BlueWater Physiotherapy Services
Physiotherapy
We’ve had tremendous success resolving all kinds of movement, posture, and pain problems. We are comfortable and experienced working with complex traumas such as motor vehicle accidents and auto immune issues. The approach and techniques work equally well with sports injuries as they do with decades old chronic issues. If you are preparing for surgery or for walking the Camino trail there are essential self-care skills to learn to give you the best experience possible.
Other issues that respond well to this work are:
- Hiatus hernias
- TMJ issues
- Tinnitus
- Breathing conditions (asthma responds especially well)
- Core - related issues such as incontinence, prolapses, constipation, stability and balance
- Issues with reproductive organs
- Foot and ankle issues
- Restoring shock-absorbing abilities
- Odd and unusual pain issues
Visceral Manipulation
- Identifies and gently releases restrictions in organs and other tissues
Visceral manipulation has been a game-changer in hands on treatments of the human body. Despite its name, it actually works gently with all of the body’s tissues. It identifies and gently releases tissue and organ restrictions to restore their proper function and movement.
Visceral manipulation has been one of the major missing pieces in Western medicine’s approach to healing the body. It is very effective in treating chronic movement and pain issues, and for problems that have old injury or surgery components to them. It is also effective in identifying and treating problems before they become painful and before irreparable tissue damage has occurred. The source of movement problems are frequently found to lie in restricted motions of our internal tissues. This can be considered an essential skill set for practitioners diagnosing and treating human movement and pain problems.
Visceral manipulation emerged from the field of Osteopathy and aims to work with the body to achieve healing rather than simply imposing changes upon it. It requires a very deep knowledge of anatomy and an ability to listen to the body and its subtle motions and rhythms.
The practitioner is able to assess where, how, and in what order to treat a body’s restrictions. Working on the body’s highest priorities can produce dramatic changes in posture, movement and function, and is efficient for improving or resolving problems in fewer visits.
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Cranial Sacral Therapy
What is Cranial Sacral Therapy?
Cranial Sacral Therapy (CST) is a beautiful way to be introduced to the potent effects of gentle, intelligent work on your body. It gets its name from the direct connection between your head and your sacral bone at your pelvis through the central nervous system and its membranes. One of the aims is to identify and remove barriers to the optimal functioning of your central nervous system. This is worthwhile all by itself. But it also provides a means for working with tissues that we aren’t able to directly access with our hands, like the membrane sleeve that surrounds the spinal cord.
Cranial Sacral Therapy’s effects come from the intelligent use of gentle physical and energetic forces. Sometimes it is the only way a hyperactive and irritable nervous system can be approached.
It is safe and effective for chronic pains as well as neurological and traumatic injuries – including injuries to bones. It is highly effective at calming the trauma from dental work, as well as helping your body quickly clear anaesthetics from surgery or drugs from opiate painkillers or chemotherapy. It is recommended for all ages from newborns to the elderly.
We generally use some CST techniques in every session, even if it’s only to help your body integrate other work that has been done. But sometimes we do sessions entirely using cranial sacral techniques. Your body tells us when the use of CST is in your highest interest.
Cranial Sacral Therapy (CST) has been practiced in North America since the late 1800’s. It was developed by Osteopaths, and for a long time it was kept in their exclusive domain and practiced by only a few. But like other great ideas, CST was too good and effective to be kept a secret. The last 40 years has seen it grow exponentially worldwide.
Two main branches of practice have emerged. One is more technical and the other is more energetic. The two are not entirely separable.
The technical skills involve detailed knowledge of anatomy and the ability to assess normal tissue and bone movement (including the bones of the face and skull). Practitioners develop the ability to feel subtle body movements and rhythms. Some cranial bone movement is only 40 microns in amplitude– about half the thickness of a piece of paper. Restriction of this motion, however, can have tremendous consequences throughout the body due to the close relationship of the bones with the central nervous system and the major arteries and veins of the head.
The energetic aspects are difficult to describe but involve attending to what is happening in a person’s energetic field as well as the energetics of specific tissues. It generally takes years of experience to master these skills. The results can be astounding. It engages the body’s deepest abilities to heal.
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Movement Analysis
Movement analysis looks at how someone performs a movement or an activity to identify what their bodies are doing well, what can be improved, and where and how that improvement might be gained.
It looks at the relationships between body parts while they are in motion, and can identify problems that are not apparent with passive movement testing or medical imaging technology.
You might be familiar with having walking, running, or a golf swing analyzed, and it is certainly effective for these. But we are able to analyze almost any kind of movement, and work a lot with singers, musicians, paddlers, and even individual martial arts moves.
The goal is for movement to occur with ease and grace, and to not have symptoms after performing an activity.
Movement analysis is important for any movement someone wishes to perform better, from perfecting a tennis serve to playing the violin to getting up out of a chair. Movements that happen very quickly can be video taped and analyzed in slow motion.
Here is a small list of activities to give you the idea:
- Running
- Gardening
- Skiing
- Playing with grandchildren
- Walking
- Lifting
- Singing
- Dancing
- Martial Arts
- Repetitive work motions
Strength And Conditioning
We are excited about modern ideas in training and exercise physiology. When it’s time to get fit and strong, intelligent exercise coupled with knowledge of how to train can put you in an excellent position to look after your fitness throughout your life.
However, unlike most places, we are highly unlikely to start you on an exercise path with high forces and velocities until you are truly ready for it. You have to earn that. We’ve seen too many people adopt an exercise regime only to have their body break down somehow. Far too frequently the practitioners they are working with haven’t learned to recognize when the core isn’t working, a major artery is stuck to something, or your lung is stuck to the inside of your chest wall. All of these scenarios are common.
Manual Lymph Drainage
The lymph system is a major part of how we clear toxins from our body and clean the water our cells live in. It’s not possible to overstate its importance. Any meaningful discussion and action relating to well-being or prevention of illness must include the lymph system.
Having lymph work done can make an enormous difference in the speed of healing post surgery, trauma, illness (flu), radiation, and in clearing anaesthetics from the body. Air travel also frequently messes up lymph drainage for a while, and can play a role in headaches.
The Chikly Institute trains sensitive practitioners to feel lymph flow in the body. This means we can find where lymph flow is blocked, as well as use the flow as a sensitive diagnostic and feedback tool for finding and fixing restrictions in other tissues.
It is possible to learn to do lymph drainage on yourself and this should be considered an essential skill in learning to look after yourself. I happily teach people to do this.
