Floatation therapy can be a wonderful way to escape the stresses and strains of everytday life, as Women's Editor Christen Pears finds out.

I'M floating in a tank of water, completely enclosed. After ten minutes, the music fades out, and I'm left in silence. All I can hear is the sound of my own breathing and I begin to wonder what I'm going to do for the rest of my hour-long float.

But I needn't worry. After a while, it doesn't feel like I'm in the water at all. I'm floating in the darkness and I lose all sense of time. Five minutes could have passed or it could be five hours. I fall asleep.

The next thing I know is when the music comes back on and the lid slowly lifts up. I step out of the tank and into the shower, feeling totally and utterly relaxed.

Floataria is Newcastle's first floatation centre. Opened just six months ago, it boasts two floatation tanks and a third will be installed by the end of the year. The centre is run by Dave Brooks, a former engineer, and his partner Gill Trotter, who is a medical rep.

"I first saw floatation tanks on Tomorrow's World about ten years ago, when they were first developing them for commercial use. They looked nothing like they do now but I thought back then what a good idea it was," explains Dave.

The idea stuck in his mind and a couple of years ago, he went down to London to try out a few floatation centres. He was so impressed, he decided to set up his own business. "There's nothing like it up here. We've found a real niche in the market," he explains.

"A lot of people still don't know what floatation is but we've had a really good response. People seem to be quite keen to try it and once they do, a lot of them come back regularly."

The floatation tank is a fibreglass capsule containing ten inches of water and a quarter of a ton of epsom salts. This creates a zero gravity environment and allows you to float naturally, without any effort

Zero gravity allows you to relax every single muscle, releasing tension and allowing the body to devote all its energies to healing and recuperation. The tank is sound-proofed, isolating the user from external stimuli, and this creates a state of total sensory relaxation.

Floatation can be beneficial for a whole range of conditions and ailments, as well as for general relaxation. It can be helpful with arthritis, back pain and sports injuries. The salt can calm skin conditions, including psoriasis, while the state of relaxation it induces can benefit those suffering from stress, anxiety, high blood pressure and insomnia. It can also be useful in the treatment of drug and alcohol addiction and smoking.

Dave says: "We get all sorts of people floating - people who want to give up smoking, people with sports injuries. We have a professional waterskier who comes to float before competitions so he can relax and totally focus. We also get quite a lot of doormen who come to sleep because an hour's sleep in the tank is the same as four or five hours bed sleep.

"I don't think you can understand exactly what floating's like until you've tried it yourself. I usually float once a week and it's absolutely fantastic."

* For more information call 0191-222 0600 or visit the website at www.floataria.com.