Brits with Long Covid are being charged up £280 for ‘counselling’ sessions which promise to ‘remove’ their symptoms, MailOnline can reveal.
The In the Clear clinics, which offer an alternative therapy called the Boulderstone Technique, operate out of Brighton, Tunbridge Wells, Earl’s Court and Birchwood.
The ‘Boulderstone Technique’ — invented by a math teacher-cum-alternative healer — claims to draw on ‘ancient knowledge’ to unblock ‘inner tension’ which stops the flow of the body’s energy.
Apart from Long Covid, the clinics also claim to be able to beat allergies.
They do this by holding the customers head as they recline on a treatment couch. Then the customer repeatedly touches a glass vial containing the allergen until they become ‘at peace’ with it.
The In The Clear Clinics, which offer an alternative therapy called the Boulderstone Technique which they claim can help treat Britons with Long Covid
A poster at the In the Clear clinic at Brighton even said common Long Covid symptoms like fatigue, loss of taste and smell, and brain fog could be ‘removed’ through the technique
Experts and MPs slammed the clinic, accusing those behind it of using the ‘language of charlatans’ and of taking advantage of people whose lives had been derailed by Long Covid.
Long Covid refers to symptoms caused by the virus that persist long after the initial illness has cleared.
Disputed estimates suggest it affects about two million people in the UK.
This includes about 600,000 Brits who have had Long Covid symptoms for more than two years, according to Government figures.
While the condition is still not well understood, commonly reported symptoms include suffering breathlessness, fatigue, muscle aches and brain fog.
There is no known cure for Long Covid and while the NHS does list several ways to alleviate the dozen or so symptoms attributed to the condition, the Boulderstone Technique is not among them.
On the clinic’s Long Covid section online, it claims that, through the Boulderstone Technique, ‘we teach the body to overcome the legacy of Covid and other lingering illnesses, restoring vitality and energy in one to four, 30-minute, sessions’.
And a poster put in the clinic’s Brighton location even promises to remove Long Covid symptoms like fatigue, loss of taste and smell and brain fog
The clinics also feature a patient testimonial from ‘Jane’, who says ‘I’ve been great, really well, sleeping very well and eating a lot better. My sinuses are clear,’ following treatment.
Prices for a 30 minute session at the clinic are listed as costing £70.
Professor Edzard Ernst, a world-renowned expert in complementary medicine at the University of Exeter, told this website there was no evidence Boulderstone Technique works for Long Covid, or for anything else.
‘The Boulderstone technique is supposed to be counselling without words,’ he said. ‘It is unproven and, in my view, not based on plausible assumptions.
‘Terms like “vital energy” are nonsensical words used by charlatans; they should make our alarm bells ring.
‘There is no good evidence the Boulderstone technique helps patients suffering from long Covid’.
Lib Dem MP and chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Coronavirus Layla Moran called for a crackdown on unscientific clinics taking advantage of Brits suffering from Long Covid.
The clinic’s general website features pictures of minimalist and soothing rooms with a massage table. Practitioners of the Boulderstone Technique also claim to be able to ‘remove’ allergies by holding a patient’s head as they interact with the allergen contained in a glass vial
The Boulderstone Technique was invested by John Boulderstone, a former math teacher. Here is pictured with Katherine Boulderstone (image taken from Instagram)
‘The Government should be cracking down on these unscientific clinics taking advantage of people whose lives have been derailed by Long Covid, but it’s the Government’s lack of support for Long Covid research driving people to seek these alternative treatments,’ she said.
‘Millions of people in the UK have been affected by this debilitating condition–the Government must urgently increase funding for Long Covid diagnostic and treatment pathways.’
The Boulderstone Technique was invented by British math teacher John Boulderstone, who is part of the In The Clear team and listed as the director of the Bouldertsone Technique company, about 27 years ago.
Other practitioners listed on the clinic’s website, include a dancer, a former nursing student, and an artist.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), the UK’s advertising regulator said it could not comment on individual cases.
However, they added that ads for any kind of therapy, be it alternative, religious, or emotional healing mustn’t make claims about what they can treat without ‘robust documentary evidence in the form of clinical trials’.
A ASA spokesperson said: ‘Ads for therapies mustn’t claim they can treat Covid or long COVID unless they have robust evidence to justify their assertions.’
MailOnline contacted the Boulderstone Technique clinic for evidence on its Long Covid treatments and the concerns of experts.
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