About Garry Trainer

'If anyone knows how the back works it is Garry Trainer'

- Dr Hilary Jones

'Garry is an amazing healer, often able to correct things that no one else can'

- Gwyneth Paltrow

'Garry has always been ahead of his time and has a special talent, which I have enjoyed for years.'

- Sir Paul McCartney

Garry Trainer

Garry, a fiercely proud New Zealander at heart, has been an expat in the UK for over 27 years where he is regarded as a pioneer and one of the foremost practitioners of osteopathy, acupuncture, massage, complementary and natural therapy. For all his clinical expertise though, surfing remains one of his greatest passions! A career in sports was his ambition but, at 17, his back was nearly broken in a rugby accident. After 18 months in recovery, he reconsidered his future and realised that being mobile and free of pain could be the most important thing in life.

He trained first as a nurse and then came to the UK in the late 70’s and trained as an acupuncturist, funded by stints as a masseur at the famous UK health spa Champneys. Trainer was still in search of something to relieve his own back pain and had found that acupuncture “knocked his socks off!” He decided to train as an osteopath and ever since, he believes his success has been based on combining the strengths of acupuncture as a painkiller, with osteopathy, massage and conventional diagnostic techniques.

Backs are literally the ‘backbone’ of his practice, based at his flagship clinic in Primrose Hill, North London. His first book ‘The No-Nonsense Guide to a Healthy Back’ was published in 1999. His second book ‘Back Chat’ came from a realisation that he found himself saying the same things to patients everyday, so decided to write it all down in an accessible, immediate and chatty way – literally a chat about the back. “Often what feels like being stabbed in the back can be a sign of a trapped nerve. By understanding and acknowledging the natural healing process that many backs get better by themselves, one feels so much more in control of the situation. Fear of the unknown is the worse thing in back pain. I understand backs and I know what it feels like. I’ve learnt backs from the inside out ” says Trainer.

Garry is an experienced and regular contributor to broadcast and printed media features as the voice for complementary and natural health issues in the UK as well as being appointed in 2008 as a regular columnist in the Mail on Sunday’s Health section. He counts amongst his clients Gwyneth Paltrow, Johnny Depp, Kate Winslett, Jude Law, Brad Pitt, Emma Thompson, George Michael and Sir Paul McCartney. Garry says “I think there’s something in the New Zealand personality not to be so bound by rules and regulations, and I think that helps me to relate to celebrities. People in the arts had a more open-minded attitude to natural health at the time when I was starting up, and maybe that’s what opened doors for me.”

In his new book ‘Back Chat – the Ultimate Guide to healing and preventing back pain,’ osteopath and acupuncturist Garry Trainer and his co author, the respected health writer Tania Alexander, set out to demystify the back and take the fear out of back pain. By concentrating on core information about the back and using a lot of case histories, Garry and Tania have written an extremely useful and concise book - a must for anyone wanting to know about back pain and how to successfully deal with it.

Illustrated with photographs and drawings throughout, it also features detailed case studies to help the reader easily identify and conquer their own problem. Back Chat offers helpful tips on lifestyle, gives a practical action plan for zapping back pain, provides easy-to-follow and effective strengthening and stretching programmes, and gives top advice about helpful consumer products. All told in a chatty, accessible style, Back Chat offers you the secrets of London’s leading back specialist.

For more information about the Garry Trainer Clinic please click here