Describes the well-established and powerful therapy called Zero Balancing, and explains how and why it works. Uniquely, this therapy touches simultaneously the bones and joints of the body and the flow of energy through them.
In this book John Hamwee offers an eloquent description of this subtle and increasingly popular therapy - together with convincing evidence of its effectiveness .... After working with Dr Friz Smith, who wrote the foreword for this attractive and engaging book, Hamwee became a practitioner and, later, one of 30 qualified Zero Balancing teachers. He explains that the technique employs gentle traction or finger pressure at various places on the trunk, neck, legs and feet. The pressure is not on acupressure points, nor is its effect on the muscles - which differentiates it from therapies like shiatsu and massage. The traction and pressure are directed to the bones and joints underlying soft tissue, but without manipulation - Zero Balancing works with both the structure and energy of the body to improve what Hamwee terms its 'organisation as a whole'.
The benefits may not immediately be apparent .... But after a couple of days I (Andrew Shields) began to feel less pain, and a palpable sense of well-being. Good health's indeed all a matter of balance. -- Time Out, June 1999
In this timely book, John Hamwee meets the need of a growing number of people who, either from personal experience of Zero Balancing of from interest in the growing edge of health care possibilities, wish to know what it is and why it works ....
John's Hamwee's writing style held my attention with such lightness, often at a deep level of lucid intellectual enquiry, that I read the book in a single sitting ... Whether the reader is directly involved in ZB, or open to understanding its place in a wider movement, this book will likely prove illuminating and inspiring. -- Caduceus, September 1999
Zero Balancing is a form of healing, but one with a clear theory and practice that can be taught and repeated. It is based on the Eastern concept that energy flows through the body and, in particular, through bones and joints. It is believed that emotional problems and physical ailments block, disturb or interrupt this force, leading to pain or incapacity.
'It is like having a blockage in the fuel pipe of a car,' says John Hamwee. 'The engine might be fine, but if the juice is not getting through, the vehicle cannot work to its full potential.' The 'zeebee' practitioner places his hands on particular parts of the client's body ... and briefly supports them. This apparently releases the blockages and rearranges the energy so that harmony is restored .... 'You are not looking for what is wrong with somebody,' says Hamwee. 'You are aiming to amplify their wellness. Instead of pulling out the weeds in the garden, you are trying to grow bigger, more beautiful flowers. It is good for people going through difficult times who want to enhance their potential. I also find it is brilliant for people with bad backs, painful hips and stiff necks.'
The therapy is also said to address emotional problems that have been stored in the body. Practitioners claim that it can bring about the sort of profound and lasting changes usually associated with long-term psychotherapy. One of Hamwee's clients, a distinguished psychotherapist, had suffered from migraines every 10 days for 20 years. She had three sessions of Zero Balancing four years ago, and has not had a migraine since. 'What really knocked her out was not just that the headaches disappeared, but that, during the session, she recalled a critical event in her childhood which had not surfaced before ... When something bad happens to us, we react. If we can't react, the event is taken into the bone.'
The idea that memory is stored in the bone may be difficult to swallow. Hamwee points out that we all know what it is like to feel physical symptoms of emotion - anxiety as sickness in the pit of the stomach, or fear as a fluttering in the chest.... 'Experience is stored in the mind, but why should the mind mean only the brain? Experience is absorbed right through the body.... It is amazing what range of suffering responds to this therapy. I am constantly astonished.' -- The Daily Telegraph, July 19th 1999
