After your initial consultation and examination your treatment plan is geared to you as an individual. Your practitioner should be able to give you an indication at the end of your first visit, having considered factors that may affect your response to treatment including; your age, level of fitness, occupation and how long you have had the condition. For some, with acute pain, one or two treatments may be all that is necessary. Chronic conditions may need ongoing maintenance. An average is 4 -5 sessions

Understandably, patients maybe a little apprehensive when attending their first appointment as they may well have heard about experiences from their friends and colleagues. To help reassure you we have provided an insight of what to expect which you can read here...

Whilst we will always aim to see new patients as soon as possible, there can never-te-less be some delay. Acute pain can be debilitating and so we have provided some useful tips about how you can help yourself to manage the pain.

Try both. Ice is advised for acute symptoms and to help settle any symptom flare up, it can be useful post treatment if you feel a little unsettled. Apply your ice source by first wrapping it in a tea towel then placing it over the area of pain. As a general rule don’t leave ice on an area for longer than 15 minutes - if the area is quite exposed e.g. the shoulder or wrist, you may only manage a couple of minutes before you need to take it away, this is fine, repeat as required.

Heat is useful for chronic conditions with muscle tension. It can also be particularly useful when you have a headache that has been caused by neck tension. In acute symptoms heat can make things worse. Never apply heat for longer than 30minutes at a time.

Contrast bathing is where you apply one then the other and is often useful a few days after an acute injury. Always start and finish with ice e.g 5 min ice, 5 min heat, 5 min ice.

Generally, the thought of using heat is that it is a lot more relaxing that ice,however don’t be afraid of using an ice-pack - it can be a very useful tool when you are in pain.