Meet Edinburgh's New Complementary Health Practitioner
At 31, Kara Myles walked away from a high-pressure finance career overseeing a multi-million-pound budget - to train as a Body Stress Release practitioner in South Africa. Today she runs her own practice in Edinburgh's West End, helping clients resolve persistent pain that conventional medicine couldn't shift.
Kara's career in finance was, by any measure, a success. After graduating, she worked in her family business, Party Time in Broughty Ferry, while completing a Master's degree and helping care for elderly grandparents. She then joined Deloitte's audit division, qualifying as a Chartered Accountant before moving to Skyscanner as a Finance Business Partner for Marketing - overseeing a multi-million-pound portfolio across six teams.
But behind the impressive CV, the pressure was taking its toll.
"The pressures of working in finance really took a toll on me mentally, which presented a lot of physical side effects," Kara explains. "I knew my body was struggling to cope with the work pressures and continual late nights, but still didn't remove myself from the situation, hoping to continue to climb the corporate ladder."
The nudge she needed to leave finance and apply to become a practitioner came - fittingly - during a BSR session with her practitioner, Claire Birbeck. "During one particularly bad period of work, Claire said: 'What have you got to lose?' And that's what made me think - just go for it.”
Kara's relationship with Body Stress Release began around eight years ago, when her mother - herself a BSR beneficiary - suggested she try it. The results were immediate and, at times, remarkable.
"I had hip pain and lower back pain when standing for long periods, frequent urination and tight shoulders. I now have none of these pains," she says. The most striking result, however, came from a chance comment during a session. Kara had developed carpal tunnel-like pain in her left wrist severe enough to prevent her from changing gear when driving.
"In passing, I mentioned to Claire that I was going to see a doctor for the pain. She did one release on my wrist, and it has never come back. That was a game changer for me - how quickly the pain disappeared was really amazing."
Those eight years of personal experience gave Kara a conviction in the technique that made her eventual career change feel less like a leap of faith and more like a logical next step - even if the specific destination came as a surprise.
Rather than train in the UK, Kara chose to travel to the BSR Academy's home - a hilltop training academy overlooking a picturesque lake in Rondevlei, South Africa. "With South Africa being the heart of the technique, I felt I had to go all in," she says. "It was a terrifying decision... but the best decision I have ever made in my life."
In an unexpected twist, her mother - on the cusp of retirement - decided to join the same cohort. "It was a brilliant time doing the course together," says Kara. "She now practises alongside Claire in Broughty Ferry."
The course attracted 26 students from across the globe: around half from South Africa, six from the Netherlands, and others from Curaçao, Shenzhen, and beyond - a mix of wellness professionals, corporate converts, and second-generation practitioners.
The experience was not without drama. Immigration complications in August left Kara and her mother's passports held by South African authorities, and they were told they needed to leave the country that evening. "We thought we might miss our final exams and not complete the course - that was stressful!" After multiple trips back to immigration, the matter was resolved. "The immigration officers even said if we ever come back to visit South Africa to pop in and say hi — not a chance!"
Back in Edinburgh, Kara now sees clients at Mulberry House, 21 Manor Place - a ten-minute walk from Haymarket station and minutes from the city tram network.
Body Stress Release is a complementary health technique that identifies, and releases stored tension in the muscles and connective tissue - what practitioners call 'body stress'. Unlike more forceful manual therapies, the technique uses light pressure and the body's own responses to prompt a release.
Clients remain fully clothed throughout; the process is entirely non-invasive. Common presentations include back and neck pain, headaches, sleep difficulties, anxiety and nerve-related symptoms - but Kara is clear that it is not a quick fix.
"BSR is not a quick-fix technique - it is a process," she explains. "The technique nudges your body in the right direction, but it is up to your body when it is ready to let go of that tension. For some people, this happens after a couple of sessions; for others, it is a bit longer. No one journey suits everyone - we are all unique."
"If you have a stubborn, persistent pain and you're struggling to get rid of it, BSR is worth a try. Often, people come in for one specific part of their body hurting, but discover changes throughout their body overall. 'I feel so much lighter' is something I hear time and time again."
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