Acupuncture refers to the insertion of sterile, single use needles into specific points of the body to help relieve pain and symptoms. Traditional Chinese Medicine says that acupuncture promotes the body’s natural healing mechanisms in an attempt to help address any energy imbalance within the body and promote healing.

Acupuncture is only used following a thorough assessment process and is usually used in conjunction with other physiotherapy skills such as exercise prescription.

Aquatic therapy (or hydrotherapy) involves exercise and rehabilitation in water. This is an effective way of assisting muscle and joint rehabilitation (amongst many other conditions) in an environment that can help relax and offload the weight of the body. As well as assisting with movement, hydrotherapy can provide pain relief in some patients as well. It is not essential to be able to swim (although it would be beneficial to inform your physiotherapist of this in advance).

Nuffield Health Physiotherapists have undergone training to provide specific water based therapy and rehabilitation work. 

Back pain is incredibly common and can be due to a variety of reasons. The key to successfully treating back pain is taking an accurate history of how it started and how the pain behaves.

Our physiotherapists are all trained to provide an in-depth assessment that then allows them to target the specific issues affecting you using an individualised treatment plan. This may include manual therapy such as manipulation and soft tissue massage, and probably specific exercises to get you moving properly again.

You will also be given advice on how to look after your back and how to prevent the pain returning.

Nuffield Health physiotherapists who work with children are specialist practitioners. They have specific experience in assessing and treating babies and children from birth up to the transition into adulthood. They have the right skills and targeted knowledge to deliver appropriate treatment, rehabilitation and education to promote good condition management, recovery and family involvement.

Parents/guardians are advised to contact our dedicated customer service line for details on the availability and locations of children’s physiotherapy as treatment differs depending on age and condition type.

Chronic Pain Management Programmes involve a team of healthcare professionals working with you in order to help support and assist you in improving your level of function, fitness and ways of managing your symptoms.

Support can be offered in a number of ways and can vary (for example) from psychological support to physiotherapy exercise based rehabilitation or even “hands on” treatment where appropriate.

Sessions can also be individual or group based depending on what is deemed the most appropriate for you. Following a thorough assessment your physiotherapist / healthcare team will discuss the options with you.

Clinical Pilates is different to standard Pilates in that you will be individually assessed by a Nuffield Health physiotherapist and then given exercises that specifically target areas of pain and / or weakness identified in your assessment.

The physiotherapist will closely supervise your technique when performing these exercises so that they can help you obtain the best result from your session. Exercises are then progressed as your strength and control improve until it is identified that your original “problem” areas have been addressed.

Our specialist physiotherapists, who are often competitive cyclists themselves, are able to analyse your cycling action using video and then pick up on areas in either your bike set-up or training programme that can prevent or treat injuries and enhance performance.

Also known as “tennis elbow”! Despite the name, you can get tennis elbow from any activity that involves repeated strain from gripping or twisting your hand or wrist. In fact, only 5% of all patients seen with tennis elbow have actually played any form of tennis recently!

Physiotherapy should always be the first treatment option and even if steroid injections or surgery are required these treatments should still be followed by a course of physiotherapy.

Physiotherapists who specialise in the assessment and treatment of specific hand and wrist injuries. This is a specialised field due to the complex anatomy, function and mechanics of the hand and wrist.

Our expert clinicians will be able to provide you with a thorough assessment of your condition and provide specific treatment and advice in order to assist your recovery.

Your knees are the largest and most complex joints in your body. They’re particularly vulnerable to injury as, like your ankles, they support the weight of your body. Anterior knee pain accounts for 15-25% of all running injuries, although it’s certainly not something that only happens to runners.

Physiotherapy is considered the treatment of choice for knee injuries and our expert physiotherapists will not just look at treating the physical injury but also at correcting training errors and muscle imbalance to help prevent the problem from reoccurring.

A men’s health physiotherapist will have the skills and knowledge (achieved through post-graduate study) to treat male bladder and bowel problems which may occur following surgery to remove the prostate gland (prostatectomy) or as a result of weakness of the pelvic floor muscles.

They will assist / advise you on the best course of action for your symptoms following a thorough assessment process.

The physiotherapist is an expert in the analysis of movement and will be able to review the way in which you are moving to determine what is causing your pain / symptoms. They will have specific technology (for example, video analysis) to record your walking or running pattern and they will be able to identify what needs to be addressed as a result of this.

Where appropriate, they may recommend insoles (orthoses) to place in your shoes to improve your movement alongside any other forms of physiotherapy treatment.

This type of analysis is especially useful for recurrent sport-related injuries.

This skill-set means that your physiotherapist is fully equipped to assess any issue that affects the body with regard to joint, muscle and nerve conditions. These include (amongst many others) back pain, whiplash injuries, muscle strains and joint sprains. You will have a thorough and detailed assessment session with your physiotherapist – following this they will talk you through their findings and recommend treatment accordingly.

Nuffield Health physiotherapists offer all the treatment options that you would expect from a Chartered and Health Care Professions Council (HCPC) registered physiotherapist, such as manual therapy techniques, soft tissue treatments, electrotherapy modalities and exercise rehabilitation amongst many other options.

Neck pain can occur as a result of a specific injury, such as a whiplash from a car accident, or it can come on gradually, often from working in an awkward posture.

Our physiotherapists include questions about your working position as part of their assessment and are able to give specific advice to help reduce the risk of persistent pain.

Whilst running is good exercise, it can create a whole set of specific injuries! These may be caused by doing too much too quickly, incorrect footwear, movement patterns that produce over-use injuries, or just bad luck.

Our physiotherapists are trained to be able to look at your body as a whole, including your running action, and give treatment and advice to get you back into action as quickly as possible.

Sports injury clinics consist of a number of different clinical experts (such as an orthopaedic surgeon, sports medicine doctor, podiatrist and musculoskeletal physiotherapist) who will work together to investigate any symptoms or problems that you have, diagnosing and treating these symptoms in the most effective way and assisting you to return to sport. This may involve further examinations or diagnostic tests (such as X-Rays or scans) but this will be discussed at your initial assessment.

Sports Injury Clinics are particularly useful when you have a complex or recurrent injury or if you compete at a more serious level.

All Nuffield Health physiotherapists are trained to treat commonly occurring sports injuries such as muscle and tendon strains, tennis elbow and ligament injuries.

The aim is to get you back to your sport as quickly as possible and give advice to prevent a reoccurrence.

Sports massage can be very effective at relaxing and stretching tight muscles and other soft tissues and can be used as part of or in addition to physiotherapy to treat an injury, or as a stand-alone treatment to reduce muscle tension or soreness. We recommend you contact our dedicated customer service line on 08450454845 if you require any further information.

The Vestibular system refers to specific sections of the inner ear. These parts of the body help you maintain good balance and co-ordination. Any conditions or problems that affect the inner ear can leave you feeling a range of symptoms such as dizziness, vertigo and balance disturbance.

Nuffield Health physiotherapists who treat (or rehabilitate) vestibular problems will take you through a thorough and detailed assessment process to try and understand the cause of your symptoms and (where appropriate) will design a treatment and rehabilitation programme to help you manage them.

Female / Women’s health physiotherapists can help treat a range of conditions such as pregnancy related (pre and post birth) pelvic issues, problems with bladder or bowel incontinence, pelvic organ prolapse, pelvic pain and pelvic floor weakness. They will assist / advise you on the best course of action for your symptoms following a thorough assessment process.

Ergonomics looks at the interaction between people and equipment and the factors that affect that interaction. For example, to ensure that equipment / devices and the working environment are well suited to the needs of the worker.