Pain Location

Pain exists where a patient says it does and as intense as they say it is. (That is why we use a pain scale (Visual analogue scale VAS) from 1-10 as it is based on your personal experience of pain.

It is important to distinguish from acute pain of a recent injury, a pain that may change after a treatment that is usually from an old injury that resurfaces to be released, or a pain that requires referral for further investigation (eg. a persistent shoulder pain that may end up being an infected gall bladder).

It is important to work with a skilled allied health practitioner who is trained to know when to refer a patient for further tests.

Pain is not “imaginary”; although chronic pain can centralise and be triggered by a hyperreactive central nervous system (put the link to the pain video here please at the bottom of “chronic pain” page).

It takes an experienced Health Practitioner such as an Osteopath to work out how to deal with this pain. It is a collaborative, co-operative approach that needs to be shared with the patient by encouraging them to challenge their ideas about their pain when necessary and empower them towards a brighter future.

The following subheadings are by no means exhaustive and they are meant to give you a basic idea of the some of the areas that are examined by an Osteopath. Please call me to discuss your individual case if you have any enquiries. There is, however, no diagnosis made without a thorough hands on examination.