Helping people with pain in a way that sees them regain confidence and trust in their body is a great privilege that comes with a heavy responsibility. This is because it's not just about changing pain; it's about removing the barriers that limit people from living their happiest lives.

My greatest achievements as a clinican have come from seeing people be able to engage more with their kids and partner, to return to old hobbies or to embark on new ones, to bring exercise, activity and exploration back into their lives without the burnden or fear of pain and injury.

If these changes just came from reducing or eliminating pain then all we would need is perhaps some panadol, ibuprofen, deep heat, some massage or hands on care and that would be all. But these tools only just scratch the surface of regaining what pain often takes away from us. When we have experienced pain and injury we start to create negative associations and fear responses with the things that we believe to have caused our pain. When I broke one of the bones in my lower back I was told by a chiropractor not bend forward or twist, my body was telling me not to bend backwards or sleep on my stomach, a physio told me my core was unstable, a gym instructor told me that I had an "exaggerated lordosis" and that I had bad posture and the list goes on. These all came as messages of movements or activities that I needed to avoid and, subconsciously, I learned to fear them. Over time this fear of moving incorrectly or doing something that would cause more harm meant that the muscles that allow me to do all of those movements would weaken, my joints would stiffen and I would gradually start to feel worse and worse. Furthermore, the fear and stress associated with constantly expecting pain makes us MORE LIKELY to feel pain. Avoiding moving and challenging my body due to fear ended up exaccerbating my pain and symptoms, increasing my frustration and impacting my happiness.

Lucklily I was young, naive and still hopeful of a positive outcome. So when I acknowleged that these approaches weren't helping me I decided to take measures into my own hands and learn how to get stronger and train correctly. That then lead me to want to understand pain more deeply and how I may be able to get even more progress. As I was able to do more and more and as my confidence and self esteem was rebuilding I was beginning to feel more and more like "myself"; the self that I wanted to be and who I still aimed to become. Eventually I developed the confience to throw the metaphorical middle finger up at all of the advice I had been given and I deliberately did the OPPOSITE of what I was told; I bent and twisted my spine, I trained outside of a 'neutral back' position, I lifted heavy weights, did "dangerous" exercises and tried lots of different things and it all helped me to get better.

If pain was my problem then avoiding the things that (might) hurt and doing basic pain management should have cured me. But the reality was that my pain was just a barrier that was temporarily stopping me from doing the things that brought me joy and allowed me to continue my happy life. By focusing solely on eliminating my pain rather than figuring out how to help me recover and MOVE PAST my pain, my health care providers inadvertantly made me worse. My 'treatments' only provided short term relief and the avoidance of physical activity and challenging myself made me weaker physically and mentally.

Now I regularly take time to reflect on what that time in my life was like so that I maintain gratitude for everything that I can do and that I experience now. Right now I am typing on my laptop in my van with what many would call 'bad posture' and I could not care less about that. I know that my muscles and joints can tolerate being in this position without getting damaged. I don't fear this posture because I know that the idea that "bad posture causes pain" is outdated and only serves to scare me into avoidance behaviours. I have pushed and challenged my body so far that even the thought that sitting like this could injure me seems ludicrous. I've done the work so that I have trust and confidence in my body which means that I don't have fear and hesitation about my body anymore. Do I still get injured or experience pain from time to time? Absolutely! But I do not live in fear of pain any more which means that I have overcome a huge barrier that would otherwise make playing with my kids, having adventures with my wife, playing, pursing hobbies and living happeist life much more difficult.

This is what we want for all of you! We help people with pain overcome the barriers that are stopping them from living their happiest lives and we embrace the responsibility and the challenge that comes with that!