Is it really possible to ‘dissolve’ stress away like A-list stars claim?

I’m in the serene spa of the Hotel Cafe Royal in London and am being poked and prodded by a softly spoken Australian.

“Imagine a piece of chocolate cake,” he says, trying to get me to “soften my eyes enough” to achieve complete relaxation and focus only on the space beneath his fingertips.

Andy Mack, 47, is the glib inventor of dissolution therapy, the new “it” treatment being gobbled up by the A-list and certain members of the royal family – although, annoyingly, he has signed a non-disclosure agreement so he can doing. don’t say who.

Described by Andy as ‘contraction release therapy’, it is a combination of meditation, ancient visualization exercises and so-called ‘internal massage’ – in addition to breathing and touch therapy.

You lie on the floor with your head supported by a pillow and the practitioner kneels next to you.

They locate the tension within you by pressing into your body to reach the internal organs – surprisingly painless – and then working to release it.

While traditional massage focuses largely on the muscles of the back, shoulders or legs, solution therapy – which takes its basic philosophy from Eastern teachings – does the same for the fascia (the band of thin, fibrous connective tissue that envelops and supports each structure). in your body), which tightens around the organs during times of stress.

The main purpose is to create ‘space’ in the body by untangling old tensions that we may not realize we have been carrying with us for years.

Yes, you read that correctly. That bad day at work five years ago? The breakup you thought was over? Fans of solution therapy believe that you can still keep it in your body.

“A woman came to me with such a strong tension under her chin that she thought it was bone,” says Andy. “She said it changed her life to have that tension removed.”

Most people carry tension without even realizing it, says Andy, because all parts of the body contract during times of stress.

‘We learn to think that it is just a part of us: that knot in our stomach, or wherever it is.

‘A solution treatment is intended to find and relieve that point of tension through a meditative look in the body.’

What I want to know is: will it solve my roommate’s stress from hell?

I find myself in a nightmare in a rental flat with a housemate who hides the toilet roll and shouts at me because ‘the sofa cushion isn’t padded properly’.

As a result, I’m plagued with anxiety, I don’t sleep well and, in an effort to avoid the communal kitchen, I don’t eat as healthy as usual.

So while I’m not yet convinced of the benefits of chakras and crystals, I’m willing to try almost anything.

Andy starts on my stomach and presses his fingers into my stomach, trying to locate the tension in the space between my organs. Apparently there is quite a lot, because he can feel hard spots in me.

There is a strange gurgling sound when he finds a tense spot; it almost feels like something inside snapping or sliding loose. He works his way up through the sternum to below my collarbone.

At each pressure point, I am instructed to focus only on the space under his fingers, creating “small waves of relaxation” through the area of ​​tension.

The feeling that someone else can feel and wipe away the physical manifestations of stress is extremely comforting.

As someone who often finds the spiritual side of wellness quite nauseating, Andy’s charisma and lack of hippie-dippy sentiment are convincing.

He’s an ordinary guy, he says, a former bassist for a rock ‘n’ roll band that toured America.

Living on the Gold Coast, Australia, his first exposure to this sort of thing was as a teenager when his mother took him to a spiritual workshop, which he says sparked something in him.

“In my 20s, I literally walked on fire and did other crazy things in an attempt to reach a state of higher meditation,” he tells me.

‘I saw a leaflet in a restaurant asking if I wanted ‘supreme energetic health’, and I thought ‘yes, I do!’

Adam Mitzer, the teacher of the class he attended, became a guru of sorts for Andy, training him in the art of what would become the solution therapy that Andy took mainstream.

At the end of the session I understand why it is called solution therapy. It may not have made my nightmare roommate go away, but there’s something undeniably effective about any therapy that involves touch and positive affirmation.

Whether it will have the same effect if I try it myself remains to be seen, but if a little gentle prodding can help me de-stress, I’ll give it a try.

HOW TO SOLVE YOUR STRESS AT HOME

1. When you wake up, place your hands on your stomach and try to move your hands with your breathing. Soften your breath and smile as you relax. Do this for two minutes.

We’re so stuck in our chest, this practice will induce a sense of calm in the body and mind, ready to start your day.

2. Open the body. It doesn’t matter what you stretch, just make sure you do it right. The key that so many of us are missing is the ‘how’. How are you doing this? Are you holding your breath, breathing heavily, and gritting your teeth?

Instead, soften your eyes, relax your breathing, and move willingly into the stretch. As soon as you use this and learn to recognize and release tension, everything will get better.

3. Go for a walk. Not a walk where you call your friends and gossip. This time feel your feet. Consciously think about how your heel, arch, and toe feel when you place them on the ground. Soften your gaze and drop your shoulders.

Try to find affection for your feet – sounds crazy, but give it a try.

• A dissolving treatment at London’s Hotel Cafe Royal costs £125. An online 12-part course to teach yourself the method costs £230 (dissolvetherapy.com)