Are you living with chronic pain? Or have you been battling with sports injury for years? Maybe you've been for numerous treatments that never seem to resolve the cause of your problem? If you answered yes to any of these questions, I'm excited to tell you that now there is a way to put an end to this!

Firstly, it's important to understand that pain and injury are symptoms of a body functioning under strain or out of balance. Neuor-musculo-skeletal pain is not an enemy, but rather a medium of communication through which the body is warning of potential or further breakdown. Since we respect the body as an intelligent organism at Movement & Wellness, we seek to interpret this guidance offered through symptomatic communication in order to find the underlying cause(s) of its distress.

When moving with pain, a lack of mobility or loss of motor control (authentic stability), the body is forced to make adjustments in how weight and energy is transferred through movement patterns, or held in postures. Although compensatory movement is part of the body's survival mechanism which allows for dealing with any demands placed upon it, compensation means that certain muscles, connective tissue and joints are asked to perform in ways they were not designed to function. Over time this results in developing dysfunctional movement patterns, left-right asymmetries, overuse, chronic pain, and eventually breakdown.

At Movement & Wellness all my work is based on in-depth Movement Assessment. When dealing with chronic pain or recurring injury, I make use of a total body movement diagnostic system called the SFMA (Selective Functional Movement Assessment). The SFMA provides an efficient method for systematically finding the root causes of pain, or movement dysfunction(s) responsible for recurring injury. I also do a postural assessment and a number of Osteopathic clinical tests, to complete the picture.

Based on the findings of the initial consultation, a corrective strategy is then administered in an hierarchical and progressive manner to each of the identified causes of movement dysfunction. This strategy will comprise of a combination of manual therapy modalities, active and passive mobilization techniques, and corrective exercise. Once pain has been removed, faulty fundamental movement patterns can be restored with corrective exercise, to ensure lasting results and a decrease risk of future injury.

As part of my holistic approach to restoring function, we also look at lifestyle habits which might be contributing to the movement problem. This includes advice on poor sitting, driving or working postures/habits. Eating habits also has a direct impact on tissue quality and muscular function, and imbalances here therefore needs to be addressed. I help clients with this through offering GenoType specific guidelines on food choices and supplements. Read more about this here.

Emotional stress can also be contributing to muscular strain in certain parts of the body, and manifest through old patterns of thinking, or a learned holding patterns. Becoming aware of these issues during our program, may be helpful in letting go of postural tension, restoring tissue quality and important for the overall healing process.