Shoulder Pain at Revitalize Clinic

Our proven approach to your pain relief.

Your team of Osteopaths, Physiotherapists and Sports Therapists look forward to meeting you

Expert Diagnosis

You will discover why you are in pain

Specialist Treatment

Massage, joint manipulation, acupuncture and online guided self treatment

Video Guided Plans

Tailored exercises for your shoulder’s strength and mobility

Shoulder pain is incredibly common and very often excruciating. The problem is that very often it is left too late, management is inadequate and after care is non-existent. This means a very painful, weak shoulder with a patient who is often very scared of using it. 
Shoulder pain is often very poorly misunderstood by many patients and practitioners. This leads patients to be on harmful medication for far longer than they should be. Many patients also rely on extensive treatment, too many visits to their physio, osteopath, chiropractor etc, unnecessary surgery and more.

The longer you’re on medication or reliant on seeing someone for your shoulder pain, the less empowered you are. This leads to a lot of money spent, and a lack of trust in your lower and neck back. Both aren’t good, long term. 

We want

effective treatment for pain relief
advice that empowers you over your pain
a plan to strengthen your spine for long term improvements in pain reduction, confidence and tolerance to movement

What causes shoulder pain?

The shoulder is incredibly complex but, we’ll simplify where your pain may be coming from

Supporting Muscles

such as the rotator cuff and the biceps

Large Muscle Pain

such as the chest and back muscles

Shoulder Joint Pain

the shoulder has many joints which can cause pain

The way these areas present pain however, can vary

Most of the above areas can create pain from your head to your mid back, to the shoulder, all the way down to the hand. This is why it is important that we test the shoulder to make sure we know exactly what’s happening.

Often even an MRI or X-Ray won’t give a clear image as to what is causing you pain. Clinical tests whilst moving the shoulder is essential. Fortunately for you, we can do this in the clinic and online via video call

How long does shoulder pain take to recover?

Because the shoulder is such a complex structure, this question proves difficult to answer. To put it into perspective, we see patients whose pain is completely eradicated in one treatment. The average number of treatments is 5. But we see patients who, before seeing us, had suffered for decades with shoulder pain. 

But we are very accurate at predicting how long your pain will take to recover with treatment. So book an appointment where we can explain, online or face to face the likely outcome with treatment

Emily's Shoulder Pain

Meet Emily! Emily has a huge dog! 🐶 Walking her fluffy friend Emily has managed to cause herself some painful injuries in her shoulder. With treatment, exercises and guidance from our trained specialists, in one week we have managed to reduce Emily’s pain by a whopping 70%!

Do I need a scan such as an MRI or X-Ray?

In some situations, yes. And if so, we can write a letter to your doctor to speed up the process. However most of the time, you don’t need an MRI or an X-Ray. These scans are used mostly when your shoulder pain is potentially dangerous and will cause you long term harm. When we see you, we can decide as to whether you need further investigation or not. If you do, we will send you for further investigations via your GP. 

How does Revitalize diagnose shoulder pain?

After taking a thorough case history and running through some diagnostic tests (in the clinic or via video call, this only takes 5mins), we have a very accurate diagnosis as to what is causing your pain. 

 

This is achieved by using your case history to firstly, point us in the right direction. By asking when and how the pain started, what makes it worse and better, we can narrow down what is causing your pain from over a hundred possibilities to around 3 (yes, a much better process than a google search!)

 

After we have our 3, most likely culprits, we can start to test them. In the clinic or via video call, we will ask you to perform movements to gently stress each area that is likely to be causing your pain. By system of elimination, we’ll have a very accurate idea as to what is causing your pain by the time we’re done. 
gravesend osteopath physiotherapist

How does Revitalize treat shoulder pain?

Once we have the diagnosis, we prioritise two things
We must give the shoulder the best chance to recover

 

If the shoulder is tired, damaged or sensitised, we need to give it a break. This doesn’t mean stopping exercise, basic movements or what you enjoy completely. It means that we need to teach you a better way of doing things. For example, if you drive or lift a lot, this may be reinforcing your pain. Almost hardwiring it. So by providing you with treatment, self administered treatment and exercises, we can reduce the pain before you lift. Or it may be a case of slightly changing how you’re moving to reduce the pain that you’re experiencing

 

In the clinic, treatment may look like massage, manipulation and acupuncture. If one of our online clients, we’ll be teaching you how to administer the exact same effect with gentle mobilisation exercises, deep self massage and stretches. Face to face or via video call, you’ll be in control every step of the way

We must repair what has been damaged

Once we have reduced the pain, it is likely there will be a lot of weak and shortened structures in your shoulder. We need to work to open these areas up again and improve strength. Strength and mobility drastically reduces your likelihood of reinjury. It also reduces the likelihood of needing more serious work such as surgery. 

 

By providing you with basic to advanced exercises, we can start to progressively restore amazing levels of flexibility and strength that will protect your shoulder now, and for future use.
gravesend osteopath physiotherapist

Success rate of treatment for Shoulder Pain at Revitalize

Shoulder injuries are one of our favourites to treat. Probably because we’re great at it! This is because we don’t only treat your pain, we empower you to treat your own pain as well. Many other practitioners will have you coming back more than you need to, because they don’t give you the right advice and self management between sessions.
Basically, if you’re not doing effective exercises between your sessions, you’re with the wrong practitioner. 
At Revitalize, it’s a must. One 45min appointment a week is never going to be as effective as a 45min appointment plus daily treatment and highly effective therapeutic exercise that you can self administrate every day
Often our patients are a bit shy to appear on camera. But luckily for you, just as we went online, we had an influx of patients with shoulder injuries. All of them were so happy with their progress they they offered to provide some video reviews. Daniel, for example, had pain for over 8 years before coming to see us. Check out some of the review below

8 years of shoulder pain eradicated in 10 days

8 years of shoulder pain eradicated in 10 days. This is fast but not an uncommon response to the right exercises.

Think of the shoulder, post injury, as going into a protective state. To reduce this state of protectiveness, we just need to show it what it can really do.

After working on his pain, we continued to work on “fear avoidance” on a conscious and subconscious level. Daniel has is now pain free, strong and confident in his shoulder’s ability

3 months of shoulder and forearm pain fixed in 2 appointments

One question I love to ask is “did you have any doubts before we started…” and Suzanne expresses herself perfectly.

Yes she had doubts how we were going to figure out what was going on. How we were going to fix her injury via video call etc.

But within 20mins, even before the appointment was up, she was confident in the process as she saw it working for her It was an absolute pleasure working with Suzanne and I look forward to seeing how her training progresses

Shoulder Pain and Tennis Elbow cured in 2 Appointments

Ray came to myself via video call with 1 year’s worth of agonising shoulder, elbow and forearm pain After 2 appointments he is 80-100% improved Check out what he has to say

Our Pain Team

gravesend osteopath physiotherapist personal trainer

Elliott Reid (M.Ost)

Osteopath
ellie bearman gravesend osteopath physiotherapist personal trainer

Ellie Bearman (B.Sc)

Sports Therapist
gravesend osteopath physiotherapist personal trainer

David Woodgate (M.Sc)

Sports Therapist

More patient stories

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