Chronic Pain - Motivation and Resources to help
I’M IN A BOOK!! Well technically I am on and in a book
Not only is this exciting because I am on the cover and my story is shared but there are other therapists sharing their story to help YOU.
“How did I not know about this? Becoming Pain-Free Through Posture Therapy” by Grace Lambert is a great book and resource to help chronic pain
I am part of the Posture Alliance. We are a cohesive group of therapists unified around our shared purpose of helping people improve their lives. This book was written to help create awareness of posture therapy and help people struggling with unresolved pain.
The reason for the title is because so many clients around the world say “How did I not know about this?” or “Why didn’t my doctor tell me about this? Posture Therapy is not yet part of the Western mainstream medical model. Therefore, practitioners in the traditional medical model tend to refer within this model. Many patients aren’t open to treatment options outside of this model or do not want to pay for services not covered by insurance.
Part I of the book includes how improving posture improves your health, factors that influence your physical and cognitive optimal functioning, and the important role the feet play in your posture.
Part II is great for getting inspired and motivated, it has great stories of clients who became therapists or practitioners of posture therapy and some stories of clients. There are a variety of ages, fitness and functional levels to help give you perspective on the process. These are real stories, with the true ups and downs that go on - but, the journeys of stopping the use of strong pain medications, returning to work, resuming sports - living life with optimal health.
Part III is many of the symptoms and conditions that can be addressed by posture therapy, a self-test chapter, and a list of resources that are amazing for a journey of learning about the body and how to help heal without or minimizing the use of medications, injections or surgery.
Check out these bits of stories to see if you can relate:
Matt - Track and field and cross-country runner - running with a college scholarship, injured but not running races meant losing money. Reached a point suffering from anterior compartment syndrome. Discovering posture therapy and then after a sudden fall, his recovery period was fast with the right tools in place.
Courtney - As a child had hip dysplasia and at a young age wore braces, had ankle sprains, abdominal surgery, back pain and a journey of self-recovery learning how to listen to her body which is so common once learning about Posture therapy.
Janet - Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and stress-related onset. Her job was a researcher as a neuroscientist studying pain medications. Childhood history of spina bifida that is somewhat correctable with surgery. Chronic pain is how she found Posture Therapy. She talks about the challenge to keep going. “At a time when all my friends are getting hip replacements, I am getting stronger and fitter.”
Patrick - Active in sports with a corporate job in the Netherlands, pain found the simplicity of one exercise helped him learn how beneficial posture therapy is. He has worked with Olympic and elite level athletes in karate.
Jasmine - A client of Patrick’s, a singer with scoliosis and pain and the ease of posture therapy as a treatment tool
Nicole - Dancer of professional level and education with chronic knee pain without an injury, resulting in leaving dance as a profession, trying different jobs but still suffering with knee pain which then resulted in back pain. Already living a careful lifestyle - had a minor car accident that set-off progression into disability, more symptoms, fibromyalgia diagnosis. Through her perseverance returning to modified work, stumbling onto posture therapy she found a “new lease on life.”
Bethany- A young woman who was athletic as a young child in gymnastics and many other sports and then a college lacrosse player with multiple injuries resulted in her not enjoying and playing lacrosse and other sports. Chronic pain led her to Egoscue. She looks back If ifat her senior year of college and realized if she stuck to her Egoscue exercises, she could have played the whole season.
Lisa- Restless energy very active, family hx of kyphosis, bodybuilding, running, extreme with activities, put it all together and she emphasizes how important mind, body and breath are. (These themes I believe are paramount to getting out of a chronic pain)
Jake - Tech job, lots of sitting, active in free-time, increased weight, eventually knee and low back pain, progressed to sciatic pain and use of a wheel-chair to lose weight, looking forward to skiing and enjoying an active life again.
Randee (my story) - How a western medical trained physical therapist decided to take up posture therapy and work with clients in a setting where she can treat the body as a whole, considering the root cause of an injury. In addition, her story encompasses injuries in different stages of life including teenage cheerleading and dance with diagnosis of scoliosis, post pregnancy, and 30 years of wearing orthotics.
Rusch - Randee’s client with chronic shoulder pain and was happy he gained more range of motion and movement then he had since he was 10 years old. Pain relief on the first visit.
Juliet - Concern with avoiding the many back surgeries and hips replaced her father had. She was a marathon runner, yoga teacher and eventual hip pain and her story of returning to running.
Juliet’s client - Active job, labor intensive, working in the heat struggling with pelvic pain that was unexplained and unsolved…
Deb - Car accident and severe neck pain, single mom working to care for children, diagnosed with fibromyalgia, later second car accident.
“There is not another person in the world just like them.”
Sue - A woman with a story starting with back pain started at 16, cheerleader, dancer, aerobics - later car accident, became a mom, chronic pain for 30 years before finding Posture therapy…
Grace - From an extremely active and competitive family, risky with sports, experienced multiple injuries including dislocating shoulders and broken jaw. Grace has a long list of activities that she participated in including the more high risk activities - rock climbing, skiing, diving, motorcycle riding, and horse training. In addition, she had a surprising diagnosis of Osteoporosis in her early fifties. “I just assumed that some form of nagging physical pain or discomfort was an integral part of life.”
Cynthia - Family history of scoliosis, as teen thrown from a horse with pelvic injury, later tennis player, fencing at a National level, and cycling with chronic hip and knee pain setting in switched to hot yoga, later partially torn achilles tendon without much force sort of like the straw that broke the camel's back, became a pilates instructor improving and found great relief with posture therapy.
If you would like to read the full stories to help feel connected with others who have struggled with chronic pain. This can help understand more about the Egoscue Method and becoming or progressing as a posture therapy client. . Click the link below to purchase the book on Amazon.
