A NORTH-EAST holistic centre is treating clients again after the uncertainty of the Covid pandemic.

Shen Holistics, at Acklam Hall in Middlesbrough, is run by Sharon Cawthorne who specialises in acupuncture, traditional Chinese Cupping and Hypnotherapy.

Public Health England Guidance means that full PPE must be used for treatments clients are screened before entering the clinic with temperature checks.

“It’s a much more clinical experience for clients now,” said Sharon.

After each client, the room is ventilated for 30 minutes with a Hepa filter, all windows are opened and everything is sanitized.

Before Covid, Sharon was seeing up to nine patients a day. Due to Covid restrictions, she is only seeing up to five.

During lockdowns, Sharon was allowed to continue working but couldn’t practise general well-being treatments. This caused difficulties because it was left to Sharon to decide what constituted a wellbeing treatment.

The question of whether a patient met the criteria whereby if given holistic treatment meant they wouldn’t require NHS services was what Sharon had to consider. This meant the onus of deciding who was most in need of her services was left to her.

“It’s very difficult making those decisions about clients because it’s rarely as black and white as that,” Sharon explained.

“Likewise, if someone had acute pain, I could treat them, but if they had chronic pain, that didn’t meet the criteria. It seemed very harsh.”

Following what Sharon described as confusing guidance from councils, last summer Sharon contacted Public Health England as she wanted clear answers as to why acupuncturists were not allowed to work.

Public Health England responded saying as long as an acupuncturist has completed a three year degree training programme, they could work.

Sharon said: “This means the Council can walk in at any point to check we’re doing things correctly and all safety measures are being scrupulously adhered to but that’s a good thing, we’ll keep our standards up and hopefully others will too.”

After a 20 year career in I.T. Sharon was diagnosed with an inflammatory condition. Several operations later Sharon was struggling to carry on with her work and manage her health condition. The main thing Sharon found that helped her was acupuncture.

“I really admired my acupuncturist. She gave me a bit of my life back,” Sharon said. Shortly after that Sharon trained at the highly respected Northern College of Acupuncture in York.

Sharon also holds qualifications include diplomas in Acupressure Massage, Chinese Cupping and Reiki. In 2015 she qualified as a Clinical Hypnotherapist and graduated with a diploma from the prestigious Innervisions School of Clinical Hypnosis.

To find out more about Shen Holistics visit shenholistics.com