Pain Management

- dealing with Pain that does not go, or keeps coming back.

Pain is pain. There are many reasons for pain to arise (and for pain not to leave!). By understanding your ‘story’ of pain you will have a better understanding of how to deal with it. Here’s how we deal with it.

Longstanding Pain
Frequently long standing complaints or recurring injuries arise because of ‘repeat patterns’ we put ourselves through - without even knowing it. People often comment they are ok – it’s only the pain that’s getting them down. Sometimes they say they are ok, but it’s the weakness in their body that lets them down. Whilst this is true, it would also be true to say that unless the person was very elderly or pathology were present, then the body’s healing power would be visibly insufficient.

However countless people coming in for treatment are in their prime of their lives, so it is unlikely to pronounce that every person’s healing mechanism is poorly. It’s a bit like having a brand new ‘mini’ motor car. If you drive it every week, say from London to Paris, and it conks out on you one day, you don’t jump out of the car, kick the bumper and blame the car. It needs servicing and maybe the car was not designed for such high performance or endurance.

In recognition of this, we view that: pain is the body ‘knocking on your own front door’ saying “I can’t manage like this”: it might be a warning -
(a) I need to have a rest or
(b) Something needs to change.
Every pain has a story to tell and we try to find out what your body is saying. For every problem there is always at least one solution.

Recent Pain
We integrate our approach to give you the speedy route to healing. When followed closely it also forms the basis of prevention too. There are three key areas we address in getting you better.

1 The Injury: the tissue that has been damaged, strained, injured etc is first targeted. When pain strikes, it is important get to the heart of the problem swiftly. Sometimes we may directly treat the injury, specifically addressing the painful tissues. In this case we may massage, stretch, manipulate the area to give relief. On other occasions the injury may be far too painful/sesnitive to work on directly. In those cases we have alternative techniques. These would be centred on easing other nearby areas, so the injured area can ‘have a rest’, or we may use Cranial or other relaxing, gentle techniques to help soothe the pain, calm the area down. Our extensive experience and expert osteopathic treatment means you will always have the right treatment for the right condition in the right way, for you.

2 Enhancing Nature’s Response: this is about boosting the body’s healing mechanism, so that the body can help itself to heal even better. We work with the body to support it’s healing intentions, for example: if you injury the left side of your spine, obviously you would encounter local tissue damage at the site of the injury. But what is less well known is the body doesn’t just try and heal the left side of the spine, it does a lot more. The body tries to help itself by diverting the body weight through the healthy right-side of the spine. The right side becomes the ‘hero’ doing the ‘lions share of the work’. But even a hero needs a rest! As experts in biomechanics, osteopaths identify each compensatory mechanisms. For every pain there is always at least one linked compensatory mechanism. We ensure each compensation is supported and can function. In this way the injury receives a second tier of support. This ensures that whatever healing is taking place it can do so unfettered and as freely as possible. This is yet another example of how we can speed up your healing, treating not just the symptoms, not just the cause of the problem (see below), but also the support mechanism in which the healing takes place. In so doing we teach you how to ‘listen’ to what your body is saying and to know what action to take when.

3 The Individual’s Actions: this is about the individual. (a) It is about how your injury arose in the first place, or why it did not heal, or why it keeps coming back. (b) It is also relates to questions like do you lie down or exercise through the pain, go to work or stay at home, go out for a meal or ‘give in’ to the pain etc. In my eyes, this is the most important part of your visit to the Pain Relief Clinic. Simply put no person can injure and heal at the same time. So when you are (re)-injuring not only are you creating more damage, more collateral damage, more compensation loads to the body (see above), by definition, you are also relegating healing to the back of the queue. At the present time there is no cure for pain. It can only be managed. Pain Management is a special interest of mine, and for those who are willing to explore this area, over a number of visits, you will learn exactly how to beat pain. It takes a number of visits because, like any form of learning– “no person ever read a book the first time and passed the exam the next day”. It takes repetition. It’s a process we all have to undergo ‘for the penny to drop’. There is no motivation in life like self motivation. By giving you the tools to look after yourself, your motivation and progress will be in your hands.