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STORTFORD GRANGE
Physiotherapy Centre
Jenkins Lane Hallingbury Road
Bishops Stortford Herts CM22 7QL
01279 654020
MANIPULATIONS
Manipulation is technically a “high velocity thrust technique”. It involves taking a joint to the end of its range of movement and then a little bit further. It comes under the broad term of manual therapy and does not mean massage.
The reasoning for using manipulation is to quickly increase the range of movement
in a joint that may have become limited from a variety of reasons. The most obvious
is manipulation for “slipped discs”, but we also use it for sacro-
Headaches/migraines also respond well when the facet joints are involved.
It is an important consideration to remember that the “quick fix” of manipulation must form part of a comprehensive treatment regime. It is not enough just to provide the joint correction. The soft tissue problems, inflammation, muscle imbalance, muscle weakness and over or under activity of the joint stabilising systems have to be addressed as well, as part of the rehabilitation programme.
It is also essential to include education about the condition and how to avoid problems in the future.
MOBILISATIONS
Where it is not possible to manipulate joints either because the patient is unhappy
with the procedure or because there is known evidence of osteoporosis, then we can
use mobilisations instead. These are known as Maitland Mobilisations. This is a far
more gentle procedure where the joint range is increased by moving the joints individually
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INTERFERENTIAL THERAPY
Interferential Therapy (IFT) has been a particular specialist area of work for Wendy Emberson for the last 30 years. She has taught all staff who have worked at Stortford Grange over the years as well as many physiotherapists who have attended her courses over these years.
For more information click here
ACUPUNCTURE
The physiotherapy profession is the largest healthcare group providing acupuncture in the UK today.
Nearly 5,000 Physiotherapists use acupuncture either in the private sector or within the NHS. Acupuncture is one of the many skills used within physiotherapy as an integrated approach to the management of pain, inflammation and as a means of enhancing the body's own healing chemicals in order to aid recovery and enhance rehabilitation. Acupuncture within physiotherapy is used within the background of clinical and research evidence.
How does acupuncture work?
In traditional Chinese medicine, pain and disease are thought to be caused by a blockage in the flow of energy or “Chi”. Inserting needles into certain points is thought to release this energy and restore the overall energy balance.
Much research has now been carried out in western science to investigate the effects of acupuncture. We now know that it provides pain relief by the stimulation of the brain and spinal cord to produce natural pain relieving chemicals, called endorphins. Inserting a needle into a painful area also causes a small inflammatory reaction which helps to stimulate the healing process. This effect can then be enhanced with other physiotherapy treatment techniques.
There is new evidence that suggests that the improvements patients feel from corticosteroid injections into painful joints is not from the steroid, but from the needle itself. The same technique can be provided using an acupuncture needle alone.
Conditions that can be treated with acupuncture.
At Stortford Grange we rarely use acupuncture in isolation.
It is usually used in conjunction with other treatment techniques and as part of a rehabilitation programme.
Some of the conditions it may be useful for include:
Back & Neck Pain
“Sciatica”
Headaches
Osteoarthritis
Rheumatoid Arthritis
Shoulder Pain
Lower Limb Pain
Repetitive Strain Injuries
“Tennis” or “Golfer’s” Elbow
Carpal Tunnel
This is just a selection of common conditions that may be treated with acupuncture. Please ask your physiotherapist if you have a different condition and are interested in trying acupuncture as part of your treatment.
HEADACHES & MIGRAINES
This is a relatively new area of specialist work. Wendy Emberson and Diana Brace
completed the Prof Dean Watson Headache Education Programme in 2008. We are listed
on the International Register of practitioners qualified to treat cervico-
SACRO-
Wendy Emberson has completed numerous courses on sacro-
Pete has more than 20 years of experience in spinal rehabilitation. He is a certified manipulative therapist and has trained with the top practitioners in the field of physical therapy and spinal rehabilitation. He is the owner of Back & Sports Injury Physical Therapy in Denver and owns Manual therapy seminars of Colorado and the UK. He is an internationally known instructor and teaches in the UK, Switzerland, and South Korea.
SPINAL STABILISATION AND CORE STABILITY
What is not generally understood is that the concept of core stability has resulted from years of research by the Australian physiotherapists lead by:
Prof Paul Hodges
Prof Gwen Jull
uq.edu.au/ccre-
Prof Caroline Richardson
Prof Mark Comerford
It is the work of these eminent physiotherapists that has provided most of the evidence of efficacy of Pilates, and without it then Pilates would not have found such popularity. To give you some idea of the work that is being done, I have reproduced the current areas of work by Prof Hodges:
An accurate diagnosis is the key to all successful treatments.
At Stortford Grange, we use the Orthopaedic Medicine system as devised by Dr James Cyriax and which has continued to develop through the Society of Orthopaedic Medicine.
Prof Paul Hodges university of Queensland, Australia
NHMRC Principal Research Fellow/Professorial Research Fellow
Neuromotor control of movement and stability, and changes in this system with pain
Current studies include:
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The reason for including such detail is to demonstrate the extremely high level of knowledge and research now being carried out by the physiotherapy profession.
This is not limited to Australia! Right across the world, physiotherapists are looking into precisely how the joints, muscles and all the other soft tissue parts of the human skeleton interact to allow us to do something as simple as sitting at a computer, right the way through to the complex movement patterns of elite athletes, dancers and musicians for example.
The research is there concerning exactly what happens during injuries such as whiplash and work related upper limb disorders
SPECIALIST AREAS
Wendy Emberson MCSP
is also registered with the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy as an Expert Witness for cases of Professional Negligence and Personal Injuries
