Treating you from head to toe, in North Sydney or Manly
Chiropractor with a Holistic Process
You may think chiropractors focus on the spine, but I treat as many people for issues with knees, feet, legs and arms as I do for back pain.
Whatever part of your body is causing you problems, I follow the same process.
Finding the root cause of your pain
Treatment starts with assessment
Your pain is generally concentrated in a specific area of your body. I’ll look at the joint in that area. That includes moving it through its full range, in all directions. While I’m doing that, I assess both the joint itself and the muscles around it.
Once I understand how the joint and muscles are performing, I can apply the most suitable treatment.
Treating soft tissue as well as the joint
A full range of manual therapy options
‘Cracking’ is just one of the treatments I use as a chiropractor. Cracking helps your brain control the joint more efficiently, and reduces inflammation, but it doesn’t change the soft tissue around that joint. If an issue with the soft tissue (tense muscles, unbalanced muscles, tight scar tissue etc) is creating dysfunction, I need to fix that so the problem doesn’t recur.
I use a range of manual therapies including:
soft tissue techniques such as massage and stretching
dry needling to release trigger points and speed healing
scraping to increase blood flow and reduce tightness
adjusting and mobilising the joint itself
How your body and brain become disconnected
Retraining your nervous system
The same factors which lead to chronic pain can also affect how your brain interprets messages from your body.
Trauma and disconnection
Accidents or surgery can cause your brain to shut off awareness of a joint. This protective response may not reconnect properly, leading to over-tightened muscles, irritated joints, and strain on nearby areas.
Fear and over-sensitivity
A history of pain can make your brain misinterpret normal signals. For example, lower back pain may cause you to avoid movement, creating stiffness and extra load on your hips and legs.
These natural reactions are designed to protect you while you heal. But when they continue too long, they can become an issue.
How I retrain your body-brain connection
I use functional neurological stimulation (FNS) to activate or retrain your nervous system.
This can include:
Retraining usually takes more than one session, so it may take a few sessions to see results. However, it delivers lasting improvement, reducing the risk of relapse into pain.
Gradual reintroduction of movement
Gradual reintroduction of movement in the affected area. This helps your brain distinguish pain from other sensation in the area.
Guided repetition
Guided repetition to correct specific movements, if you are compensating to protect a joint.
Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP)
Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) and other techniques to ‘reset’ how your brain and body interact.
Exercises to help you get well and stay well
A personalised rehab program
All this retraining means that rehab exercises are important. Rehab is always personalised, and you practise exercises with me so that you know how to do them right. Sometimes the exercises take up the entire treatment session. You’ll also get better and faster results if you do the exercises at home.
How many sessions will you need?
Usually you’ll notice significant improvement within 4 to 6 sessions. At that point, we review progress and decide the next step.
That could be:
You don’t need any more treatment.
There’s still work to be done with this initial issue.
You’ve identified a separate issue which needs attention.
(It’s surprisingly common to find that once your urgent pain has been dealt with, other niggles become apparent.)
