I’d hurt my hip gardening and was in so much pain that I didn’t think twice when my son offered to treat me with trigger point needling. He’d only recently become qualified, and was keen to help me. Though I trust my son completely, I am not fond of needles. But I am so glad that I let him help me.

The way Leonard came about to study a course in dry needling was after a very tough time for his family. His daughter, Sara was in an accident and damaged her lower back badly. She was very young.

I’ll never forget the Christmas when Sara  slipped and fell when her back went into awful spasms. They’d been jumping through a sprinkler at the time, something Sara loved to do. While most of the parents didn’t want the sprinkler on because the kids were all in their nice Christmas clothes, we gave in. Particularly because of Sara, and that she’s so lucky that her accident couldn’t completely stop her from being the active monkey she loved to be.

Anyway, Sara  slipped and had a terrible fall. When Leonard realised his existing physio training wasn’t enough to help her he turned to colleague and got recommended a dry needling course. And it really worked. Realising the value of it all, Leonard  looked up every place available that offered Dry needling courses in New Zealand. He sailed through his course with flying colours.

Studying dry needling gave Leonard something special to work with, and I have to admit he made the world of difference to my hip. But it’s the difference that learning a new way to manage pain that helped him to show Sara way through her experience, and this has rubbed off onto Sara who also wants to study trigger point needling too. As a mother, a grandmother and a patient of a practitioner who has experienced the wonder of dry needling, I couldn’t be more proud of them.