Review: The Natural Therapy Centre, Colne

Yet within an hour of arriving at The Natural Therapy Centre, Colne, my worries had faded, my anxiety had softened and all tension had dissolved.

Attentive and highly skilled in holistic therapy, owner Claire Parry wrapped me in a cocoon of calm, time stretching out like a quilt.

Claire offers a raft of Chinese, Korean, Western and Ayurveda treatments designed to ease long-term conditions by examining the body as a whole. Using organic products and a wealth of knowledge, she practices reflexology, acupuncture and restorative yoga.

But what makes her approach special is its focus on the individual.

Yes, you can book a treatment from a set list. But you can also mix and match within a one-hour slot for the same price, with only a few exceptions.

A Swedish body massage booked in advance, for example, can be changed at your session and split into several treatments to ease whichever aches and ailments plague you on the day.

Claire recommended a mixture of acupuncture, reflexology with warm bamboo and a deep-tissue and trigger point massage to reduce my anxiety and promote healthy sleep.

The massage worked wonders for my back, neck and shoulders: a blissful equilibrium of warmth, oils and touch unravelled the knots in my muscles.

Meanwhile, she played a restorative yoga tape using mindfulness techniques to focus and calm the mind, lulling me into a deep state of relaxation.

Acupuncture needles were then placed in two areas of my ear: the Shen Men counters inflammation and relieves pain and stress while the Sympathetic Autonomic Point moderates the fight or flight system in the brain to support healing in the body.

Claire brought warm bamboo to the Natural Therapy Centre from Spain and for my final treatment mixed it up with reflexology - massages based on reflex points in the feet - thawing out every last clot of stress.

Her success in easing the symptoms of chronic conditions like alopecia, anxiety, persistent pain, the menopause and infertility has allowed her to add massages to her services and move to new and better premises with a purpose-built treatment room.

And the setting - a dimmed room draped in creams and browns - couldn’t have been more soothing. There was the feature wallpaper: woodland steeped in russet and blue. And then there was the undergrowth of twinkling fairy lights, the perfect finishing touch.

As I write and remember I feel again that deep bliss with which I left The Natural Therapy Centre, later sliding, for the first time in months, into an easy and undisturbed night of sleep.

The centre is set in 3 Primet Hill, Colne, across from the train station.

A combination of treatments in the following packages are also available: one and a half hours, £37.50; two hours, £45.

For more information, please call 07934 707 944, send an email to [email protected] or visit either www.thentc.co.uk or