Peter van Minnen’s route into Body Stress Release was not a professional choice made in the abstract. It was the result of his own experience as a patient.
For fifteen years, Peter managed chronic back pain that resisted the treatments available to him. Conventional approaches provided temporary relief but no lasting resolution. It was BSR that finally released the stored tension driving the problem and ended the cycle he had been living in. Having experienced the therapy’s capacity from the inside, he trained as a practitioner himself, travelling to the Body Stress Release Academy in South Africa to qualify in 1992.
That was over 27 years ago. Since then, he has worked with thousands of patients, applying the same principles that resolved his own pain to an extensive range of presentations.
His Approach to Practice
Peter’s approach is shaped by a fundamental conviction: that the body knows where it is holding stress and, given the right input, has the capacity to release it. The practitioner’s role is to read the body’s responses accurately and work with them rather than imposing a predetermined treatment protocol.
This means every session is different. The assessment at the start of each appointment reflects what has changed since the last, and the release work follows the body’s current pattern rather than a fixed sequence. Peter describes this as listening to the body, which is not a metaphor in BSR. The body’s neurological responses are the literal source of the information that guides every decision in the session.
His Work Beyond Human Patients
Peter’s practice has extended well beyond the human. For over two decades he has applied BSR to horses and dogs, with results that have been consistent and, in some cases, remarkable. His 2009 book, Horses Have Wings, documents 53 case histories of BSR applied to equine patients. The work with animals is significant not only in its own right but as evidence for the physiological basis of BSR. Horses cannot have expectations about whether a therapy will work. When their movement improves and their pain behaviour resolves following BSR, the explanation is neurological, not psychological.
The full account of Peter’s animal work is explored in our articles on Body Stress Release for animals and BSR for horses and dogs.
Seeing Peter at Hever Health
Peter sees patients at Hever Health, located at Hever Castle Golf Club in Edenbridge, Kent. He is based in Westerham and serves patients from across the Sevenoaks, Tonbridge, Edenbridge, and East Grinstead areas.
His full practitioner biography and contact details are on his team page.
To book a session with Peter, contact us.