Our unique treatment techniques

Bostock Needle Technique

In 2004, Jim started working with trigger points and the effective method of ‘dry needling’ to release them. He became fascinated in this method however this method was incomplete in his opinion. Therefore Jim further studied the anatomy and designed his own needling method.

Jim truly believed that a human body does not need more than 2-3 treatments to get better without pain and back to 100% function in the muscles. The body does the rest! His frustrations for people who were left medically untreatable kept him researching deeper into its physiology and anatomy and treating as many people as he could. Over time Jim discovered new points in the nervous system inside the muscles and fascia that had NOT been studied before or seen in the medical literature. Jim defined them as ‘Nerve Locks’.

He believed these Nerve Locks are the key to truly fixing chronic musculoskeletal pains or problems. In the years to come and over 80,000 case studies, Jim developed the ‘Bostock Needle Technique’ (BNT).

Today after 18 years of his clinical research, Jim has completed his understanding of all pains in the body and why they persist causing unbelievable problems in people. Medically considered untreatable was NOT an option in Jim’s mind and his Nerve Lock treatment is ‘resetting’ the body back to a normal state after being shut down by pain and dysfunction for so long. His reputation has grown to become “The Needle Guy” and his treatment is revolutionising pain.

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Nerve Locks are small knots/nodules similar to Trigger Points but much thicker and in different locations within the muscles. They can elicit a pain response on stimulation and are generally found around a painful or irritable area of the body, muscle or fascia (the skin covering the muscle).

Pressing on a Nerve Lock reproduces ‘referred pain’ in the local area. The pain can range from a low-grade constant dull ache to severe incapacitating pain, mimicking muscles tears and be explained by findings on any neurological examination. They are created by trauma of any kind to the body – physical & emotional. Major trauma like an injury or surgery to micro trauma like sitting in a chair 12 hours a day.

All Athletes will develop Nerve Locks in their muscles simply due to the nature of their training loads and competition stress. Plus the emotional and physical stress of travelling to play. Nerve Lock pains are very confusing and chronically debilitating if not managed well and eliminated. Currently numerous high quality studies are constantly being done to find out more about this terrible muscle phenomena.

In Jim’s opinion, Nerve Lock pains and muscle dysfunctions is the most common musculoskeletal problem that is often misdiagnosed or unrecognised in our medical practice today. Unfortunately, many general practitioners and orthopaedic surgeons do not know about Nerve Locks as they do not show up on X-Rays, MRI or CT scans.

Nerve Lock development is another way our brain attempts to ‘guard or protect’ us from further muscle damage. What better way to achieve this by producing pain, tightness, fatigue, weakness sensations & feeling and an increased production of lactic acid to slow the muscles down. Nerve Locks develop due to the nervous system being over stressed or traumatised. Trauma can be physical, emotional, surgical, bacterial, chemical, viral or repetitive strain movements.

For example; a marathon runner can push their neuro-muscular system to its threshold and beyond, which can ‘ignite’ Nerve Locks. Likewise a lifter lifting a weight too heavy for his/her capacity on that specific day promotes Nerve Locks to develop to protect the muscles. They also develop after trauma like muscle strains/tears and injuries like joint sprains and surgery.

A Nerve Lock is a small contracted ‘knot’ in a muscle. This knot is very different to Trigger Point knots. It feels like a thick rice seed deep within the muscle tissue. It can create a hard contraction in the muscle fibres surrounding it, causing a tightness that can be felt. These rice seeds can also sit in the fascia (the skin wrapping the muscle fibres).

Nerve Locks can be so debilitating and unrelenting that it can change the decisions you make in your life – sport, career, family, relationships and unfortunately drug abuse. The BNT technique is Jim’s own unique method for eliminating the Nerve Locks effectively. This treatment serves as a ‘reset’ or ‘control alt delete’ to the muscle pain, weakness and tightness.

Neural Positional Release

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When the body and brain is traumitised from pain, injury and emotional stress, the fascia that covers every muscle, bone, nerves, blood vessels, lymphatics and organs go into a ‘protected’ state.

Our nervous system does this by locking down nasty ‘reflexes’ in the central, peripheral & autonomic nervous system (automated organ and hormonal function). The result is – muscles, joints, ligaments, nerve tissue, blood vessels, organs and lymphatic drainage going into dysfunction.

For example, did you know a vascular restriction in the pelvis or lower back can cause Sciatic pains in the lower limb? When these reflexes are set in, they can stay forever! Muscles performance weakens, injuries can reoccur faster, annoying pains can last longer and recovery from any injury or illness becomes poorer. Neural Positional Release (NPR) is an innovative & powerful technique originating at the Jones Institute (who call it called Strain Counter Strain) which ‘resets’ these nasty reflexes.

By placing the body into non-threatening positions, the brain allows the nerve fascia or neuro-fascia to ‘unlock’ resulting in pain relief & a better tissue environment for healing. This is a necessary step before any nerve-muscle-joint system can be re-strengthened back to function and optimal performance.

NPR tells the body guarding tissues to ‘let go’ and resume healing faster than any manual therapy treatment Jim has seen world wide. In conjunction with his BNT Jim gets to the ‘source’ of your pain.

When we are in pain or any muscular or autonomic dysfunction, these ‘reflex’ or ‘tender’ points are holding strong in the central, peripheral and autonomic nervous system affecting that particular area of the body. For example, it is not uncommon to see painful & swollen limbs trapped in this position for months to years because the blood flow through the area is restricted and protected. If we try to directly release the tissues around this tender point aggressively through abusive massage, cracking, manipulating or injecting foreign substances, the brain can sense it as a threat.

This can cause the muscle fascia systems to re-tighten, blood flow and lymphatic drainage to be restricted further & pain receptors around the area to become heightened (increased nociception). NPR tells the specific nervous system controlling the culprit tender points to switch off and stop the guarding, allowing the body to heal.

NPR for your organ system is a wonderful way to help ‘reset’ their natural motion, called ‘physiological motility’. Organs can be the source of many pains and hormonal problems in the body. For example; your liver can give you chronic mid back and neck pains! It requires a high level of skill on the part of the practitioner and involves assessing and treating the organs, their supporting ligaments, fascia, and the autonomic nervous system. Organ dysfunctions commonly result from physical or emotional trauma, gut diseases, infections, allergies, viruses, pregnancy, surgical trauma & chemical poisoning.

Jim has incorporated the Organ NPR treatment with his other techniques and works closely with Brisbane’s leading Gastroenterologists and Trauma specialists to help patients with potential organ issues post medical interventions.

NPR treats problems like persistent pain, organ, vascular/lymphatic and hormonal dysfunctions & poor muscle performance. Our nervous system can set in ‘protective’ reflexes when it once sensed a significant threat or trauma. If these ‘reflexes’ are not switched off or reset, these problems can last indefinitely.

NPR is designed to ‘reset’ these reflexes allowing the body to resume normal function and movement. Therefore it used to treat most problems including; muscles/tendons problems (pain, tendonitis or tendonpathies, re-current injuries, weakness problems, poor balance & performance), autonomic nervous system problems (organ and hormonal dysfunction, frozen shoulder, gut diseases, digestive problems), organ problems (gut diseases, digestive issues/inflammation, esophageal restrictions/inflammation, reflux, irritable bowel syndrome), joint problems (joint degeneration, joint inflammatory diseases like rheumatoid arthritis & spinal spondylitis), lymphatic flow problems (poor healing, body/limb swelling problems, post surgical problems), bones (bone bruises, improving fractures healing) & arteries and veins (poor healing rates, swelling problems, numbness + pain in limbs).

Did you know that your organs move inside you? Poor organ mobility due to a trauma can cause hormonal problems, thyroid dysfunctions, referred pain such as back pain or neck pain & digestive problems like irritable bowel syndrome. In fact, people suffering IBS commonly have persistent back pain! In such cases NPR can make rapid improvements to the referred pain as well as the organ problem.

Furthermore, NPR can be used to treat; all kinds of gut problems, IBS (diagnosed & undiagnosed), celiac (diagnosed & un diagnosed), abdominal pains that have no underlying issues, bowels not functioning normally, unusual stomach pains after surgery or pregnancy, rib pain, breathing difficulties & troubles falling pregnant.