ConnectTherapy is an assessment and treatment approach that looks for the area of your body that is driving your pain, which may not be where you feel it. Your physiotherapist then uses hands-on releases and movement retraining to help your whole body move better.
Have you ever wondered why you suddenly started experiencing pain (for no apparent reason) in an area of your body? You may have sought treatment for that pain, but it didn’t go away, or relief was only temporary.
Why does this occur?
Injuries, operations, trauma, stress, occupations and hobbies can all change the way we move. The body is amazing at adapting to change. These adaptations are usually quite subtle; however they affect all other areas of the body. For example, you might sprain your ankle as a teenager. The body’s response in the early days is to tighten up your calf and foot muscles to protect the ligaments as they heal and stabilise the joint. This is a useful adaptation initially, however if you do not seek treatment and the foot remains tight, the rest of the body will have to adjust. You will put more load on the outside of your knee, your pelvis may twist slightly and your torso and neck might rotate and shift to the side. This all occurs for two reasons:
- So you don’t fall over
- So that you can still face forwards
If you stay like this for a long period of time you may be at higher risk of headaches, back pain, hip pain, knee pain and foot pain (to name a few). Massage and treatment to any area other than the foot may give short-term relief but may not address the cause.
So how would you treat the pain in this situation?
This is where ConnectTherapy comes in. The therapist assesses the patient’s movement, and takes into account their history, goals, outside stressors and current occupation and hobbies. In this case treatment would consist of releases to the affected foot. This can allow the rest of the body to stack more comfortably, which may help ease the back pain. Sometimes, releases will be needed in other areas of the body, however the foot must be released first in order to unwind the body.
The next step is the most important: retraining the brain.
Because the foot has been tight and you have been walking that way for a long time, the brain will want you to continue to stand, walk and move the same way. This is called a motor pattern. Our motor patterns become very ingrained like habits, so massage and releases on their own often give only temporary relief. Your therapist will need to retrain the way you move (in this example, how you stand on your foot) to help reduce your pain over time. Retraining involves simple exercises, however a lot of concentration in the early phases. It is also important to identify aggravating factors in this early assessment so the therapist can address these in the treatment plan.
Our patients are often surprised that there is no pain around the area at the root of their problem. When the root of the problem is treated with releasing and retraining, the area where they are feeling pain often improves too.
Do I have to do exercises?
Exercises are the cornerstone of retraining the brain. However, your therapist will limit your exercises to only a few per day, and many people find the exercises ease their symptoms. We also help you build them into your day-to-day life, so you will be doing some of your exercises as you go about your usual activities.
ConnectTherapy can be especially useful for people with long-standing pain. Read more about our physiotherapy for chronic pain.
How to find out more
Dr LJ Lee is the founder of ConnectTherapy and you can visit her website for further information and resources: https://ljlee.ca/teaching-models/connecttherapy/.
