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Press

I ACHIEVED MY PAIN-FREE GOAL - Jonathan Hunt featured in Daily Express article, November 18th 2008.

A degenerative spinal condition virtually ended Jonathan Hunt’s football career and left him in agony until he learnt a technique that claims to reverse chronic pain. BARBARA LANTIN reports.

Watching Jonathan Hunt tackling his opponents today on the football pitch, it is hard to believe that the 36-yearold former Birmingham City and Derby County midfielder was out of the game for five agonising years, incapacitated by back pain.

Jonathan, who is now with St Albans City FC, suffered a tendon injury in his pelvis while training with Wimbledon in 2001. For the next 18 months he struggled to regain his fitness but eventually had to abandon the game he loved. “It was the worst moment of my life,” he recalls. “Football was my reason for getting out of bed in the morning.”

Jonathan never gave up hope that he would one day recover, though he didn’t imagine he’d ever return to the pitch.

“I saw neurologists, orthopaedic surgeons, physiotherapists and osteopaths,” he says. “I was told I had a degenerative condition in my discs caused by wear and tear from football. The doctors wanted to operate but I didn’t want to go down that route.

“I went from being a finely-tuned athlete who trained twice a day to somebody who couldn’t sit in a chair. I had panic attacks, felt out of control and became short-tempered. My family were worried about my mental state.”

On a visit to Thailand four years ago, Jonathan was told of a woman who practised Hanna Somatics, a mind-body training that claims to reverse chronic pain patterns caused by strain, injury or bad postural habits. After three sessions, Jonathan was virtually pain free and so impressed that he later travelled to California to train as a Somatics educator. He is now one of only three in the UK. “After one session, I felt as if somebody had let go of my spine,” he says. “It gave me an awareness that something had been constricting me and that there was now a lightness in my movements.”

According to the founder of Hanna Somatics – American philosopher Thomas Hanna, who died in 1990 – repeatedly performing the same movements and postures causes our muscles to remain in a state of contraction.

Eventually, these contractions become so deeply unconscious that we no longer remember how to move freely. This “sensory motor amnesia” makes it difficult for us to control our muscles, which can lead to chronic tension and pain. Somatics – derived from the Greek word “soma” or body – helps people by teaching them to contract the muscle themselves and then slowly release it. The instructor goes through a tailored programme of movements with clients and gives them a set of simple exercises.

“Manipulative therapies will move you back into alignment but I see myself more as an educator or an instructor,” says Jonathan. “I help people to change things from within.”

Most of his clients come to him with back, neck or sciatic pain. Many are office workers who spend hours seated in the same position but he has also treated a 10- year-old boy whose back was hunched from six hours a day spent on a games console.

Natasha Gomer, 30, came to see Jonathan after enduring six years of back pain following a skiing accident. “I had tried chiropractic, physiotherapy and inserts in my shoes,” says Natasha, who works in online public relations. “Massage brought me temporary relief but it was still not right.”

Natasha saw Jonathan three times and now does five minutes of exercise twice a day. “It has made a big difference,” she says. “I can do pretty much everything without pain. The balance of my body and the way I walk has improved. Somatics seems to be more in tune with the way the body works than other therapies I have tried.”

After football, Jonathan’s other great passion is racing and he is now working with horses to improve their stance and performance on the course.

“Like humans, horses develop characteristic postures, movements and behaviours which can lead to pain and restricted movement.”

He adds: “Somatics is a natural, gentle and safe way to treat chronic pain, relax muscles, manage stress and restore movement. Horses can gain numerous benefits.”

As for Jonathan, he is thrilled to be back on the football pitch and in his second season with St Albans.

“My body is very different from how it was when I was playing full time. Then it was rigid, now my muscles are relaxed and games don’t affect me as they did. I am seven years older and I feel 110 per cent better than I did.”