What are the opening hours?

Monday 07:30 - 16:30 Tuesday 07:30 - 16:30 Wednesday 07:30 - 16:30 Thursday 07:30 - 16:30 Friday 07:30 - 16:30

Dr Neil Cuninghame

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Hillcrest
Dr Neil Cuninghame

Helping you break free from pain and live fully again. Empowering patients and practitioners with expert pain insights.

Chiropractor and pain management specialist | Speaker & educator | Husband, father, athlete. I am a Chiropractor with a special interest in pain, chronic pain specifically, and how the nervous system plays a role in our function and outcomes

28/12/2025

Pain is one of the most misunderstood experiences in healthcare, not because it’s mysterious, but because it’s often oversimplified.

I don’t see pain as a direct readout of tissue state.
I see it as a protective response, shaped by tissue input and by context, learning, and uncertainty.

Tissues matter. Injuries matter. Healing matters.
But tissues exist within a nervous system that is constantly deciding how much protection is required.

Clinically, this explains why pain can:
• persist after healing
• fluctuate without new injury
• change with stress, sleep, or expectations
• improve before strength or flexibility return

Understanding pain helps reduce fear.
But experience, carefully guided, graded experience, is what actually changes sensitivity.

I have found that this way of thinking doesn’t minimise pain, it makes it more navigable.

23/12/2025

🎄✨ Festive Season Opening Hours ✨🎄
The holidays are a time for family, food, travel… and sometimes a few extra aches and pains.

We’re open throughout the festive season to keep you moving and feeling your best, except for Christmas Day and New Year’s Day, when we’ll be taking a short break.

Whether it’s post-travel stiffness, end-of-year tension, or getting your body ready for a well deserved holiday, we’re here for you.

Wishing you a joyful, restful, and pain-free festive season! 🎅

22/12/2025

Movement is medicine and a powerful message to the brain. Every rep, every stretch, every step tells your nervous system what to believe about your body.

Safe, calm movement sends a powerful message:
 “We are okay.”

- Why gentle movement is so effective:
* reduces protective tension
* increases blood flow
* desensitises nerves
* improves mobility
* enhances confidence
* recalibrates predictions
* interrupts fear patterns
* supports emotional regulation

- What NOT to do:
* push through severe fear
* force a movement that feels threatening
* compare yourself to old versions of you
* expect instant pain changes

- The correct way:
1. Choose a movement
2. Slow it down
6. Pair it with breath work
7. Stop before fear spikes
8. Repeat often
10. Increase only when calm

Movement is medicine, but only when the dose is right.

17/12/2025

What a peach of a day 🙌🏻
Midlands meandering on our way to the drakensberg as we jumped in the car with and joined her on a road trip to her photo shoot at Monks Cowl. It was such a cool adventure ❤️

15/12/2025

Your nervous system thrives on predictability.
 When life feels chaotic emotionally, physically, or mentally, the system increases sensitivity to ensure protection.

- Chaos triggers:
* random movement patterns
* unpredictable stress
* inconsistent sleep
* sudden increases in activity
* tension and overthinking
* irregular routines

- Predictability soothes the alarm with these safety cues:
* regular sleep/wake cycles
* daily gentle movement
* consistent breathing practices
* structured pacing
* predictable exposure schedules
* stable emotional rhythms

- Here’s how to build a predictable healing plan:
Morning: 1–2 minutes slow breathing Afternoon: gentle movement / walk Evening: short stretch or mobility Daily: one small exposure practice

Predictability teaches your brain: “I know what’s coming. I can relax.”

11/12/2025

Perfectionism is one of the biggest barriers to recovery.

You don’t need perfect days to heal, just consistent ones.

- Why perfection doesn’t help

Perfection:
• spikes pressure
• increases fear
• leads to overwhelm
• increases avoidance
• triggers boom–bust patterns
• makes you feel like you’re “failing”

- What healing actually needs

Healing responds to:
• small efforts
• repeated gently
• throughout the week
• with kindness
• not intensity

A messy day with a few small exposures is far more therapeutic than a “perfect” day followed by a crash.

- You are doing enough

If today all you can manage is:
• 1 minute of slow breathing
• a gentle shoulder roll
• a short walk
• a small exposure
• keeping your fear lower
• speaking kindly to yourself

That counts.
It all counts.
And it accumulates.

You are doing enough, because you’re still showing up.

10/12/2025

Sometimes all you need is some fresh air, a good ride with your mates, coffee, and chocolate croissants 🙌🏻🤗 Thanks & 💪🏻

02/12/2025

Pain is your brain’s way of protecting you, but sometimes it becomes too protective. This is known as central sensitization, your nervous system gets “stuck” in high alert mode. Through education, reassurance, and movement, that sensitivity can settle.

27/11/2025

Pain lives in the body, but it’s influenced by the mind. When we’re anxious or uncertain, the brain turns up the volume on pain to keep us safe. Understanding what pain really means helps turn that volume back down.
Through pain neuroscience education we can decrease pain-related fear and improve function.

26/11/2025

Fear keeps pain alive. Here’s how it happens:
 1️⃣ Pain occurs → 2️⃣ You anticipate danger → 3️⃣ You avoid movement → 4️⃣ The nervous system sensitizes → 5️⃣ Pain feels worse.

This is called the fear-avoidance cycle. Over time, it can quietly limit your life, confidence, and ability to move freely.

The way out: evidence of safety. By moving safely in a controlled, progressive way, your nervous system learns that movement is safe. Small, repeated steps lead to measurable change.

Tip: Identify one movement you’ve been avoiding and safely attempt a tiny part of it today. Every small success is progress.

24/11/2025

Your brain’s main job is to protect you, and pain is one of its most powerful tools. When you “push through,” the brain often interprets that as more threat. But when you move safely and gradually, you give it evidence that you’re okay, and it can start to ease its protective response.
The goal isn’t to fight pain. It’s to retrain it.

19/11/2025

Pain is the brain’s way of saying, “I don’t feel safe.” Instead of fighting it, focus on calming the system, through understanding, reassurance, and gentle movement.
Safety teaches the brain it no longer needs to shout so loud.

Address

2 Meyrickton Place
Hillcrest
3650

Opening Hours

Monday	07:30 - 16:30
Tuesday	07:30 - 16:30
Wednesday	07:30 - 16:30
Thursday	07:30 - 16:30
Friday	07:30 - 16:30

Website

https://www.drneilcuninghame.com/chiropractic-online-booking/

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