Stop persistent pain controlling your life and start finding ways to feel more yourself again.
I help people who are worn down by their nagging chronic pain, to increase their energy and mobility so they can feel more positive and at ease within themselves.
How is your pain holding you back?
You may notice that you’ve:-
- Changed how you move your body
- Adapted your posture to compensate for the pain
- Started bracing and tensing against the pain
- Stopped doing things you love, like gardening
- Started to avoid social gatherings
When the pain is so intense
and nagging in one area
our whole body can feel brokenBUT IT’S NOT
As a yoga therapist and pain management coach, my aim is to help people dial down their pain so they can break out of a persistent pain cycle.
When people first find me they are frustrated, despite their best efforts they haven’t been able to fix their pain.
At some point in the past, they may have believed that they’d found the magic solution. It might have felt like their body had been fixed, only to experience the devastating blow of another flare-up.
These false promises worn them down. Even if the pain felt the same as before it was harder to bear. Yet another set-back knocked their resilience even lower than it was before.
Is it time to try a different approach?
Rather than trying to conquer your pain, what would it be like to stop battling to overcome your pain?
When we learn how to break our resistance to pain we start to break down how it persists.
What we resist persists.
I’m not promising to cure you. But if you combine the four key elements outlined below, you will have a greater chance to dial down your pain so you can feel more in control and positive about life.
I’ve been there too…
After living with back pain for 20 years I know how exhausting it can be, never knowing when the pain will flare-up or how bad it’ll get.
Like lots of people, I spent many years searching for the magic solution to conquer the pain. I tried conventional medicine;- physiotherapy, osteopathy, and complementary medicine like acupuncture. They all helped in the short term, but I came to realise that I wasn’t any better off and that I was wasting my time, money, and energy.
It was only when I started to listen to and trust my body that my pain flare-ups became much less intense and less frequent. Instead of searching for someone else to fix me, I realised I held most of the answers myself. I started to find ways to change how I was relating to my pain and how I was unhelpfully feeding it’s control over me.
If you’d like to read my story in more depth visit the about me page.
How being trapped in a persistent
pain cycle felt to me:
I remember times when my pain was so bad that I’d struggle to bend forward. One time, I broke down, I ended up crying, not from the pain itself but the frustration that I couldn’t do something as simple as putting my socks.
I use to wake with stiffness and rigidity thought-out my whole body, I was so tense I felt like a tight coiled spring.
I was fearful of moving, not knowing what to do to make the pain go away or what might trigger a flare-up.
When I tired talking about what I was going through, people couldn’t understand or relate to what my life was like, I felt so alone. I was completely exhausted from silently enduring the pain. I felt trapped.
Learning to trust your body
If you’re anything like I was, at this point you’re probably asking
“But how can I trust my body, it’s always letting me down?!” …
You’ve tried everything, so you’re probably thinking how will this be different?
There’s more information below but you may feel a little overwhelmed by what you’ve read so far.
If you prefer to have a chat about your own circumstances please arrange a time to give me a ring.
What’s different about my approach?
In my approach, we work on four areas. If one of these key elements is missing we can stay stuck in a persistent pain cycle.
You may have:
- Discovered more about pain by watching videos and reading books.
- Investigated different types of movement-based therapy
- attended a pain management course to try to find ways accept your pain
- learnt tools to help you manage your stress levels
But have you ever tried to combine all four of these tools in a structured approach?
That’s what makes my approach different. I offer guidance and specific support that’s tailored to your circumstances in all four of these areas. By exploring them in depth you can find ways to change your thoughts, beliefs and actions, so you can take back control of your life.
When pain persists, we can feel drained and helpless.
But it doesn’t have to be that way…
When you break the persistent pain trap you can…
Move with ease:
- you can get out of bed effortlessly in the morning
- don’t need to think twice about doing your garden
- you can sit comfortably and enjoy a meal out at a restaurant
Feel more energised:
- enjoy an evening walk, instead of collapsing on the sofa
- feel more focused and tick off lots of your to-do list
- talk with friends without feeling distracted
Do what you love:
- plan a holiday without worrying about what you’ll be able to do
- dust down your dancing shoes for a great night out
- enjoy laughing and having fun with your grandchildren.
Types of Pain
Do the pain assessment quiz, to see how this approach can help you to dial down your pain.
Why pain persists
Gain an unbiased understanding of why your pain keeps coming back or never fully goes away.
Resources
If you like doing your own research, I’ve compiled a list of helpful videos, books and podcasts here.
With the right guidance
and advice you can:-
- gradually reintroduce normal movement.
- unravel areas of tension where your body is over-protecting.
- stop wasting energy by being in battle with your pain.
- change your beliefs about what your body can and can’t do.
- dial down your pain so that you’’re not all consumed by it and you start to feel in control of your life again.
