janine mccarthy ortho-bionomy

// the path to natural pain relief //

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1 to 1 video consultations for pain relief

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During the CO-VID19 pandemic I can’t offer in-person Ortho-Bionomy bodywork sessions to help you relieve pain and stress.

But I’m determined to continue helping all my clients as much as I can.

So during the lockdown you can meet with me by phone or video on Zoom for a 30 or 60 minute consultation for self-care, postural re-education and wellbeing support.

During these sessions we can:

  • examine the pain, discomfort or reduced functionality you experience,
  • consider the impact your daily activities (e.g. working from home) are having on your body
  • explore how your current postural habits are contributing to your pain/discomfort/reduced mobility
  • discuss pain relief techniques, movements and positioning you can use to improve your daily experience in your body
  • develop new habits of posture and movement to help you create a new relationship with your body and support your transition to sustainable, authentic wellbeing

Your body is always trying return to its primal state of wellbeing. It has enormous resources for self-healing and regeneration. Physical tension and emotional/mental stress create resistance that blocks your natural healing processes. Relaxation and ease are the keys to release this resistance and allow your cells to return to their natural state of vitality.

So now you don’t have to miss out on the benefits of Ortho-Bionomy sessions due to our forced social isolation. Book your appointment online HERE  or contact me by SMS on 0422 266 190 or email janine@ortho-bionomymelbourne.com

Here’s what some of my clients are saying about the video consultations:

“I worked with Janine online and it was a really useful session: we were able to review progress and add some new strategies to the mix. Working this way underlines the ‘teamwork’ aspect of her treatment and succeeds because Janine is so clear in her understanding and perceptive about the feedback she is receiving. It can also be helpful to address issues in the home environment where from day to day we move, live and work.” EM

“I booked a video session with Janine after feeling pain in my lower back and shoulders. This session was very helpful as Janine demonstrated the movements, showing me in great detail and with patience how to apply a range of exercises to ease the pain. I have had better posture since, which is very helpful considering all the time spent in front of the computer working from home.” MA

“Last year I started working with Janine to reduce my neck and shoulder pain and associated headaches and this had been so effective going from 3 or 4 headaches a week to now only once or twice a month. But my neck and shoulders got really jammed up just after the (COVID-19) shutdown and I got a headache that had persisted for a few days. So I asked Janine for an online session. It was really effective, we released the neck and shoulder pain and the headache went away. I felt so much better. I was so relieved that I could still work with Janine from home, I don’t know what I would do without this. I am going to keep doing regular online sessions with Janine to manage my headaches, yay!” SB

“I booked a video session with Janine because I’d sustained an injury right at a part of my body that I’ve been working with her for many months. There was also a bit of unresolved tension in that area still, and stress had been affecting my ability to listen to my body. During the session Janine recommended techniques I could use at home and gave me support and encouragement to apply them for myself reminding me that just because my body isn’t yelling at me (with pain) that it doesn’t mean I should stop listening to it. Since that session, I have been using the practices every day. Not only do they help physically relieve pain, but also I’m giving attention to my body in calming, conscious and intentional ways, which really helps to relieve stress and feel nurtured.” MK

 

Woman sitting on a bed working with a laptop
Video consultations from home

Ortho-Bionomy relieves shoulder pain and resolves ‘frozen shoulder’.

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I have so far dubbed 2015 the ‘Year of the Shoulder’ in my clinical practice. Almost every client I’ve seen so far has consulted me for shoulder pain.  Almost everyone has also come to my studio saying they realize they have been working too hard and not taking enough time out to rest.

These two things often go hand in hand. We ‘shoulder’ too many responsibilities, shoulder the burdens, and sooner or later our shoulders start to get tired from the constant ‘weight’ of all that tension. If we don’t pay attention to our body’s need for rest to balance with our work and stress, it creates pain messages that are the equivalent of shouting to get our attention.  If we continue to ignore these messages, our bodies stop functioning as they should and collapse, ‘seize up’, ‘freeze’, spasm and/or experience constant strong pain. Just like you, your muscles get tired when they work long and hard, and they need to rest to recover their strength.

Are you listening to your body? Rest and time out are the Yin to the Yang of work. Neither can exist without the other. If you demand a lot of output from your body you must be prepared to give it what it needs to restore and recharge.

One of my clients worked constantly all last year in a state of overwork and stress. She ended up by December with extreme shoulder pain followed by major restriction of movement, being unable to raise her arm to shoulder height. An MRI confirmed her doctor’s diagnosis of frozen shoulder. She was offered cortisone injections or a procedure known as ‘shoulder manipulation’ under general anaesthetic, where the ‘frozen’ arm is forcefully moved to the extent of its range to break up adhesions around the joint. As you can imagine, patients usually experience a lot of pain following this procedure. She decided against both these options and decided to try Ortho-Bionomy instead.

We began sessions in early January, with visits twice a week initially, reducing to weekly, and fitting around her schedule – so far we have had 9 sessions over 7 weeks.

After the second visit her pain was less frequent and less intense and she was sleeping better. Since then she has had more improvement every week so that now she only has occasional pain in certain movements, can use her arm almost normally and sleeps comfortably, with approximately 70% of her range of movement restored. Other clients with the same condition have needed treatment over longer periods up to around 6 months. For clients who begin their sessions after having the condition for 12 months or more, the recovery time may be longer, but generally with obvious improvement each week that we work. This contrasts starkly with the 18 months that many doctors estimate for recovery of this condition.

Many people believe the medical treatment options shown above followed by painful physiotherapy exercises are the only possibilities for this condition. However my experience has shown me that the pain-free approach of Ortho-Bionomy is extremely effective, usually with quicker recovery times and more lasting results. Because it is a gentle technique with a strong focus on immediate pain relief, it is suitable for clients suffering from intense pain and severe restriction of the shoulder and arm. Beginning sessions early is also beneficial, as this client’s experience shows – she began Ortho-Bionomy sessions soon after her diagnosis. She was also very committed to using the release techniques I gave her for home use and the combination resulted in her quick recovery from this debilitating condition. She is also taking steps to reduce her workload and increase rest time to balance with work and stress levels.

Another client works long hours 6 days a week and developed shoulder pain that was so strong it could take his breath away. He was becoming dependent on strong pain killers to get through the working day, which he was not happy about. After his first Ortho-Bionomy session he had the best night’s sleep he’s had in months. He also remembered during that first session that he used to have a long bath once a week, listen to music and fall asleep, which allowed him to forget all his worries.

I asked him why he stopped doing this for himself and he said he didn’t know why or when it had happened. I suggested that he bring this habit back into his life – we should all give ourselves permission to take time out from the work and stress more often. If we did that, we would balance all that tension and responsibility with some restorative relaxation, and our bodies – particularly our shoulders – wouldn’t need to shout so much to get our attention.

 

This information is offered as my opinion and should not replace medical diagnosis or treatment.

Ortho-Bionomy is the trademark of Ortho-Bionomy Australia Ltd and is used with permission.

Pelvic girdle pain relief

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Do you suffer from “pelvic girdle pain”? Many women suffer intense pelvic pain both during pregnancy and post-natally, making walking, standing and even sitting extremely uncomfortable. Conventional medicine offers pain-relief medication and not much else. But Ortho-Bionomy helps reduce this pain dramatically by assisting the body to regain its natural pelvic alignment, relieving tension and pain and allowing comfortable movement to return.

One of my clients, Lee W., suffered from this condition after the birth of her baby, along with a partial prolapse, diagnosed by her obstetrician. She couldn’t stand or walk for more than 10 minutes without intense pain. She followed the physiotherapist’s advice for some exercises but after 7 weeks had minimal improvement. She wanted to walk to help her body recover from the pregnancy and birth, but she couldn’t even walk around the house much. Her frustration level was pretty high! She visited me for Ortho-Bionomy and noticed a reduction of pain the same day. I gently worked to encourage her pelvis to remember its natural alignment, and she found the work comfortable and relaxing. It took only 2 sessions of Ortho-Bionomy for her to be virtually pain-free. She is now able to go for daily walks with her baby in the pram and her prolapse has resolved. That’s better for her mental health and her baby as well as her body. Lee wrote “I would not have recovered so well and so quickly without you. Thank you for everything, you’ll see me again!”

Another client, Alicia H. experienced severe low back and hip pain during the late stages of her pregnancy. She describes her experience here:

“At 35 weeks of pregnancy I came to Janine for help with excruciating sciatica & lower back pain. As this had been a recurring condition for the past 10+ years it did not surprise me that it had returned at a time when the body is under such pressure, but the intensity was like I had never experienced before. Shooting pains down to the calf, I could not walk further than the mailbox and spent the majority of the day on hands & knees, it was pretty bad! It took a couple of sessions to feel some results, as everything was so jammed up and tight. [In fact, Alicia had improved enough after 2 sessions to walk to my clinic for her third visit. – Janine] However, slowly & gently, after 4 sessions and with practice at home all symptoms had cleared up entirely; my back was actually better than at the start of the pregnancy. I really had not anticipated such a result, to say I was delighted to be pain free is an understatement. The treatment is very gentle, I felt completely safe at all times, my body felt wonderfully light at the end of each session. I would not hesitate to recommend Janine to anyone experiencing similar symptoms.” Alicia visited me 4 weeks after her baby was born because her back was uncomfortable with the new routines of feeding and carrying her baby, but her other conditions had not returned.

Because Ortho-Bionomy provides natural pain relief, it provides the perfect alternative to taking pharmaceutical drugs, especially when you want to avoid sharing those drugs with your baby through the placenta or your breast milk. Many women put up with this kind of pain during and after pregnancy because we believe we can’t do anything about it, but Ortho-Bionomy has a wonderful way of helping our bodies remember how to find comfort and return to balance, even through the most extreme experiences.  Don’t just put up with this kind of pain, find an Ortho-Bionomy practitioner in your area; once the pain has gone you will be able to enjoy your pregnancy or your newborn baby, and every woman deserves that!

Relieve knee pain naturally

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“My knees hurt because I’m old.” Christine H. said when she came for her first Ortho-Bionomy session with me. She had been a gardner for many years and now thought she would have to stop gardening because she was in her 70’s and her knees ‘didn’t work properly anymore’. She couldn’t bend or squat comfortably and her knee pain was interfering with her work. She didn’t have much hope for change but she wanted to try some Ortho-Bionomy anyway, in case it might help relieve some of the pain.  After her first session Christine returned for her follow-up session in a state of disbelief. She said, “I thought it was my age that made my knees stop functioning properly, but they feel so much better now!” The gentle positioning, joint compression and muscle relaxation techniques I used during her first session had allowed her knees to naturally return to their correct alignment, relieving her knee pain and muscle tension and restoring function and mobility. Christine only needed two sessions to get her back into gardening, and now she often recommends Ortho-Bionomy to her friends.

We often get accustomed to the restrictions and dysfunctional patterns that our bodies develop, associating them with ageing. Many people think “My body is too old to change”. But Ortho-Bionomy helps our bodies to remember how to move and be comfortable again, no matter how old we are. The best thing about Ortho-Bionomy is that it doesn’t hurt. Many other approaches to pain relief just hurt too much for older people. Clients often tell me they can’t continue having other treatments because they are too painful. Fortunately Ortho-Bionomy is pain-free and gentle AND effectively relieves pain.