McKenzie Method & self treatment guides

January 14, 2021 by Sian Smale

A reflective piece on the self-treatment guides created by the late Robin McKenzie. A true pioneer and leader in our profession who was passionate about the treatment of musculoskeletal pain disorders. His work in renown world wide for ‘repeated movements’ and ‘directional preferences’ commonly known as the McKenzie Method of Mechanical Diagnosis and Therapy. His wisdom and pearls from years of patient management have been distilled into self-treatment guides. This blog reviews five of his books involving self-treatment of the neck, back, shoulder, hip and knee.

Patient rated outcome measures (PROM) in Chronic Pain

February 26, 2020 by Sian Smale

As our knowledge of chronic pain broadens, we are beginning to appreciate that there are modifiable risk factors that contribute to the development of long term pain and disability. Fear avoidance, negative beliefs, anxiety and depression are just a few. Several outcome measures are currently available to clinicians to help guide their clinical reasoning by identifying these risk factors. The purpose of this blog is to look specifically at outcome measures and explore how they guide our patient management.

Informed pain management for LBP

December 03, 2018 by Sian Smale

This week we are looking at an article review covering a brilliant paper that has recently been published out of Hong Kong. I have been waiting for a paper like this for some time now, that looks systematically at all the literature behind the current approach to pain management education we are encouraged to provide to our patients about lower back pain.

Graded Motor Imagery

February 16, 2017 by Sian Smale

Graded motor imagery is a key treatment approach for patient with chronic pain conditions. It is a biopsychosocial approach that address all aspects of how a person lives with their pain. GMI uses motor imagery to retrain movement neurotags without activating pain neurotags and follows a suggest graded pathway from left/right discrimination through to mirror therapy.

Pain Education & Management Summarised!

February 02, 2017 by Sian Smale

Here is a list of all our blogs revolving around pain science, pain education and pain management.

Dry Needling and Acupuncture part 2

February 05, 2016 by Sian Smale

Last week Dr. Peter Selvaratnam shared his thoughts behind the origins and mechanisms of dry needling compared to acupuncture. Having an extensive amount of training and experience in both modalities allows Peter to present a great comparison between these techniques. This week Peter shares his thoughts about patient selection, contraindications & precautions, possible side effects and ways to reduce the risk of adverse effects with both treatments.