Musculoskeletal physiotherapy
Every course of treatment here starts with a long, unhurried assessment — what you can load, what you avoid, and what changed before the pain arrived. You leave the first visit knowing the plan, not just the problem.
Start where it hurts
Read the line that sounds like your week. Each one lists what gets tested in the first session, so you know what you are walking into.
Mornings that take an hour to loosen, pain that travels past the knee, or a back that feels untrustworthy under a heavy bag.
We assess — hip hinge mechanics, how much load the spine currently tolerates, nerve mobility, and your sitting and lifting day.
Headaches that build by Thursday afternoon, a jaw that clicks when you yawn, shoulders that have quietly moved up towards your ears.
We assess — neck rotation and endurance, jaw opening, breathing pattern, and the two or three desk habits worth changing first.
Reaching overhead, sleeping on one side, or the catch you feel halfway through putting a coat on.
We assess — cuff strength at several angles, shoulder blade control, overhead range, and whether the joint or the tendon is driving it.
A deep ache for a day or two after running, pinching at the bottom of a squat, hips that complain on the stairs more than they used to.
We assess — hip range in rotation, adductor and glute strength, single-leg control, and your weekly running or standing volume.
Pain on stairs going down, swelling the day after sport, or the long middle stretch of a return after knee surgery.
We assess — quadriceps and hamstring strength side to side, hop and landing quality, knee range, and swelling response to load.
Stiff, sore first steps out of bed, repeated rolls on uneven ground, or a calf tendon that only objects when you add speed.
We assess — calf strength and endurance, ankle bend, balance under fatigue, and footwear against the surfaces you train on.
How treatment runs
Most people want to know how long this will take before they book. Here is the shape of a normal course, and the point at which we review it with you honestly.
History, movement screen and strength testing, then a plain-language explanation of what we found, what it means, and what it does not mean.
Hands-on treatment where it helps, sensible changes to daily load, and two or three exercises short enough that you will actually do them.
Progressive strength and capacity work on the rehab floor, moving from controlled exercises back towards the activity you stopped doing.
A written maintenance plan, the warning signs worth acting on early, and an open door for a single check-in if things change.
We review progress together at the third session. If you are not changing, we say so and change the plan — or refer you onward.
Start with an assessmentAppointment types
If you are unsure which to request, choose the initial assessment and we will put you in the right slot from there.
Full history, movement and strength testing, hands-on treatment where it is useful on the day, and a written plan emailed to you the same evening.
Manual therapy, joint and soft-tissue work, and progression of your programme based on what the past fortnight actually tolerated.
A coached strength session on clinic equipment. We load the lifts your plan depends on and fix technique while there is weight on the bar.
Side-to-side strength testing, hop and landing work, change of direction under fatigue, and a clear conversation about what you are ready for.
For travel weeks and busy months: programme adjustments, technique review from a short clip you record, and answers between clinic visits.
Sessions are one-to-one throughout — the practitioner who assesses you is the one who treats you.
Inside the clinic
Rehabilitation stalls when there is nothing heavy to progress onto. Treatment happens in a private room; the rebuilding happens next door, with the equipment to make it real.
Clinic lead — Imogen Vale, musculoskeletal physiotherapist
Before your first visit
The practical things people email us about before booking.
No. You can book directly. If you would like your GP kept in the loop, say so at the first visit and we will write to them with the findings and the plan.
Clothes you can move in and that let us see the area: shorts for anything hip, knee or ankle, a vest or loose top for neck and shoulder problems. Bring the shoes you train or work in — they tell us a lot. If you have had a scan, bring the report rather than the images.
It depends on how long the problem has been there and what you need to get back to. A straightforward recent issue is often three to six sessions across six weeks. Post-surgical and long-standing tendon problems run longer and are planned in blocks. We review at session three either way.
Some tests deliberately reproduce your symptoms — that is how we locate the source, and we tell you before we do it. Treatment should feel firm and purposeful rather than alarming, and you can stop anything at any point. Mild soreness for a day afterwards is common and settles.
Usually yes, in a modified form. Complete rest tends to make tissue less tolerant, not more. We will adjust volume, range or speed so you keep the parts of your week that matter and drop only what is clearly provocative.
We will say so plainly and write a clear referral letter. Scans change the plan less often than people expect, so we only suggest imaging when the result would genuinely alter what we do next.
We see people from fourteen upwards with no upper limit. Under-sixteens are seen with a parent or guardian present. The approach is the same at every age: test what you can do, then build it back deliberately.
Request an assessment
Send the short form below and we will reply with assessment times that fit the part of the week you have marked.
We read every enquiry ourselves and reply with two or three specific slots. If your problem needs a different service, we will tell you that instead of booking you in.
Step-free entrance and a ground-floor treatment room