The BACK at EASE Clinic, Back Pain and injury care, Towcester

28/11/2025

Have you ever had an MRI report and been told that surgery isn't indicated, or it's "age related changes" you cant change, but been given NO personalised practical steps or strategies for you to work with, to improve your symptoms, build capacity and work with ALL the things you CAN do... 🤦‍♀️I've probably seen a few thousand MRI reports in 15 years as an Osteo. Some show what we expected, 🫡some show nerve impingement on the other side🤔, some show explanations for what the symptoms are✅️, BUT some don't give us any clear reason for your pain 😵‍💫(but they have ruled out serious pathology).. BUT NONE of them tell me how it's affecting your life and how we help you get out of your current pain levels. Honestly, that's the most important bit and the real skill in healthcare... bringing together the scientific facts with every individual's real life circumstances, understanding of their pain, their fears, how its impacting them and helping them make an informed picture of whats likely to make things better or worse, and most importantly, our job is to provide hope, strategies and space for you to be heard and work through how moving through this might best look. There are SOOO many factors that influence pain. Which is GREAT because each one provides an opportunity to influence it. I call it in clinic working with all the low hanging fruit you can. On their own,each intervention may have a small effect... empowering patients with the knowledge and skills to apply a 360 degree self management plan to build any capacity they can... that's where life changing things can happen. So if youve had a scan and in pain and youve NOT tried to understand everything you can about pain science, nerve dynamics, the effect of different positions or movements on your symptoms and how to modulate that and looked at how the evidence shows us very real improvements can be make with some relatively simple things..
It takes time to get your head around and time is something which, in private practice I think makes a lot of different. (And huge respect btw to our NHS colleagues working in 20min appointments) . Give us a follow and we're explain more🤓.

28/11/2025

1000% this. IT. IS. NOT. ABOUT. WHAT. YOU. LOOK . LIKE - it's about how you feel. Thriving not just existing for others, having confidence in your body and capacity to live the life you want! We've a short series about this coming up with a fabulous testimonial from a patient who came to us now able to walk more than 800 yards without pain... did a 9km march on Saturday for cause she was passionate about! How... she moved, she learned, she adapted, she stayed optimistic with science based strategies to help build A way... it wasn't the hand out sheet or prognosis she was given by someone "reading!" her MRI... she said nope there must be a way and it was a joy to walk with her on this process and see her beaming rightly with pride to how far she's come.

23/11/2025

Tues am rare new patient slot due to illness (lots of bugs around atm!🤧) 9.30am and a 12.30pm last free slots! Grab 1 quick.

21/11/2025

4 day series. What would I do if I had sciatica as an Osteopath with 15 years experience? Tip 4. Choose your exercises wisely. There's no such thing as a bad exercise, but in our experience, timing is everything ⏲️. If you've got nerve pain, your whole being is on high alert and you want to work with this, not through it. The goal we coach patients through in our Towcester Osteo clinic is to move regularly and have simple exercises and offloading positions and self care techniques and gradually build these up working with their symptoms. Have you ever been handed a well meaning exercise sheet, but its made things worse? They hopefully will have been evidence based exercises and techniques, but in our experience the right exercise at the wrong time can irritate things more so- we focus heavily on patient led care and when you do what and which ones first- is the super power in nerve pain care. 💪 If your partner is tired and irritable... you dont give them your tax return to review right?!! Simple, regular movement for 10-14 days can in our experience really make a big difference in nerve irritation and understanding your pain and its mechanisms of aggravation or easing is 🔑 KEY! Want to know the other tips, hit like and have a look at our page highlights. And AGAIN... if youre in pain ALWAYS seek assessment and help from a regulated healthcare professional. Like an Osteo, physio or GP. We're here to help and are trained to check for other potential nasties going on so dont ignore it. Hope this has been helpful and if you cant get to Towcester but need some advice, we're happy to do zoom consultations so give us a shout.

20/11/2025

4 DAY SERIES- What would we do if we had sciatica? Tip 3- Minimise excess muscle spasm/tone/guarding on the back, bottom and affected leg area. Things like heat, manual therapy and topical creams all alter the painful messages from the affected areas (afferent signals for the geeks at the back) and can both pain modulate AND change local muscle compression to the area. Do this regulalry and you can shift out of the negative feedback loop of pain=muscle guarding=local compression and more irritation to nerve root and causes very real muscle ache from them working harder than usual. Frequency is key here as they are small individual effects but super simple to "dose" up and something proactive you can do to get some relief. Try that and give us a follow if you want more tips like this and OF COURSE... if you are in pain, get it checked out by a healthcare professional who can give go through your case and give you specific advice. We're in Towcester at Brook Health centre or you can have a zoom appointment if youd like one to help steer you in the right direction. Good luck with it. Youve got this.

20/11/2025

Just gone through this with a patient. Details can make all the difference when you're in pain. Saw them on Tuesday, already much better from stopping doing certain things, and doing lots of other things... you got this. Get geeky with it.

Got sciatica and not sure how to sleep at night with your leg pain😣? Try keeping your knees bent and have a pillow between your knees to avoid twisting at the pelvic and lower back (which both makes the holes the nerve come through slightly compressed and could sometimes irritate it). Also, see if it helps to keep your head looking straight ahead not downwards ( our spinal cord attaches to base of the skull , so tensions things if we look down) and you can play with either feet in line with your bottom or slightly behind you This study looked at the positions of head, knee ankle and their effects on nerve tensioning movement ("nerve excursion"- but not the fun holiday type! top row had more tension as knee position seemed key to tensioning, ankle and head position after this). You could also try lying on your front with pillows under your tummy to see if this helps. It depends what's causing the sciatica of course, (and indeed if it is sciatica for that pain in the glute, leg or calf) but understanding nerve dynamics may just give you a better night if you're struggling with it. If you're sore and want to go through things properly and get some gentle treatment and specific advice for your case, we've added a few more half days into our diary before xmas as it's so busy so there are slots available atm online. Or drop me an email and happy to send you our acute back and sciatic pain and tips sheet.

19/11/2025

Day 2. Tip 2 What would I do if I had sciatica? Take shorter strides and shorter frequent walks. Why? Nerves glide through the bottom, back of thigh, shin and foot muscles when we move ( nerve excursion or glide for geeks at the back) and a sensitised nerve can fire off more with this action. One of our tests is a straight leg raise to check how irritable your nerve is to movement. Shorter strides=less tug on nerve. And less impact per heel strike to the nerve root. But we want you to keep as active as you can and movement promotes so many benefits physiologically and psychologically, including creating endorphins and your bodies natural antinflammatory proteins... so we want to do it gently but regularly. 5-7 mins at a time, to the next lamppost on your street or up your hall way.. depends how youre feeling and you can balance this with the offloading principle in the previous video, but "active rest" is usually best. And again.... if youre in pain, you absolutely need to get a clinical assessment and not assume its sciatica so youre approaching things correctly. We're in Towcester Brook Health centre or can do online appointments if you need a hand where to start. Good luck with it. 👊

18/11/2025

DAY 1 OF 4- What would I do if I had sciatia? Offload the duration of time in compression regularly. Either by lying down or tractioning my back. Minimise prolonged compression. This might include taking shorter walks, regular desk breaks and lying down if wfh regularly
It doesnt need to be for long but offloading with change the pressure on the disc tissue and joints which can be helpful both for desensitising the nerve if you can find a comfortable position and to improve blood supply and therefore nutrients to the disc which aid healing. (Imbibtion for the geeks out there). Of COURSE... if you are in pain it needs to be checked out and these are general tips only, and theres a time and a place for exercises which needs careful consideration so dont rely on these tips alone (we're in Brook Health centre in Towcester if you can get to us) but if youre struggling try offloading more frequently and see if it gets your nerve less zingy.

17/11/2025

New cancellation for tomorrow at 10am in our Towcester Osteo clinic and have 2 left Thursday this week. Xmas is 7 weeks away guys - I know you want to get rid of that ni**le before then! 💪🙌🛠 Jump on online diary quick and grab one. See you in clinic soon and look forward to helping you.

16/11/2025

Wow. The past 5 days gaining our NLP certification have been game changing! Can't wait to share these new skills we've learned with our Towcester Osteo patients and BACK at EASE Pilates participants and beyond... your internal voice/beliefs inform your physiology... and therefore you're behavior (which we can help you identify if they're helpful or not and build better strategies with) ... there are new doors you can open and skills we can teach you to make sure these are positive, helpful states to shift you from where you are to where you want to be! Mind blown and so excited to bring this to you. Especially those of you who feel stuck right now and worried what to do for the best... BACK at EASE just had an upgrade installed and we've got you! Now I need a cuppa and an early night! See you in clinic and classes next week. And if youd like to know more about NLP drop me a message please below and we'll make sure youre tagged in future messages and exciting new projects we'll be launching soon...

15/11/2025

I know most of us want to look after ourselves as we get older... but there's A LOT of INFORMATION out there- it's overwhelming right? You're busy and maybe don't want to make existing issues grumpy... what should you prioritise? 💡Imagine coming along to an afternoon with likeminded people, going through some practical tools🛠️ in a helpful workshop with an Osteopath, personal trainer and Clinical Pilates instructor who can give you handouts to take home and practical personalised tips and time to ask questions to help you feel empowered how you can be the most strong, mobile and empowered to keep your freedom of movement for as long as you possibly can... oh and there will be yummy cake and cuppas and time to talk and some YOU TIME! Sounds good right? By 5pm you'll leave knowing what it looks, feel and sounds like to have a deeper understanding of how to make the most of your muscle mass, mobility and crucial movement patterns as well as maintaining bone density and mitigating falls.... Sounds good right? We've one more day of our NLP coach training course tomorrow, then we're back in clinic and classes from Monday and THEN this coming SATURDAY 22ND November 1-5pm we're doing a fabulous Longevity workshop in Hardingstone. We've a few spots left so pop a "me please" in the chat below and we'd love to share the info and you can join us and we can't wait to show you how easy it can be to integrate longevity practices into your daily life. p.s thanks for the inspo on this.

14/11/2025

NLP day 3 morning nugget to share...perception creates projection... we can't wait to get back into clinic next week with some new, evidence based tools to help you help yourself even more.. right back to it we go... . we're coming and hopefully camera not upside down now!!