Intensive spinal therapy programs at Tresanton offer a life-altering opportunity to fix your back in the beautiful seaside setting of Tresanton, overlooking the harbour at St Mawes in Cornwall.

Successful treatment for back problems is hard to come by. In the community there is 'a profound and widespread dissatisfaction with what is at present available to help people who suffer back pain' (DHSS). In America, '85% of the people who visit their MD 'leave with no nuts and bolts explanation for their pain' (Scientific American 1998).

Sarah Key is famous for treating spines with both her hands and feet. She believes that sufferers need information about what is wrong, why it went wrong and how to put it right, in addition to highly specific spinal treatment. She has written three popular books on skeletal problems, 'Back in Action', 'Body in Action' and 'The Back Sufferers' Bible (available through Amazon).

'Sarah Key's Back Sufferers' Bible' is considered the market leader 'back book' in both the UK and Australia. 'Keep Your Joints Young' is to be published in the UK in May 2009. The forewords to two of Sarah's books have been written by HRH The Prince of Wales and Sarah has been involved with the Royal Family since 1983.

Sarah divides her time between Sydney and the UK and has been dealing with problem backs for nearly four decades (see this website). Now she treats patients in the northern hemisphere primarily at Hotel Tresanton but it also available for consultations at The Hale Clinic in London.

'Back to Healthy' Back-in-a-Week program at Tresanton

The Sarah Key spinal treatment programs at Tresanton offer intensive, hands-on therapy over four and a half days, interspersed with closely monitored exercise, massage and bed rest. Programs consist of individual daily treatment, information sessions [on elementary spinal biomechanics and pathology] and spinal decompression classes. In one way or another, Sarah Key will be with you for the greater part of each day. At other times, you will either be having your daily massage, taking short walks or resting in bed.

You can fly, drive or take the train to Tresanton. The overnight sleeper arrives at St Austell early in the morning where a taxi will be waiting to take you to the hotel. Or perhaps the 13.35 from Paddington, which comes in at 17:50? Either way, the 30 minute drive through the narrow lanes of the Cornish Peninsular is the ideal induction to this very special interlude. When the train works well, we think it is the most relaxing way to reach Tresanton. Otherwise, Air SouthWest flights operate from Gatwick to Newquay, followed by a 40 minute taxi ride to the hotel. Or, of course, you can drive all the way. How ever you get to Tresanton, Sarah Key will be there for you when you arrive.

'Back-in-a-Weekend' Getaway to Hotel Tresanton

Due to demand from past BIAW patients, Sarah and Hotel Tresanton are commencing BIAWE Top-up Treatment weekends. There are discussion sessions but no formal lectures. Patients have treatment from Sarah on Saturday and Sunday and the familiar Therapy classes on Friday evening and Saturday during the day.

The next BIAWE at Hotel Tresanton is scheduled for:

Dates to be advised for October 2010

Please contact Federica Bertolini on 01326 270 055 or by email on manager@tresanton.com

Here is some information about the massage therapist at Tresanton

Andrea Vallance
Dip. Shiatsu Therapy
Dip. Holistic Massage
Dip. Physiology & Anatomy

"I feel delighted to have been asked by Sarah Key to provide ancillary massage therapy during your 'Back-In-A-Week' Intensive Spinal Therapy program at Hotel Tresanton. Here is a bit about me.
My professional career began with a three-year theoretical and practical study of Shiatsu Therapy. Shiatsu is based on traditional Chinese medicine and philosophy of health. It uses a combination of acupressure, massage, stretches and movement techniques and works on the same principles as Acupuncture but without the use of needles.
My evolution as a practitioner is not definable as a specific professional discipline because, strictly speaking, I do not work ‘by the book’. Instead I draw on my knowledge of health and the human body, my intuition and my life experiences thus far. I feel that everybody is an individual and that each of you come to me with your own life’s experiences. In a sense, I read your body intuitively and this guides me in my treatment.
My therapy is aimed to be deeply relaxing but also uplifting and the aim is to ‘bottle this essence’ and your restored equilibrium to take it away with you.
I look forward to meeting you"
Andrea Vallance
May 2008

Link: http://www.tresanton.com

Testimonials for UK 'Back-in-a-Week' at Hotel Tresanton, St Mawes, Cornwall

'I discovered Sarah Key very late in the day after seeing back care specialists for over 20 years. No-one had got close to accurately diagnosing the cause, nor treated my back effectively. When things got dramatically worse during 2006 I managed to discover Sarah's book 'Back Sufferers’ Bible' by way of an article written about her in Saga Magazine.
It is a testimony to the marvellous clarity of the book's material that I was able to work out more or less what was wrong, merely by reading it from cover to cover. As a result, I wasted no time in getting MRI scans of my lumbar spine, which finally revealed the true nature of my problems.
I managed to get an appointment to see Sarah herself at the end of 2006 and decided to attend her ‘Back-in-a-Week’ spinal therapy program in March 2007 at Hotel Tresanton on the Cornish coast. By the time March came and I got to the venue I was clear in my head that my aim was to learn how to improve the pain and function of my back myself and then to avoid having the surgical spinal fusion which by that stage had been offered. I am 48 years of age.
Hotel Tresanton itself has a kind of calm magic that so perfectly facilitates the course Sarah runs. The location is exquisite, the hotel so lovely, and the staff so tolerant that it proved the ideal environment for what lay ahead. It was a week of treatments, support, great food and learning. The course is a font of practical knowledge about our backs, properly individualised so that for my part, I could finally understand the cause of my pain and body restriction and what I must do to minimise them.
I felt I was given a realistic route map of how to get much better and to take away with me for the future. Sarah showed me how patience and using the BackBlock could be the ingredients that would put me on the path to a less problematic and much more resilient back without having to resort to back surgery.
But there was also more to the week than this.Throughout, Sarah's personal qualities as much as her professional skills made it such a memorable time. The genuine warmth with which she greeted us on the first evening set the tone of her interactionwith us for the rest of the week.You got the sense that she really cared about our stories and the ong struggle each of us had had with our back. She gave 'her all' for the week, fully engaged in the task of helping each person there.
And though navel gazing is not part of the course, Sarah allowed us all the freedom to release some of the emotional distress that somehow gets trapped within when coping long term with chronic pain. I, in particular, was grateful for the mutual validation that came with the group's interaction; also the extra dimension of putting a name to the great drain on our energies that goes with a bad back. Sarah called it the 'bond of the inexplicable' between fellow sufferers.Somehow it meant that i went away form the week not only feeling more comfortable in my back, with new knowledge of what I must do practically in the future to continue improving, but also less lonely in my now hopeful journey towards a stronger and better back and a cheerier outlook on life.'
Linda Adams, London

"I attended the BIAW March (UK) 2005 course and I can honestly say that it has changed my life. After 8 long years of bursting, crippling back pain and a kind of madness from dealing with severe pain on a daily basis, I tried every conceivable treatment from (at best) every idiot and (at worst) every reckless, egotistical lunatic, then there was finally Sarah Key. I have never met such a consummate professional, caring and most importantly someone who knows what she is doing. I've had surgery, chiropractic, osteopathy, physio, Spine care machines, acupuncture. rolfing, sugar injections, years of exercise etc. Each comes with a story and a large price tag. Finally, Sarah has a solution - simple and effective. Her ability to pinpoint with accuracy the blockages in the spine and release them with her feet is staggering.
I was told by my surgeon that my spine was unstable and that it needed stabilisation exercises. The current vogue in backcare! I even became a Pilates teacher to try to understand for myself what core stability meant. In the process I stabilised a spine that didn't require stabilising and locked the pain in permanently. Until Sarah Key restored flexibility and showed me how to decompress my spine simply and effectively. Having said that, her treatment is tough medicine and I left Tresanton feeling both weirdly free but hurting like I'd been run over by a bus but unburdened from the label of instability and exercise fanaticism!! Angry, too, that the state of backcare in this country is so appalling. I hope you will run another article about Sarah Key in the hope that professionals running Pain and Spine Care Clinics will approach Sarah for her Masterclasses for Professionals. There are so many people languishing in pain whose lives are hopeless with misery being offered useless drugs, useless advice and useless care. Sarah Key has a formula which could so easily be transported into the NHS and would, I am certain, make a real difference."
Carmel Neale, Hertfordshire

"I am so glad I read about the BIAW course at Tresanton and , despite the fact that I was unable to travel more than a few miles without increasing my backpain, make what seemed like an epic and painful journey to St Mawes, laying down in our car. After Sarah worked her magic on my back and with the help of the exercises that get to the route of the stiffness and lack of mobility, I was able to sit in the car for most of the journey home. With Sarah's advice on how to manage our backs, the exercises and the backblock, and the fact that I am already able to do a lot more since the course, I am optimistic that my back will go on improving. The whole week at Tresanton was so enjoyable, the food, the accommodation and the friendly staff, and of course meeting other people who had experienced similar pain and limitation with their backs."
Betty Brown, Bath