Finding the right treatment can involve frequent visits to a GP, regular sessions with a chiropractor and a repeat prescription for painkillers.

But Annabel Boys says she can now offer people in Hampshire something different. As the county's only practitioner in Body Stress Release, she reckons she can sort out all those aches and pains.

And she believes in the technique so much that she was prepared to move to South Africa to learn how to do it.

Body Stress Release originates from South Africa and is a gentle, pressure-based technique that stimulates the body's own healing process.

Unlike massage, there's no skin-on-skin contact and there's also no painful-sounding cracking or crunching of bones going on.

Annabel explains: 'Clients lie fully clothed on a specially designed couch and I find areas of stored tension in the muscles using a series of simple tests. Then I apply a light pressure which encourages the body to release tension. There's no forceful manipulation.'

She first learnt about the technique whilst on a trip to South Africa. Suffering from persistent tension headaches, which numerous other treatments had failed to cure, a friend recommended she try it out. She was so impressed with the results that she moved to Cape Town to find out more.

Now she's just one of 30 UK specialists trained to carry out the treatment. Working from her treatment rooms at Trafalgar House, in Portchester, she sees people with all kinds of problems.

'I get people of all ages visiting me, but I'm finding that the technique is particularly popular with older people who find other treatments too invasive or intense,' she says.

'People seem to believe that a certain degree of pain and discomfort is to be expected as we get older and this is something we just need to live with, but this is not always true. Pain doesn't have to be part of the ageing process.'

The most common complaints that she sees are sciatica, back pain and headaches, but she also helps those suffering from neuralgia, indigestion and cramps.

'People often tell me how much better they feel, psychologically too - better able to cope with life's ups and downs and generally more positive and energised,

'It's an excellent way of helping your body fight the many sorts of stress it is exposed to.

'It frustrates me that so many people rely on daily painkillers when a few changes to their lifestyle and a course of Body Stress Release could help them to regain their health.'

For more information about Annabel and Body Stress Relief go to: unlockmyback.com