptical when it comes to a therapy that claims to cure physical and emotional ailments. However, Linda has a string of clients who are all willing to testify that BodyTalk actually works. Take local marathon runner Lisa Symonds. Lisa was training for the London Marathon in 2007 when she noticed that she had heaviness in her legs when she ran.
 
“I knew the benefits of sports massage and so I went to see Linda to have regular massage sessions,” says Lisa. “Linda talked to me about BodyTalk so I thought that I would give it a try.
 
“It took a few sessions, but gradually I noticed that the heaviness in my legs was no longer there. This helped me knock 35 minutes off my time.”
 
Last summer Lisa started to have problems with her ankles and so she had a few more BodyTalk sessions with Linda. Lisa says: “Suddenly after a few sessions I knew that my ankles were better. It's hard to explain but during the treatment I felt something change in my body and I just knew that I would be able to run better.”
 
BodyTalk has also helped landscape gardener Mike from Norwich. The 46 year old went to see Linda last year because he had emotional problems:
 
“I was going through a particularly dark time in my life and I had many problems that I needed help with,” says Mike. “To be honest I thought that whole treatment sounded bizarre. I'm not against alternative therapies but some do sound like a lot of mumbo jumbo. A friend had said that Linda was good and that she could help me sort through my problems, so I thought that I would give it a try.
 

“My first BodyTalk session had a huge effect on me. As Linda carried out the treatment she started to tell me things about myself that she couldn't possibility have known. I had told her that I had emotional and anger problems at the beginning of the session, but there was one major problem that I didn't tell her about and this was that I had a drinking problem.
 
“I would drink every night until I was drunk just to try and make myself feel better. I knew that I had a problem but I had fallen into a pattern of needing a drink as soon as I got home from work. I would drink wine like it was water.”
 
During the session Linda told Mike that most of his problems stemmed from a 'blockage' in his body caused by the fact that he had a high tolerance to alcohol.
 
“As soon as she mentioned alcohol I was amazed and I told her about my drinking problem. She then did a detox where she put my feet in a bowl of water as this is supposed to draw out toxins in the body.”
 
After the therapy session Mike says that he felt an overwhelming feeling of happiness and clarity.
 
Since experiencing BodyTalk he has never touched another drop of alcohol.
 
Says Mike: “I had the treatment during the run up to Christmas, a time when usually I would drink quite heavily. However, I just felt that I didn't really want to drink alcohol anymore. In fact I gave my drink away to friends who were amazed that I was no longer drinking and flabbergasted that I was actually giving my alcoholic drinks away!”
 
Mike saw the New Year in with a glass of pineapple juice and lemonade. He has now been off the drink for four months.
 
“Linda has definitely got something. I don't know what it is and to be honest I don't care as she has helped me get my life back on track.
 
“I also went to see her when I badly sprained my ankle. I thought that I would have to take at least a week of work to rest it as it was so painful, but she stopped the swelling and made the pain bearable so that by the next day I could walk on it and carry on with my work. Now if anything goes wrong Linda is my first port of call.”
 
What is Bodytalk?
 
BodyTalk is an alternative therapy that helps the brain and the body work as a team to promote the natural health of the body.
 
The treatment is available as a general Body MOT or it can be a more in-depth session to deal with a specific physical, emotional or mental problem.
 
For more serious or complicated problems you may need more than one session to feel the full benefits.
 
BodyTalk can help a range of ailments such as releasing tension and stress, improving circulation, easing pain and helping you deal with physical, mental or emotional trauma. 
 
Linda was the first BodyTalk practitioner in the UK - there are now more than 100 - and offers the therapy along with other treatments including massage and Reiki at The Barn Therapy Centre in Intwood. Prices start at £30 for a 30 minute treatment.
 
Linda can be contacted on 01603 674467 or via email Linda@barntherapy.com
 
Try BodyTalk for yourself and get a £10 discount
 
Life Matters has teamed up with The Barn Therapy Centre to offer you a £10 discount when you book a BodyTalk treatment.
 
To claim your discount you need to book your treatment before April 21st 2009. Call Linda at The Barn Therapy Centre on 01603 674467 and quote Life Matters/Norwich Evening News.

 Article by EMMA HARROWING

21 March 2009