Meaningful, effective treatment is a collaborative partnership between therapist and patient.
My goal is to create lasting and meaningful health changes. For that to be possible, patients must embrace responsibility for their health and actively participate in the process. Often, health challenges can seem daunting and insurmountable. My role as a therapist and coach is to provide resources to make progress and change easier and more achievable. These resources may include assessment, manual soft tissue therapy, exercise knowledge and prescription, and general health advice. Key areas that require individual attention include:
- Lifestyle
- Emotional and Psychological Well-being
- Exercise
- Environmental Factors
Factors such as diet, exercise, sleeping patterns, alcohol consumption and work/life balance can profoundly affect physical well-being. Lifestyle consideration is essential to get the most out of any treatment. For example, if you are suffering from chronic knee or back pain but are significantly overweight, your metabolic and joint health will be substantially affected. The benefits of manual soft tissue therapy and remedial exercise will be limited until this underlying issue is addressed.
An individual’s emotional and psychological well-being can profoundly impact their physical health. Emotional trauma is often stored in the tissues, particularly those of the viscera. Visceral manipulation and neuromuscular training can be highly effective in aiding the body in releasing the effects of emotional and psychological stress. However, if the underlying causal driver is not addressed, such as a toxic personal relationship or a highly stressful work environment, then resolution will remain temporary.
Regular exercise is a vital component and complement to any soft tissue or movement and functional-based treatment; for meaningful changes to soft tissue tension and movement patterns to be lasting, an individual must move. Movement is vital for the nervous system to properly integrate the changes achieved during an appointment and ensure that they are lasting. Obviously, if you are given take-home exercises and don’t practice them, then meaningful, lasting change will remain unattainable.
Environmental factors such as poor ergonomics at work, low-quality or inadequate equipment when engaged in sport or recreation, exposure to toxins and infection, and repetitive loads or muscle strains all impact overall health and well-being. While a thorough assessment process will often reveal and flag some of these issues, without addressing them directly, long-term change and improvement will prove challenging.
It is important to note that the categories outlined above are intimately related. They don’t exist in isolation and have a profound follow-on effect and influence on each other.
