“ARE you doing anything?” I ask therapist Lizzie Garthwaite who is standing behind me as I sit on a stool.

She laughs slightly. “Everyone says that, some clients feel things more than others,” she explains.

Lizzie is applying an ever-so-gentle pressure to the top of my shoulders, along the ridge that runs from my neck to the top of my arms. I can barely feel anything, yet she assures me, she is touching me.

Lizzie is a qualified practitioner and tutor of Emmett Technique, a unique body therapy, created by Australian remedial therapist Ross Emmett, designed to ease pain and discomfort and increase movement.

It involves the application of light finger pressure at specific points on the body which responds by changing muscle tension and action. Sessions last 45 minutes and Lizzie begins by asking me to stand. She is examining my posture. She gives me a gentle shove, forwards, backwards, and to each side, to check my strength and balance. Next, she hits the floor, and firmly strokes the sides of my feet three times then uses her fingers to “nibble” at certain points on the top of my feet. I feel a gentle popping, as if bursting bubble wrap. Lizzie is pleased. This, she says, is my body responding to her touch.

Most clients come with specific aches and pains or problems. I have a bit of tennis elbow, which Lizzie traces to tension in my pecs, shoulder and neck areas. She begins to poke around at either side of my underarm until she finds the right spot. She tells me take a deep breath, then drop my neck down as I exhale. As I do this, she jabs her fingers into my pectoral muscle - and I let out a mini yelp. “I thought this was supposed to be gentle?” I ask.

Lizzie explains that you might feel a bit more if a body part is particularly tight. She repeats this another two times, then mirrors the action on the left side too. Subsequent “pokes” are less uncomfortable, I am glad to report.

She continues the focus on my neck area, firmly stroking it and then asking me to turn my neck one way, then the other. She is measuring how far I can twist round, and the more she works, the further I can go with ease. Progress.

The best comes last. With a firmer action, she uses her fingers to pull down from the middle of the neck to the side. It feels like she is driving over a speed hump in the road, but each time she does it, I feel a rush of energy flow from my neck to my toes. It’s a real release, and it is bliss. It is slightly uncomfortable, but in a good way. Afterwards, I sit with my eyes closed, feeling genuinely relaxed, tension in my neck relieved.

Lizzie treats people with a variety of ailments, from back and hip pain, to neck and shoulder restrictions, knee and ankle problems and persistent heel and foot pain. Emmett Technique can be used to ease lymphatic and sinus congestion as well as abdominal cramps.

Treatments are carried out while fully clothed, although some garments may need to be removed or loosened as required.

Most of the treatments are carried out while you are standing or sitting down, although a couch may be used too.

Lizzie runs a weekly Saturday clinic from Redmayne Lodge Therapy Centre at Strensall and also works privately with clients and teaches Emmett Technique to other practitioners. She is also a Montessori teacher and decided to train in Emmett Technique after her mother, a doctor specialising in pain relief, used it to help her patients.

Lizzie says she has helped people find relief and improved mobility from chronic back and hand and shoulder pain, sometimes just from one session.

There is indications too, she says, that the gentle Emmett Technique can be more effective than using a foam roller to release tension and pain in the muscles. A study with rugby players found Emmett Technique eased their iliotibial (IT) band more so than repeatedly rolling the sides of their legs to massage out the tension.

As I leave, Lizzie tells me it’s not just humans who benefit from the treatment. “Mum does it on horses, and I treat dogs too.”

That sounds like a follow-up story if ever I heard one.

A 45-minute session costs £40, then £30 for subsequent treatments. To find out more, contact Lizzie on 07803 011349 or email emmett.technique@gmail.com and find out more at emmett-uk.com