Physiotherapy, Pilates and SCAR therapy

Physiotherapy helps to restore movement and function when someone is affected by injury, illness or disability and reduce injury risk in the future.

What conditions might benefit from physiotherapy?

  • Upper and lower limb pain

  • Back and neck pain

  • Nerve pain

  • Ligament sprains and muscle strains

  • Joint pain

  • Balance and flexibility problems

  • Osteoporosis

  • Arthritis

  • Neurological disorders

  • BPPV (benign paroxysmal positional vertigo)

  • Temporomandibular joint (TMJ) pain

  • Hypermobility

  • Preparation for and rehabilitation after surgery

  • Antenatal and postnatal support, including pelvic girdle pain and diastasis recti

  • Women’s health physiotherapy, including prolapse and incontinence

  • Scars - utilising ScarWork

Our physiotherapy fees

  • 60 min physiotherapy session - £85

    • Our physiotherapy offering incorporates Octavia’s extensive expertise beyond physiotherapy in rehabilitation, soft tissue work and medical acupuncture

  • 60 min 1:1 Pilates session - £80

  • Postnatal assessment - £110

  • Scar therapy package incorporating 60 min physiotherapy assessment and 45 min Scar therapy session - £150

    • Individual Scar therapy sessions after the package are priced at £55 for 30 min and £65 for 45 min

Physiotherapy insurance coverage

Physiotherapy with Octavia Hamilton is covered by WPA insurance. Please check your policy for coverage details and speak to reception to confirm the process.

What to expect from your physiotherapy session

Your physiotherapy session we will start with an in-depth discussion where we will go over the history of your presenting condition, nature of your symptoms and gain an understanding of your past medical history. I will also assess how your condition is impacting your everyday life and what it’s preventing you from doing. This will help us make a plan together that is relevant to you and your life.

Next, we conduct a postural and functional assessment followed by some specific tests to help formulate a diagnosis and guide treatment. You may be asked to remove some clothing to get a good look at what is happening with your body so please bring appropriate comfortable clothing, such as shorts and a strappy top. If appropriate, some hands-on treatment may carried out in the sessions, such as soft tissue release, mobilisations, facilitation, correction of form and encouraging good motor control.

As a physiotherapist, I strongly believe in movement as a form of rehabilitation, and this is where I hand over to you the client to take control of your rehabilitation. Often aches and pains come with muscle imbalances, e.g. tightness or weakness and therefore this is something only you can do for yourself. Following an explanation of my findings and a discussion to help you understand your condition, we will plan the best course of action, and you will be given a home exercise program to complete.

I am focused on treating the root cause of the problem, not just the symptoms. This can take time and effort but you will reap long term benefits. If you feel you need more hands on 1:1 guidance in the early stages, it is possible to do 1:1 Pilates sessions with me to help you gain body awareness, strength, mobility and confidence moving. I also use manual therapy, taping, acupuncture, ScarWork and soft tissue release where appropriate to support rehabilitation.  

Since lockdown I have been treating many clients online and having excellent results, and it shows that most of the time you don’t always need a hands-on approach to get better. You do need targeted exercises and time to build strength and mobility.

Exercise-Based Rehabilitation

The key to a successful recovery is not only reducing pain, improving movement or accelerating healing, but it is also important to regain muscle strength, joint awareness and balance skills. All these features of the human body that we take for granted are often affected by injury or pain.

When our body is in pain, be it through injury or illness, it can change the way that our muscles behave. It often makes them weaker, tighter or deconditioned.

Physiotherapists are trained to identify which muscles have been affected by your condition. As part of your treatment plan, I may include specific exercises for you to undertake to help regain strength, flexibility and condition to the muscle and the joints it supports. As part of this, it is usual for me to ask you to continue these exercises in your daily life. We all know that practice makes perfect, and this also applies to the recovery of muscles and joints. 

Mobilisation and manipulation

Hands-on therapy is something we endeavour to provide at Synthesis Clinic. I may use mobilisations of a joint, a slow controlled movement aimed at stretching and mobilising the articular and soft tissue around a joint, with the intent to reduce pain, improve circulation and increase movement within the joint. A manipulation may also be performed to provide instantaneous relief around the joint. Manipulation is often associated with an audible popping sound caused by the instantaneous breakdown of gas bubbles that form within joints. These techniques are always combined with a stretching and strengthening programme to ensure the benefits gained within the treatment session are maintained.

Acupuncture

Acupuncture has been around for over 3,000 years. Evidence shows it can help manage a variety of conditions ranging from headaches and back pain to more systemic problems. Typically physiotherapists use acupuncture to help with pain relief, to encourage tissue repair or for trigger point release. It is used to treat a variety of different conditions, often in conjunction with other techniques.

The treatment involves using small sterile needles placed just under the skin into the muscle. This can often not only be around the painful or injured area but also at points further away, which have specific properties, such as to relieve pain. Needles are usually positioned along ’meridians’ that relate to specific organs of the body and are recognised in Chinese medicine as having specific properties. By positioning needles in this way, your therapist will be able to increase or decrease the way hormones and pain-relieving chemicals behave in your body. This in turn helps to reduce pain, encourage healing and blood flow to tissue. Treatment is often only done for a short period of time, starting from 10-15 minutes, but can be increased for up to 30 minutes. Point selection and treatment duration in acupuncture varies depending on each individual, as our bodies all react differently, even though we may have the same problem.

ScarWork and scar therapy

Sharon Wheeler’s ScarWork(TM) is a light touch therapy, and you should be completely comfortable during treatment. It is a new treatment which has been taught in the US since 2012 and more recently adapted in the UK for scar therapy.  It aims to change the quality of a scar liberating it to reconnect with the 3D web of connective tissue (fascia) again. 

Though there is limited research in the area of scar therapy, studies have found that light stretch and compression stimulates the release of collagenase, reducing the potential for excess collagen formation or fibrosis. Drainage of excess fluid with pumping and sweeping actions trigger anti-inflammatory and hydrating actions, helping promote healthier less inflamed tissues.

Benefits of scar therapy:

  • Encourage healing

  • Improve scar appearance

  • Gain mobility

  • Reduce adhesions

  • Support rehabilitation

  • Regain sensation

  • Support acceptance of your new body image

Pilates

Having trained with the APPI, there is focus on rehabilitation in my Pilates sessions. Each move is broken down into five or six levels, enabling us to work through movements and build up difficulty safely and in a progressive manner. It is therefore used to help support return to exercise following surgery, illness or if you are very deconditioned.

Breath is a huge part of the technique to and becomes especially important as you move up into the higher levels. 80% of us don’t breathe properly and during our sessions there will be a strong focus on correcting breathing patterns, working the diaphragm through range and connecting the breath to the movement to support you. This in turn helps us calm and connect with our bodies and therefore can help with relaxation too.

What to expect

Pilates sessions have elements of mobility, flexibility and strengthening. The aim is to work towards always coming back to the perfect postural stance, thus retraining our bodies awareness of where it is (proprioception) and helping encourage this to feed into our daily lives. It is a gentle but powerful way to build strength.

Antenatal Physiotherapy

Pregnancy is an exciting but emotional time - so many changes and unknowns! Adding pain into the mix of that is worrying and can be very limiting. Your body is undergoing huge hormonal and musculoskeletal changes, and it is important to maintain good strengthen and posture throughout.

What to expect from antenatal physiotherapy:

Physiotherapy can help by assessing you posture and strength and giving you some gentle exercises to fire up the correct muscles to support your ever-changing body. Hands-on mobilisations and massage can also help ease pain where necessary.

Having worked with Tinto app and started the TintoTalks podcast, I have gained a wealth of knowledge surrounding the topic of birth. I can help signpost you towards research, guidelines and help you navigate the rather unknown territory of planning and preparing for one’s birth. We are also very fortunate to have an incredible women’s health team at Synthesis Clinic with medical, nutrition and emotional wellbeing experts available to support you.

Postnatal Physiotherapy

Following the birth of your baby the support and advice seems to drop away. Coming to terms with the changes that have occurred to your body postnatally can be difficult.

You may find you still have pelvic girdle pain or are worried about having a diastasis recti. Alternatively, you might just want some guidance about how to return to sport safely.

What to expect from postnatal physiotherapy: 

Understanding regarding recovery times and changes that have occurred is key to avoiding overloading the body too soon. Following a full postural review and a thorough assessment for diastasis recti, prolapse and incontinence, I can then help you rebuild strength from the foundations up.  We can also work towards safely returning to running or other physical activity.

Prehabilitation and rehabilitation around surgery

Having worked as a trauma orthopaedic and musculoskeletal physiotherapist at St Thomas’ and University Hospital Southampton for years, I am well placed to support you through preparation for surgery and recovery afterwards.

Prehabilitation (prehab)

 The best thing you can do for your body before surgery is prepare it properly. You need to be sure you have good range, strengthen and balance to help put you in good stead for a successful recovery post-operatively.  

Understanding what to expect from surgery is also key to helping manage expectations and ensuring good recovery. We will work on building strength, range and balance and ensure all joints are in good shape. We can also practice techniques to mobilise safely and ensure you have prepared your home and support systems ready to receive you in the early post-operative period. You might want to consider supporting your surgery preparation and rehabilitation with nutrition advice to help nourish your body well before and after surgery.

Rehabilitation (rehab)

Following surgery, it often helps to be guided through the early days of rehab and ensure you optimise your recovery.

Helping explain pain management, soft tissue work to help with effleurage and working on other areas of the body can help ensure you don’t decondition in the post-operative period. Working within your surgical guidelines, we can then start to get you moving again safely and rebuild strength and range of movement as appropriate.