Some people are very nervous meeting me for the first time, wondering what will happen during their appointment with me.After contacting and discussing your aches, pains, ‘niggles’ or injury an appointment is made with me. If you are female you may need to wear a sports top and shorts for assessment and males may need shorts for lower body assessments.Firstly, we sit down and we do some ‘paperwork’. This is for me to gather your general details such as name, address, occupation, GP surgery. We then go on to your presenting complaint.I ask specific questions such as:-
How long have you had your pain
How did you pain/injury come about
What does your pain it feel like
Does your pain refer to another part of your body
What aggravates your pain
What relieves your pain
Have you seen another professional about your pain/condition
Any medications you are taking,
How is your General Health
Have you any allergies
Any history of surgeries, fractures or accidents.
After taking the consultation, you will be taken through an active, passive and resisted joint assessment.This is the time when you may need to wear your shorts or sports tops so that I can take your limbs through specific movements. This helps me to assess your movement and carry out specific ranges of movement for a joint. This will help me to assess if your complaint is due to a joint, ligament or muscle problem.
Now is the time for you to lie on my couch and I use my advanced massage techniques to treat your pain or condition. Every body is different and I give a bespoke treatment for your complaint.I use a variety of massage techniques which are:-
Indirect and Direct Myofascial Release
Trigger Point Work
Soft Tissue Release
Sports Massage
Injury Treatment
Stretching
After treatment, I give you a bespoke homecare exercises to carry out between sessions to help reduce your pain and increase your movement.These exercises may consist of :-
Stretching
Strengthening
Balance
Carrying out your homecare exercises increases the chances of you improving greatly. Usually, clients see me weekly for a period of 3-6 weeks depending on the severity of your pain. We decrease to fortnightly sessions then continue to reduce until we have a maintenance session 4-6 week period.Maintenance sessions are important to keep your ‘niggles’ under control and some clients called it their ‘MOT’ time for their bodies.