“More than 80% of the adult population suffer from back pain at some point in their life”

What is back pain?

There are two main types of back pain:

1. Non-Specific – This refers to tension, soreness, and/or stiffness without a specific identified cause. It’s usually the result of incorrect movement patterns and poor posture, which we pick up over time for various reasons.

2. Specific – This is caused by an accident or injury and is often localised to one area.

In many cases, the trauma heals quickly, but the pain lingers because we continue using incorrect movement patterns and compensatory postures. These adaptations, initially made to avoid pain, maintain the feeling of discomfort in the body.

Example:
People with back pain often adopt a rigid position when sitting down or standing up, avoiding bending at the hips—even though their hips are fine. This is the body’s way of protecting itself, but ironically, this unnecessary rigidity creates the real problem.

Treatment for Back Pain

Whether your pain is from an accident (specific pain) or from other causes (non-specific pain), the treatment is often the same.

As a Movement Therapist, it’s helpful for me to know about your falls, accidents, and MRI results. However, what I really need to know is exactly where you feel pain or discomfort, during which activities you feel it, and at what time of day.

This information helps me figure out how to balance your body to alleviate the pain. I can then identify where you’re avoiding movement and where compensatory tissues are being overused because of the pain.

Where Do We Go From Here?

As with any type of pain, there’s often trauma involved, whether high or low level. But I hope this helps you understand that you can let go of what happened to you—it’s no longer important, even if it has unfairly changed your life. What matters most is how you feel now and what we do about it—now.

Holding onto the fear of movement, or the memory of what caused your pain, will only make the problem worse. If you have a tear in a disc, you can rest assured that these are very normal. Avoiding movement will only exacerbate the problem. Instead, we need to get you moving confidently in everyday functional activities, like sitting down and standing up or putting on a pair of trousers. We’ll build from there. I find that once my clients can perform these simple activities without pain, there’s no stopping them!

Read Rusty’s story:

“Letty’s Movement Therapy has, without exaggeration, changed my life.

Two years ago my lower back, previously injured with a herniated disc, hurt with every step I took.

Letty got me on the Reformer and gradually worked her magic, making me find and strengthen muscles I never knew I had until I achieved a new posture, so that my lower back no longer hurts. I now enjoy weekly Nordic walking and golf without worry and without pain.

I honestly owe her my improved strength, mobility and lack of pain. It’s nothing short of a miracle at my age!”

-Mrs Rusty Dawson age 66