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IN TOUCH – Wellness

TX:Ìý 13.04.2022Ìý 2040-2100

PRESENTER:Ìý ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý PETER WHITE

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PRODUCER:Ìý ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý BETH HEMMINGS

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Calming music

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White

Namaste.Ìý The concept of mindfulness and wellness have been around in various forms for much of human history.Ìý People have been practising mindfulness and yoga for thousands of years, particularly in the East.Ìý Over the past few decades, it’s become increasingly fashionable here in the West as well and perhaps, inevitably, for the West, alongside its spiritual element, it’s also become an increasingly lucrative business, which means it’s also leading to jobs, not least for a growing number of visually impaired people.Ìý So, tonight, we’re looking into how viable this is as a career for blind and partially sighted people.

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We’ve been hearing from some of those making a successful career in wellness, in practices ranging from yoga and sound healing to Reiki.

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Mulryan

So, there’s seven major chacras of the body.Ìý So, your crown and you’ve got your third eye, your throat, your heart…

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White

That’s Mick Mulryan.Ìý He is the founder and lead therapist at the Number 1 Pain Relief Clinic based in Buxton in Derbyshire.Ìý

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Nick, is a multidisciplined therapist trained in sports therapy, acupuncture, massage and something called reiki, which is a Japanese form of energy healing.Ìý Practitioners use a technique called palm healing, which its exponents believe encourages emotional or physical healing.Ìý As you’ll discover shortly, rather surprisingly for a business dedicated to relaxing its clients, Nick shares his workspace with a gym, which accompanies its workouts with equally energetic rock music.

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Mulryan

Some people just feel like a deep type of relaxation but from a medical point of view reiki can actually help reduce heartrate, induce relaxation and promote just general wellbeing.Ìý

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There’s a pillow here, that’s for your knees to go over.

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Now you might think this is really wacky, so I use the pendulum and what that does is floats up above you and if anything is quite activated or hyper then it sets the pendulum going off.

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White

I can feel the heat from somewhere but I’m not aware of the pendulum.

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Mulryan

Well, it’s spinning above your head quite quickly.Ìý I don’t want to go too low because I don’t want to hit you in the face with it because I’m visually impaired as well.

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White

I’ll let you know if you hit me in the face.

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Mulryan

Now, what I’m combining here, Peter, is a little bit of shiatsu, sometimes you just integrate other therapies in there.Ìý I’ve got one hand on the left side, pointing up and one hand going down.Ìý Energy flows in a certain particular path, so, we’ll say that disease would enter through the liver and then goes out through the spleen.Ìý So, from a medical point of view, the liver would be on the right and on the left would be the spleen.Ìý And as I’m using my hands on Peter, I’m actually visualising where the energy is going up and round his body.

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Bell dinging

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Tingsha bells, it’s a kind of a bit more like the sound therapy, it’s become more like clearing energy and they’re Tibetan bells because if you imagine you’ve had an hour of reiki or you’ve had 30 minutes of it, it brings the patient round as well that the treatment’s coming to an end.

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White

I feel pretty relaxed.Ìý The rock music from next door isn’t helping very much.Ìý I can’t claim to completely understand what Nick was doing but I feel calm and peaceful.

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Mulryan

So, how I got into reiki was during an exam I was doing an Indian head massage exam whilst massaging the lady she just burst into tears.Ìý Once I spoke to the lady, afterwards, and she said – he just released an awful lot of stress.Ìý Which I found that very intriguing.Ìý And one of the lecturers said – have you ever learnt about reiki which also helps work on an emotional level?Ìý So, I decided, then, to learn a particular reiki.Ìý And what made me more aware about how useful it can be was when I was working in palliative care because the Macmillan nurses were doing it.Ìý Some cancer patients felt it helped them quite a lot.Ìý And there was a gentleman there, so he was terminally – end of life – and rather than ask for the vicar, he asked for the reiki practitioner.Ìý And I thought – what, my god there’s something in this.

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White

Yours is a pain relief clinic, I mean can this specifically relieve pain?Ìý Are you claiming it can relieve pain in ways in which conventional or traditional medicine can’t?

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Mulryan

In conjunction with conventional medicine it can help, particularly those individuals that have got chronic conditions, in particular.Ìý They’ve been given a recent diagnosis, it can help come to terms with it, so to speak.Ìý We’re not counsellors, or anything like that, but it just sometimes – it makes you more aware of the body.

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White

Do you think your lack of sight gives you some advantages, some reasons why you might be particularly successful at it?

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Mulryan

I believe that we’re not better than our sighted peers but we become more aware of our senses because we’re not distracted.Ìý One of my colleagues at university said – when I do a massage, Nick, was to feel a tissue, I look up at the ceiling – he said – what do you do?Ìý I said – I look at the skin as well.

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White

Do you think some people are resistant to it?

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Mulryan

Some people might be.Ìý I mean it’s a bit like acupuncture, for example, some people will tell you that it’s the best thing since sliced bread, where others say – no, it didn’t do anything for me.ÌýÌý Particularly my patients, are sceptic, I just tell them the truth about it, what it does, what it helps and what it doesn’t actually do.Ìý When we are doing anything holistic, obviously, we’re looking at the whole self as a person and also, our aim is, generally, just to make people healthier and happier.Ìý But it shouldn’t be claimed as a cure, by no means.

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White

That was Nick Mulryan.

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Now, even those not well versed in relaxation techniques have a nodding acquaintance with yoga positions, such as downward facing dog and saluting the sun.Ìý Claire Miller is a qualified yoga instructor based in London where she teaches classes online and in person.

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Miller

For me the yoga, as practising yoga came first, then I lost my vision partially in one eye, then I qualified to be a yoga teacher whilst I had the visual impairment and that led me, then, to teaching visually impaired people.

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White

I think you actually had a potentially rather embarrassing situation, again which sort of prompted you to think actually there might be quite a lot of people doing this?

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Miller

I did, yes.Ìý When I first started this, I was teaching a group of mainly blind, a couple of visually impaired people, in fact one person with better eyesight than I have and I made the error to say close your eyes because, obviously, that’s what I say in a yoga class.Ìý One of the students said – it’s okay Claire, I don’t need to close my eyes, I’m blind.Ìý Fortunately, everybody laughed.

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White

What difference is there in teaching a blind person or someone with only a little sight yoga?Ìý I mean how have you adapted your own teaching technique?

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Miller

If you’re in a class environment and somebody is looking directly at you, you have a certain amount of the use of your own body that will help a person to understand what you’re doing and particularly when you’ve got a blind or visually impaired person you have to get your cues of what you’re talking people into really, really precise.Ìý

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Coming in to your child’s pose.Ìý So, from your all fours position, with your hands under your shoulders and your knees under hips, put your weight back so your bottom comes back towards your feet.Ìý We’re going to take the knees nice and wide.Ìý We’re going to stretch the arms forward and then gently take the head down towards the floor.Ìý This is our child’s pose.Ìý We start to take some nice big inhales and nice big exhales.

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White

And how do you know if they’re doing it right?

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Miller

Well, generally, because I have one good eye, if they’re happy for me to look at them, then I can cue them by looking at them.Ìý If you’ve got somebody online, whether sighted or not sighted, if they choose not to have their camera on or choose not to speak to you, there is no way of checking what they’re doing.Ìý But generally, if you’ve employed a teacher to teach you something, you generally want to do it as best as you can.Ìý So, yeah, it does involve that other person on the other end.

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White

I’m assuming that you still prefer to do this face-to-face with a live group in a live room wouldn’t you?

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Miller

Absolutely but, to be honest, I think online now is such a good format, it’s so accessible for everyone.Ìý It means that you can expand your teaching out to wherever your client is.Ìý And particularly as well, I think, you’ve got somebody who has a visual impairment who doesn’t feel comfortable to go somewhere for a class, it means they can get what they need on the end of their device.

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White

Have you had some triumphs with people who perhaps thought they couldn’t do it or thought that it just wasn’t for them or that they would have trouble doing it as a blind person?

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Miller

Absolutely.Ìý Metro Blind Sport is another lovely charity and I’ve got some stuff online from Metro Blind Sport that anyone can access.Ìý And I know they’ve had lots of hits on – there’s little short classes, seated yoga and more active yoga.Ìý And I think it’s made a lot of difference to a lot of people.

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White

And what do you think people gain from it?

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Miller

Well, I think, sometimes, it’s just you’re able to do something that maybe you thought you couldn’t, so it’s good for your self-esteem.Ìý Yeah, and it’s good to connect with people.Ìý Multi-benefited, I think.

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White

Claire Miller.

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Well, we’ve heard there from a couple of the visually impaired people already making a good career in different branches of wellness.Ìý But if you’re interested in pursuing a career in this area, where do you begin?

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Well, the Royal National College in Hereford offers its students a range of courses within wellness.Ìý Lecturer in sports massage, anatomy and physiology, Jim Wallace, explained some of the things on their timetable.

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Wallace

We offer, obviously, a holistic massage, which is the nice full body relaxing massage and then we offer sports massage as well.Ìý Reflexology, which is the treatment of the whole body through the feet.Ìý Indian head massage and we do aromatherapy.Ìý

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White

And, I mean, are you finding that these kinds of courses are proving quite popular?

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Wallace

Yeah, obviously, since the cut in funding for adult learners, we’ve only got young learners at the moment, but we do have a good intake of students come to do this.Ìý And I mean a lot of it, it’s all really based for them to go self-employed after the college.Ìý

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White

Do you think visually impaired people perhaps have particular abilities and attributes that make this particularly suitable, this area, to go into professionally?

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Wallace

I think so, yeah.Ìý I mean when anyone gets taught how to massage, we all try and start to shut our eyes, it’s part of the way to feel different parts of the body.Ìý So, you’re more in tune with your clients.Ìý And I think that being visually impaired or blind, the students have this straight away, this natural ability.

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White

In the past a lot of visually impaired people have gone into physiotherapy and that’s become more difficult, of late, for various people.Ìý Are you finding, perhaps more visually impaired people are now leaning towards these kinds of wider areas of wellness?

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Wallace

We have got a number of students who have left and have gone on to other therapies.Ìý So, we’ve got one who does Thai yoga, one who does reiki as well as equine massage as well.ÌýÌý So, we try and get visiting lecturers in.Ìý So, we had someone who came in and did a sound bath therapy with the students.Ìý So, we try and promote the other therapies.Ìý But I think some are moving away.Ìý We have a couple in the Isle of Wight who are doing a lot of reiki.

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White

And these are people who are doing it professionally, yeah?

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Wallace

Yeah, they run their own business, they’re self-employed.

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White

You mentioned the fact that funding had now been withdrawn for further education courses because in the past you were able to often train people who were older, who perhaps wanted to retrain or who had lost their sight relatively recently.Ìý How hopeful are you that you’ll be able to restart doing that kind of thing?

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Wallace

I mean if they brought the funding in, it would be amazing.Ìý The adult learners really did progress really well with the massage.Ìý Our last adult learner was Dan Pembroke who won a gold at the Paralympics for javelin.Ìý He’s started his own clinic in Hereford again now, so he’s actually working as well.Ìý I mean if the funding came for the adults, it would be a great asset to the college but also for the industry as well.

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Norton

So, my name’s Marc Norton.Ìý I’m a qualified sound therapist.Ìý I specifically have qualified in sound therapy for groups, holding a sound bath and I take them on a journey of healing sounds.

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Healing sounds

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I’d like to just invite you to just set an intention for anything you would like the sounds to support you with.

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Healing sounds

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It’s very much used in a wellbeing sense.Ìý A lot of people are living very, very busy, fast-paced lives, so it really gives them an opportunity to just have that special relaxing time for themselves, supported by these instruments that I use.

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White

I’m feeling very relaxed, I have to admit, and I’m not just saying that.Ìý How would you describe the benefits of it?

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Norton

So, at the beginning of the session I asked you, Peter, to set an intention.Ìý There’s a phrase in sound therapy that is intention, plus frequency, equals healing.Ìý It has been scientifically proven that the cells in our body very much react to sound vibration.Ìý So, for example, I was using the crystal balls earlier.Ìý So, each crystal ball is a different note.Ìý So, if you play C and G, that is known as a perfect fifth and that can have a very rejuvenating effect on the body.

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White

Can I ask you just a bit about yourself?Ìý How did you get into all of this in the first place?

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Norton

My parents joined the Hari Krishna movement when I was a baby.Ìý We had moved to India to live in a Hari Krishna temple in a very remote village.Ìý And I’ve had issues with my sight since I was very small.Ìý My sight got a lot worse when I turned 16-17 years old.Ìý I used to find, as a child, that I spent a lot of time internal in a way and I was very affected by sounds.Ìý And then that led on and I discovered a sound healing course from the Sound Healing Academy and that just really opened everything up for me.

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White

I know you do quite a lot of sound baths with visually impaired people…

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Norton

Yes.

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White

…and I wonder how we react when you perform sound baths with us.Ìý

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Norton

What I have found with people who are visually impaired they are able to go deep into the sounds very quickly.Ìý My feeling is, is because there’s already less visual interference taking place…

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White

What distraction?

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Norton

… yes in a way.Ìý And when I experience sound baths, I find that I can go very deep into the auditory experience very quickly.

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White

Is there an element of having to believe that this kind of thing actually works to feel the benefits because I mean some people, as you know, maybe very sceptical about this kind of thing and I’m wondering how much you need to believe in it?

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Norton

I personally don’t feel there needs to be a belief in it.Ìý I would never say to someone – sound therapy will do this or will do that.Ìý The only thing required is to be open to the possibility that it could be a powerful experience or a pleasant experience.

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White

Marc Norton, hopefully leaving you almost as relaxed as me.

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That’s it for today.Ìý From me, Peter White, producer Beth Hemmings and studio managers Sue Stonestreet and Simon Highfield, goodbye.

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