I have been a complementary therapist since 2012 and founded tonysherry.com three years later. I have had many highlights in my therapy career. There was Jake, the seven year old Great Dane with neurological weakness from the mid back down and kept losing his balance and falling over.His vets gave him a few months to live, and I treated him regularly, and he lived in comfort for another two years.

Then there's Mike, who was diagnosed with a rare neurological disorder that left him paralysed in his legs and fingertips and unable to perform any self-care. By the end of our first session, he could start to feel something, and a couple of visits later, he could raise his arms above his head! I will never forget the look on his face. I treat Mike regularly, and his improvement continues to amaze his doctors. He can now do many daily tasks independently.

And then there was Chloe, the show jumper, who kept knocking down poles. She was being trained and competed by a professional show jumper, competing at a very high level. The vet had thoroughly examined her and could find nothing wrong that would lead to constantly knocking the poles down. I treated her once, and she was back in her winning form within three weeks.

My journey into complementary therapy and, later, founding tonysherry.com began in 2011, following a severe riding accident when I fractured three vertebrae in my spine. Months off work, popping painkillers day and night and not being able to do very much due to the constant pain were getting me down. However, my hopes of returning to normal were raised when my GP referred me for physiotherapy. Unfortunately, the physio was unable to help me. My GP then broke the news that due to my age and the type of injury, I would have to learn how to live with the pain for the rest of my life!

Never being one to give up, I began the search for an effective complementary therapy to relieve my pain. I tried many things. It was only when I stumbled upon the EMMETT Technique that my pain disappeared, and little did I know then that this would change my life.

I then knew I wanted to train in this technique and become a therapist. First, I trained as a Practitioner for horses and quickly went on to train and became an Advanced Practitioner for people and then as a Practitioner for dogs.

At this time, I was still working in Intensive Care at one of the most prestigious London teaching hospitals. My nursing career in the NHS spanned 28 years, primarily working in Intensive Care as a highly skilled specialist nurse with the most severely ill patients. My latest role involved undertaking clinical research into new treatments and technologies. My enthusiasm for the EMMETT Technique was infectious, and it was not long after qualifying as a Practitioner I started to get colleagues knocking on my office door…

"Tony, can you sort out my shoulder?" or "Tony, can you work your magic on my leg, please?" asked the nurses and doctors as they popped their heads around the door.

As a Research Nurse, I got agreement from my department head to evaluate the effectiveness of relieving muscular pain and discomfort among the staff in my department. The results were terrific, with every participant reporting a significant reduction in pain and many being pain free after just one treatment.

My path had been set. I retired early from the NHS and started working full time in ECH Therapies.

Maybe because of my background in nursing and clinical research, it was crucial to me to provide a five star service that, most importantly, relieves my clients' discomfort and restores their movement as quickly as possible. I knew I could ease their symptoms in just 1 or 2 sessions. When I started, I did not have a clinic, but I discovered that nearly all of my clients preferred to be treated in their homes. This is also really important for dogs because the more relaxed they are, the better the effects of the treatment. So uniquely, we now exclusively offer home treatments for our human and canine clients (horses and cattle, of course, are treated at their stables or barns).

As my therapy career progressed, I met the Australian founder of the technique, Ross Emmett, many times. Ross taught all of my advanced training. Ross is a highly gifted therapist, and as he got to know me better, I think he saw something of that in me. He asked me to start teaching students who wish to train in the technique with animals. He later invited me to become his representative in the UK and Ireland for animal therapy and Senior Instructor. I have taught in every corner of the UK and travelled to Europe and Australia to teach. In 2018 I was asked to present my research into the effectiveness of the therapy at the EMMETT Technique International Conference in Cairns, Australia. I also sat on the International Advisory Board for the EMMETT Technique for two years.

I am incredibly proud that I have established a reputation as an outstanding therapist in the UK, using the EMMETT Technique for people, dogs, horses and cattle. My personal experience of the dramatic differences that EMMETT therapy can make and my wish to use my expertise to bring that same relief to as many people and animals as possible is why I set up tonysherry.com.

I am also now an Author of "Goodbye to Pain", a book to inspire people to try complementary therapies to reduce their pain and improve the quality of their lives.

I am the founder of "The Animal Therapist Sanctuary". Membership of this exclusive group is for any animal therapist from all backgrounds and specialities who come together to share their knowledge and experiences, learn from each other, and support one another in their work.

What do you get for your membership? Monthly webinars with guest speakers, networking opportunities, question and answer sessions, an area of recorded interviews and webinars to access at any time, a place to view articles and papers of interest, especially if written by members of the community, being a part of a unique and supportive community of animal therapists with a common goal of promoting good care in treating animals, a forum to discuss issues and points of interest or chat with new friends, an area to advertise jobs in the animal therapy environment. Email me today to get your special discount code.

I am proud to be working with Tony at tonysherry.com. Neither of us is the type of person who is satisfied with mediocrity, doing the same as everyone else and getting the same average results. Like Tony, I aim to be the best at what I do and make a real, discernible difference for all our clients, people and animals. I live for the moments when clients say…

"I can't believe it. I haven't been able to do that for years".

I have been touched many times by the people who have told me that I have made a big difference in their lives. This is what keeps me motivated and loving the job that I do!

I have not always been a therapist, although most of my working life (since 1992) has been in healthcare. I am a registered nurse specialising in mental health and have worked in the NHS for my nursing career. I spent many years in senior roles in Child & Adolescent Mental Health Services and, latterly, in a leadership position in a therapy service for adults. Many people would have been satisfied with this course. Still, as my career progressed, I found I was spending more and more time on management responsibilities, sitting at a desk and spending less time actually nursing. As I approached middle age, I noticed that my body could not do the things it used to, or certainly not as quickly. I felt the pull in my lower back as I bent down to tie my shoelaces; I started to lean forward in my car seat to see the oncoming traffic at a junction; my shoulders ached from spending hours hunched over a computer; and when I looked in the mirror my posture was becoming rounded. The list goes on! The thought of my body's state when I retired in another 15-20 years was frightening. "Time for a change", I thought!

I was already an Equine Shiatsu Practitioner. I have loved horses from a young age, and I own my horses. In 2013 I completed a three year training at the renowned School of Equine Shiatsu, under the tutelage of Jill Blake, one of the leading figures teaching 'acupuncture without needles'. I practised at weekends while working full time in the NHS, but I wanted to expand my therapy skills and be able to treat people too. I knew that Tony's back injury was helped dramatically by the EMMETT Technique. After researching many other musculoskeletal treatment modalities, I took the plunge in 2015 to make a career change and trained to become an EMMETT Practitioner. I have been very fortunate to have trained with the UK's most senior EMMETT Technique instructors for people and animals; Lesley Salt, Sue Gassick, Tony Sherry and the technique's founder, Ross Emmett.

Since qualifying as an Emmett Practitioner for both people and horses and, as I became experienced at treating a range of acute and chronic symptoms, I was invited to become an instructor in the technique. I teach one day human therapy courses and full practitioner courses for those wanting to train as equine therapists. In 2018 I was asked to speak at the EMMETT Technique International Conference in Cairns, Australia, where I joined an expert panel to take questions on using the EMMETT Technique with horses.

Later in 2018, Tony invited me to join him at tonysherry.com, and, of course, I leapt at the opportunity to be working alongside someone who shares the same values as me; who puts the client right at the centre of everything we do and who's goal is to deliver high quality treatment and fantastic service. What more could I want?

So you may be wondering if, several years on, I am still feeling my age. I am pleased to say that Emmett treatments and a few simple lifestyle changes have really sorted out the decline of what felt like a rapidly ageing body. For the riders amongst you, you may not be surprised to hear that once I had sorted out my body, my horses were more comfortable and started to move better too! A valuable lesson for us all.