BACK PAIN · TUNBRIDGE WELLS
Back pain can turn ordinary movement into a negotiation.
Getting out of bed. Putting on your shoes. Sitting through a working day. Lifting something from the floor. Training. Sleeping. Sometimes simply turning over.
If back pain is making you move cautiously, avoid the things you normally do or wonder whether one wrong movement will make it worse, you do not have to work out the answer alone.
I provide skilled, hands-on chiropractic care for acute, persistent and recurring back pain. My treatment centres on precise spinal and pelvic adjustment, individually selected to help painful, stiff or poorly moving areas of your back move more freely and comfortably again.
Your first appointment includes a thorough assessment, a clear explanation and — when chiropractic treatment is suitable — your first treatment. No standard routine. No pressure to commit to a package.
Initial consultation £70 · Treatment normally included when suitablehttps://thebodywork.janeapp.co.uk
TheBodyWork Chiropractic · Private treatment room inside Underground Gym · Tunbridge Wells
IS THIS FOR ME?
You do not need to know exactly what is wrong before you book.
You may have woken with a back that suddenly will not move properly. Perhaps it “went” while bending, lifting or training. You may have been managing an ache for months, or be frustrated by the same problem returning yet again.
I commonly assess people whose back pain is:
- making it difficult to bend, turn, stand or walk normally;
- interfering with sitting, driving, sleeping or working;
- stopping them from training, lifting or exercising;
- accompanied by stiffness or painful muscle guarding;
- recurring whenever they return to a particular activity; or
- travelling into the buttock or leg and needing a more careful neurological assessment.
The sensible next step is not to diagnose yourself. It is to have the problem properly assessed and find out what treatment is likely to help.
HOW I TREAT BACK PAIN
Precise adjustment, not force for its own sake.
When chiropractic care is suitable for your back, adjustment will usually be at the centre of my treatment.
An adjustment is a quick, controlled movement applied to a carefully selected joint or area of the spine. The intention is not to force your back into a supposedly perfect position or to “put a vertebra back in”. It is to improve movement in a restricted area and help reduce the pain, stiffness and protective muscle tension that can accompany a mechanical back problem.
My approach is rooted in McTimoney chiropractic, known for light, fast and specific adjustments. A useful adjustment does not depend upon applying as much force as possible. Speed, accuracy, direction and timing allow treatment to be delivered through a small, controlled movement.
I have also completed more than 100 hours of advanced training in spinal and peripheral-joint manipulation. This gives me a wider range of techniques, from very light and specific adjustments to more direct manipulation when that offers an advantage.
Some adjustments produce an audible click; many do not. The sound is not the treatment, and a louder adjustment is not necessarily a better one.
My aim is simple: the right adjustment, in the right place, with no more force than is needed.
YOUR BACK
Treatment fitted to your back
There is no standard sequence that everybody receives.
I select the contact, direction and degree of force according to what I find, how irritable the problem is, your general health and how your back responds. An acutely painful back may need a particularly gentle beginning. A more established mechanical restriction may benefit from a firmer or more direct adjustment.
Your comfort matters. I will explain what I propose to do before I do it, and I can adapt the technique if you feel apprehensive or have previously found manipulation uncomfortable.
Advice about movement or exercise is added where it is genuinely useful. That might mean showing you how to keep moving during a flare-up, modifying the way you train for a short period or gradually restoring a movement your back has stopped tolerating. I do not turn every back problem into an elaborate rehabilitation programme or hand everyone the same sheet of exercises.
Careful assessment tells me where and how to treat. Skilled adjustment is the principal tool I use to do it.
WHY CHOOSE THEBODYWORK?
Clinical judgement and skilled hands-on care.
Back pain is common. That does not mean every painful back should be treated identically.
What I offer is a combination of careful clinical assessment and considerable hands-on training. I want to understand the problem, identify the areas most relevant to it and choose the adjustment that best fits the person in front of me.
You can expect:
A proper assessment. I take time to understand what happened, examine your back and check for anything that would change the treatment plan.
Treatment tailored to you. I adjust according to your presentation rather than following a predetermined routine.
Precision rather than unnecessary force. My McTimoney background and further manipulation training allow me to work across a wide range of adjusting styles.
A clear explanation. I will tell you what I think is happening, what I recommend and why.
Treatment at your first appointment when suitable. You are not paying £70 merely to be told to return another day.
No fixed packages. We review how you respond and let the frequency of care follow the problem rather than a sales plan.
Honest advice. If chiropractic is not the right next step, I will tell you and help point you in the right direction.
The aim is not to keep you dependent upon treatment. It is to help you feel and move better, return to the things your back has interrupted and make sensible decisions about any further care.
YOUR FIRST APPOINTMENT
One appointment. Three clear steps.
1. We talk
We begin with what happened, how the pain has changed, what aggravates or relieves it and what you need your back to let you do again.
2. I assess your back
The examination is tailored to your presentation. It may include looking at how you move, palpating the spine and surrounding structures and using relevant orthopaedic or neurological tests.
This helps me decide whether the problem appears suitable for chiropractic care, which areas are most relevant and how treatment should be adapted.
3. We begin treatment
I will explain what I have found and what I recommend. If chiropractic adjustment is suitable and you are happy to proceed, treatment will normally begin during the same appointment.
Before you leave, you will know what I think is happening, what we have done and what the next step should be. You will not be asked to buy a block of appointments or commit to a predetermined schedule.
Initial consultation & first treatment £70
UNDERSTANDING YOUR BACK PAIN
Back pain is a symptom, not a diagnosis.
One person’s pain may have appeared suddenly while bending or lifting. Another may have become progressively stiff over several weeks. Someone else may experience episodes that settle and repeatedly return. The pain may remain in the back or be accompanied by symptoms in the buttock or leg.
Two people can point to almost exactly the same place in their lower back and have quite different presentations.
Spinal joints, muscles and other soft tissues, discs and, in some cases, irritation involving a nerve can all contribute. How the back is moving, what it has recently been asked to do, previous episodes, physical conditioning and recovery may also matter.
It is not always possible — or necessary — to identify one structure as the sole source of pain with complete certainty. What matters is understanding the presentation well enough to decide what to treat, how to treat it and what else may be needed.
I am wary of explanations that reduce every painful back to one misplaced joint, one weak muscle or “bad posture”. The explanation I give you will be based on your history and examination — not a stock story told to every patient.
Where it hurts matters. It just is not always the whole explanation.
MOVEMENT & RECOVERY
Treatment should help you return to using your back.
When movement hurts, becoming guarded is understandable. Some temporary modification may be sensible during an acute flare-up, but prolonged avoidance can leave the back stiffer, less capable and more intimidating to use.
I will help you decide what to keep doing, what to modify temporarily and how to build back towards normal movement, work or training. This does not mean ignoring pain or forcing your way through everything. It means finding what your back can reasonably tolerate now and increasing from there.
Adjustment takes place in the clinic. Recovery continues in ordinary life.
RECURRING OR PERSISTENT BACK PAIN
If it keeps returning, we need to understand the pattern.
If this is the fourth or fifth time your back has flared, settling the immediate episode matters — but it may not be the whole job.
What tends to happen around an episode? Are there movements or loads your back no longer tolerates well? What have you stopped doing because of it? Did previous treatment help, and what happens between episodes?
Treatment may initially focus on reducing pain and restoring movement through adjustment. As the episode settles, we can address the activities or lost capacity that may be contributing to the recurring pattern.
Some patients choose occasional maintenance care because they find it helps them remain comfortable and mobile. Others return only when they feel they need help. Any continuing care should have a clear purpose and remain your choice.
The goal is not only to get through this episode, but to leave your back better equipped for what comes next.
BACK PAIN OR SCIATICA?
Pain in the leg changes the assessment.
Sciatica describes leg symptoms associated with irritation or compression of a nerve root in the lower back. Pain commonly travels into the buttock and leg and may be accompanied by tingling, numbness or weakness.
You can have back pain without sciatica, and sciatic symptoms can be prominent even when there is relatively little pain in the back.
If your symptoms travel into the leg, tell me when you book. It does not automatically mean something serious is happening, but it makes the neurological examination particularly important and may change the way I treat you.
WHEN BACK PAIN NEEDS URGENT MEDICAL ATTENTION
Some symptoms should not wait for a routine appointment.
Most back pain is not caused by a serious underlying problem. However, call 999 or go to A&E if back pain is accompanied by:
- pain, tingling, weakness or numbness in both legs;
- loss of feeling around the genitals or anus;
- new difficulty controlling or emptying your bladder or bowels;
- changes in genital sensation or sexual function;
- chest pain; or
- pain that began after a serious accident.
Seek urgent GP help or NHS 111 if severe back pain begins suddenly or is worsening quickly, or if you feel hot, cold, shivery or generally unwell with the pain.
COMMON QUESTIONS
Straight answers before you book.
Will the treatment hurt?
Most people tolerate chiropractic adjustment well. You may feel pressure, movement or a brief stretch, but treatment should not feel like something being forced upon you.
If your back is acutely painful, I will adapt the position, technique and force accordingly. Tell me if you feel nervous: I will explain what I am doing and we will work within what feels acceptable.
Is my back “out”?
That is not how I explain back pain or chiropractic treatment.
A painful back can involve restricted joint movement, sensitivity and protective muscle tension, but that does not mean a vertebra has literally moved out of place. An adjustment is intended to influence movement and function in a carefully selected area — not to relocate a displaced spine.
Do I need an X-ray or MRI first?
Usually not. Most back problems can be assessed initially without imaging.
Scan findings such as disc changes or joint wear are common even in people without pain, so imaging is most useful when there is a particular clinical question to answer and the result is likely to alter what happens next. If your history or examination indicates that further investigation is warranted, I will explain why.
Can you treat a slipped disc?
“Slipped disc” is a common phrase, but discs do not literally slip in and out of position, and an adjustment does not push one back into place.
Chiropractic treatment may help some people whose back pain has a disc-related component. The decision depends on your symptoms, neurological findings and overall presentation. Where treatment is suitable, I adapt the technique and monitor your response; where another form of care or further investigation is needed, I will advise you accordingly.
How many appointments will I need?
That depends upon the nature of the problem, how long it has been present and how it responds.
Some acute problems improve with relatively little care. Longstanding or recurring problems may take longer. We will agree what we are trying to change and review your progress rather than deciding in advance that everybody needs the same number of treatments.
Do I have to stop exercising?
Usually not, although you may need to modify certain movements or reduce the load temporarily.
I will help you distinguish between activity that can continue, activity that needs sensible modification and anything that should temporarily be avoided. The aim is normally to keep you as active as the problem reasonably allows.
BACK PAIN CHIROPRACTOR IN TUNBRIDGE WELLS
Your next step can be straightforward.
You do not need to diagnose your own back, choose a technique or know how many appointments you might need.
Book one appointment. Tell me what has happened. I will assess your back, explain what I find and, when chiropractic care is suitable, begin treatment.
No standard routine. No unnecessary force. No predetermined treatment package.
Just careful clinical judgement, precise hands-on treatment and a clear plan for getting you moving again.
Initial consultation and first treatment £70
TheBodyWork Chiropractic · Underground Gym · Tunbridge Wells