Chronic Pain Management
Dealing with Persistent Pain
Here at Southampton Physio, we have extensive personal and professional experience in managing persistent pain.
We specialise in helping people who have multiple different diagnoses and have been through a range of healthcare services before finding us.
If you think you’ve tried everything already then we’re here to help you.
What Makes Us Different?
This clinic was set up as a result of the founder’s own experience with persistent pain, and frustration with the lack of effective treatment options out there. You can read more about his experience here.
We understand how pain can come to dominate someone’s life, and we also understand what it takes to get it under control.
Why Management And Not Resolution?
The fact is for most people who have been in pain for a long time there is no “cure”. There are no quick fixes and no magic bullets.
But that doesn’t mean there isn’t light at the end of the tunnel. There are tried and tested methods to get your pain under control.
You can decrease the frequency and intensity of the pain you experience.
You can improve your ability to get on with life despite lingering pain.
You can get to the stage where your pain is an occasional minor nuisance, rather than an all-encompassing, life-ruining experience.
Why Does Management Involve?
Our treatments are highly individual, as what works for one person may not work for the next. Where your pain comes from is specific to you and therefore what will help you is also.
Some of the strategies we employ are:
Education about the nature of pain to help you understand why there may be nothing “wrong” with you, and yet you experience excruciating pain.
Tailored movement interventions to give you more freedom, strength, and resilience to move without pain. This may include strengthening exercises, stretches, mobility drills among others.
Manual therapy interventions including massage and joint mobilisations to help reduce the pain-producing signals coming from them.
Cognitive-behavioral and other coaching strategies to help you manage the inevitable fear and worry that are part of the experience of pain.
Mindfulness exercises, including movement, breathwork, and meditation to help calm the systems of your body in overdrive and improve your overall body awareness.
Your first session will involve getting to know your therapist and a detailed discussion of your situation.
There will also be a physical assessment to rule out any unlikely sinister causes of pain and get a sense of your body’s functioning.
Based on this initial consultation we will decide on the best way to work together - our goals, frequency and focus of sessions, and the best strategies to work with.
Most clients who begin this process work with us for three to six months.