When I qualified as a physiotherapist thirty years ago, I had no idea that thirty years on, I would still be finding my chosen occupation so rewarding.
I still find positive challenges everyday and sometimes problems which I find difficult, despite having supposedly ‘seen it all before’.
The start
I had worked as a physiotherapy helper, before training and that always gave me the understanding that physiotherapists sometimes talk in mysterious technical ways, with words such as ‘Gastrocnemius and Soleus’ being used, instead of ‘calf muscles’ and because of this I will try to explain your problem to you, in ways that you can understand, if you come to see me for a consultation.
My interests
these mainly lie in movement quality and in body balance.
I try to see if there are problems with these, that may be leading to your injury or causing you discomfort and give the appropriate corrective exercises.
In this way, I feel that we are treating the cause of the problem and not just the symptoms.
Also, I am passionate about hands on physiotherapy, working on stretching soft tissues, mobilising stiff joints and yes, massage, which I still believe has a place in modern manual therapy.
Indeed, some of my patients do not want to do home exercises or find that they want to do them, but just don’t get round to it, for one reason or another. If this is their experience and choice, I am happy to see them, when they need help.
Having said this, I do try to help people do their exercises, if they so wish, by providing video clips, which I send by e mail or by providing paper copies.
Covid and on-line
It is great to be back now, seeing patients in person, which we stopped doing in March 2020, for obvious reasons. I am so proud that we were able to offer Zoom appointments, during this time, which were good for diagnosing problems and giving exercises, but which have some limitations. We are still doing Zoom appointments, or telephone consultations and we will then decide, with you, if you need to come in to the practice in person.
I also used this time to start doing on-line exercise classes, which I am still doing, on Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 9.30am . I was also able to persuade my friend, James Myers, to run a ‘personal trainer’ based exercise class, which he runs on Thursdays at 6pm. You are very welcome to try any of these classes; just call Jeanette or Julie
We, as a clinic, can also recommend other Zoom based classes.
100 years and counting
The practice is 100 years old and has always offered exceptional musculo-skeletal physiotherapy. We have great relations with our localorthopaedic surgeons and neurosurgeons and we will always refer on, if we decide that you need their opinions, but we always try physiotherapy first, if we think that it can help.
I know that there are new physiotherapy centres opening near by and we welcome our new colleagues in the area. We look forward to working alongside them and perhaps doing some in service training with them, in the not too distant future.. There is always a shortage of good physiotherapy and our colleagues have had a tough start, with Covid ‘being there’ and I wish them well.
I am also very proud of our NHS colleagues who have offered an amazing service and still do so.
If you choose to come to our practice for assessment and treatment, I can assure you that you will be very welcome. You will also be in the hands of very caring individuals, who will go the extra mile to look after you and help you to understand your problem. They will aim either to resolve it or help you learn to manage it.
Nige