Massage therapy '˜exploded' worldwide

Bushra Finch founded a complementary therapy, Mizan Therapy, to help with reproductive health issues like endometriosis. It all started in Leeds and now she has over 100 practitioners around the world. Picture Tony Johnson.

Bushra Finch developed Mizan Therapy after originally training in Maya Abdominal Massage 20 years ago.

She has now trained more than 100 therapists, working across the UK and in Australia, South Africa, Canada and Europe, and claims to making a “huge difference” to the lives of women living with debilitating conditions, including menstrual pain that could be “fobbed off” by doctors.

Ms Finch said the technique, which involves massaging the womb, is based on traditional forms of massage from Malaysia, Indonesia and Pakistan.

She said the therapy increases the circulation to reproductive organs, which helps to promote hormonal balance, and helps to reposition a misaligned uterus.

It can also help to break down scar tissue and aid the digestive system to be more efficient, she says.

“We think of menstrual pain as normal, but it is not,” Ms Finch, who practises from her home in Calverley, said. “Menstruation should not be painful. But women’s pain is not taken seriously. You go to your GP with period pain and get told to simply ‘get on with it’.

“Endometriosis is one of those conditions that myself, and the practitioners I have trained, work on and have found we are able to help women. Sometimes we can clear the endo, sometimes it’s symptomatic relief. It makes a huge difference to the lives of women with this often debilitating condition. I hear dreadful stories of women who are fobbed off by their GPs.”

Ms Finch said the therapy could also hope with “emotional issues”.

She teaches her clients self-massage techniques so they can provide themselves with relief from their symptoms.

She believes that complementary therapies should be recommended by the health service to help ease symptoms where traditional methods are not helping.

“I’ve seen time and time again, not just with Mizan, but with other therapies such as acupuncture and chiropracty, that the difference can be tremendous,” she said.

“The first time I offered to train other people it was just to people I knew - now there’s over 110 practitioners around the world. When I look back and think ‘how did this happen’ - the reason its exploded is because it works.,

“I would love to find a method of scientifically testing Mizan so it could be assessed. My mission in life is to give women the power to heal.”

For more information visit www.mizantherapy.com.