Context

Visiting my family recently I saw my mother’s wrists were really bothering her. She had been to the doctor who said something like 

” Its wear and tear, possible arthritis. You can take some pain killers, and if it gets worse we can give you a steroid injection. “ 

As a Somatic Bodyworker, I was interested to see if there was something less severe that could be done to relieve the pain. 

So what is Arthritis

It is a wearing down of the articular surface of the joints, along with an increase of the bone mass underneath, meaning bone meets bone in the movement making joins swollen and painful.

You can read more about it on the NHS site

A long bone

Here you can see coloured in blue the articular cartalage

The somatic approach

So what can be done?

A whole body approach such as somatics would look at reducing the stress placed upon a particular joint due to, muscular tension or habitual movement imbalances.

Working with mobility in the joint spaces, inviting more blood flow and fluidity of movement into the joint, as well as increasing the possibilities for movement in that place ( movement repatterining ).

After a short half an hour, My mum reported a increase in comfort, and no pain yet, although she was still expecting it when she went to do something. Of course this is an ongoing condition that has been building up for a while, Its unlikely to get “Fixed” in one session. Its the type of ailment that would require regular care and persistence, to live with comfortably. To this end I found a useful Feldenkrais lesson that should help.

If you would like help with joint mobility issues please get in touch