rebalance your body’s muscles, joints and connective tissues

As a long distance runner I developed an injury that saw me unable to even walk to the gate or carry, at the time, my young children. I say developed because there was no trauma, no accident, nothing to precipitate the pain I experienced constantly when I moved. After many visits to many professionals – doctors, physiotherapists, sports physiologists, chiropractors, osteopaths, podiatrists, acupuncturists, and musculoskeletal specialists, I had exhausted all avenues with no lasting relief.

I began to search for a way I could learn about anatomy and physiology to understand why my body wasn’t functioning and what could be causing the pain.

After fifteen years as a primary teacher I reduced hours to part-time teaching and spent two years studying Massage Therapy in Christchurch at the Canterbury College of Natural Medicine to learn Anatomy and Physiology. On graduating with a Dip. Massage Therapy I undertook a post–graduate course attaining an International Certificate in Advanced Neuromuscular Therapy. I left teaching altogether to focus on Neuromuscular and Massage Therapy completing many post-grad courses and workshops over the next few years in various manual therapies. I began my business under the name of Timaru Massage Therapy and worked in this vein for several years.

While these techniques gave relief to my clients, it frustrated me immensely that many would return with the same injury or pain. Something was missing. I was constantly reading, researching, looking for the missing link to get people out of pain – myself included. Getting myself moving pain-free was also a work in progress.

In 2002 I came across two men in the United States who worked with top-level athletes and questioned why they were getting injured despite their high skill and performance levels. These were people at the top of their games, still getting injured. What they discovered was that these athletes had dysfunctional basic movement patterns. These are the patterns we develop naturally as children into adulthood. However they can become disrupted through injury, pain etc. as we compensate to get around these. By restoring the natural movement patterns, the injury rate in the athletes they worked with reduced dramatically. I had the link!

I travelled to Sydney in the following two years – the first time the courses had been taught outside the U.S. – to learn these methods from these men, both high performance coaches, physical therapists, and university lecturers. The Functional Movement Screen (FMS) and Selected Functional Movement Assessment (SFMA) provide the link between functional movement and pain. How we move can create pain and dysfunction. Conversely, restoring correct natural movement patterns can make us functional and pain-free. Functional movement is movement that lets us function in life.

What do you do after you’ve had treatment – with any treatment provider? You move. What if we change how you move? What if we restore your natural movement patterns and therefore reduce your risk of injury or pain? We can change how you move.

Changing movement needs to be changed in the brain too. We call this motor control. Even when pain is no longer present, movement patterns have been altered and this has become your “normal”, your default pattern. Your brain recognises this as normal as it’s what has allowed you to keep functioning. This though is not “normal” – it’s your default pattern. Let’s change it.

I believe everyone at every age has the capacity, and should have the opportunity, to move well. I’m passionate about my vision. I want you able to move well and enjoy life whatever your age and activity level.

If you’re experiencing pain consider this – changing the way you move could change your life.