Our experienced Physiotherapists at Trinity House Practice provide the most up to date evidence based treatment techniques to return you back to your chosen levels of fitness.  The treatment we provide aims to reduce the impact of injury on you, alleviating pain symptoms and improving your level of function both in day-to-day life and other specific activities.  We use a range of treatments and our physiotherapists will work with you to achieve your goals.

Manual Therapy

• Mobilisations – a passive technique performed by your physiotherapist where rhythmical pressure is applied across a joint to alleviate pain and/or stiffness whilst restoring normal movement to the joint.

• Manipulation – a single forceful movement performed to a joint to provide pain relief and restore normal joint mobility. It is normal to experience a ‘click’ or ‘crack’ sensation when the manipulation has been performed.

• Passive movements – a movement of the body performed by the physiotherapist without the assistance of the patient. The aim is to stretch the soft tissues and alleviate stiffness in a joint.

• Stretches – similar to passive movements, although the movement is performed by the physiotherapist specifically to reduce spasm, tightening and/or shortening of a muscle or other soft tissues in the body.

Soft Tissue Release

• Massage – this involves the manipulation of the soft tissues of the body to improve circulation, reduce tension and promote relaxation.

• Trigger point release – trigger points are commonly referred to as ‘knots’ and are focal points of tension and tenderness within the muscles. To release these points, the physiotherapist applies pressure to the area to cause the area of tension and tenderness to reduce in size or in some instances resolve completely.

• Mobilisation – rhythmical movements of the body’s soft tissue to reduce tension.

Acupuncture

• Acupuncture - The insertion of small needles in to specific acupuncture points across the body to stimulate the body’s own healing response and reduce pain. Please see our Acupuncture page for more information.

Exercises

• Stretches – a sustained hold where the muscles or soft tissues are placed in a lengthened position in order to lengthen shortened muscles and restore normal movement and function.

• Strengthening – this term covers a wide variety of exercises. Exercises for you to perform to build muscle bulk and improve power, balance and control of a movement.

• Postural strengthening – exercises aimed specifically at strengthening the muscles around the spine and peripheral joints which help maintain you in a supported upright position. . the exercises also support those structures whilst you perform a specific activity.

• Proprioceptive training – proprioception is often thought to be our ‘sixth sense’ and put simply is our ability to control our body with regards to position, motion and equilibrium. Often this is affected when an injury has occurred and specific training exercises testing our control of movement helps improve proprioception and reduce risk of re-injury.

• Functional exercises - specific training programmes relative to a chosen activity or sport taking into account the movement and force required to perform that activity.

Electrotherapy

• Ultrasound Therapy - Ultrasound is applied using the head of an ultrasound probe that is placed in direct contact with your skin via a transmission coupling gel. Therapeutic ultrasound uses high frequency sound vibrations to cause an increase in healing rates, tissue relaxation, tissue heating, local blood flow and scar tissue breakdown.

• Pulsed Shortwave Therapy – The effects are similar to ultrasound except instead of sound vibrations, electromagnetic energy is used. The benefit over ultrasound is that is can penetrate deeper in to joints and soft tissues.

• Interferential Therapy – This provides low frequency electrical stimulation to nerves to achieve pain relief, muscle stimulation, increased local blood flow and reduction in swelling.

• TENS – Similar to interferential, this provides electrical nerve stimulation to interfere with the transmission of pain signals by blocking the ‘neural gate’ through which the pain signal travels.

Taping

• Support / offload taping – a strong adhesive tape made from zinc oxide is used to provide temporary relief from pain by supporting the injured area or shifting the force to act in a different area of the body. Sometimes this kind of taping can allow a sportsperson to continue playing their chosen sport.

• Kinesiotaping – This kind of taping method uses a non-restrictive adhesive tape, which is applied over muscles to reduce pain and inflammation, relax overused tired muscles, and to support muscles in movement on a 24hr/day basis.