WHAT IS CONNECTTHERAPY?
ConnectTherapy is a whole person, total body approach to discovering why you are experiencing your problem.
Using this unique and revolutionary framework we not only look at how your body moves but how all aspects of your life are contributing to the symptoms you’re feeling.
By looking at how everything in your body is connected, we aim to identify the reason for your pain. We do this by recognising the true underlying cause of your symptoms could be other regions of your body that are not supporting optimal movement.
Your ankle sprain as a teenager that you think is no longer a problem may be causing your body to change the way you walk and stand, leading to hip pain. Maybe the dislocated shoulder you had when playing rugby might be causing your upper back and neck to be stiff because these areas were helping to look after your shoulder when it was sore. Or the old twisted knee you suffered may no longer hurt but the muscle imbalances that developed could be contributing to your lower back pain.
These regions, the ones that are the underlying cause of the symptoms you’re experiencing now, are known in ConnectTherapy as Drivers.
WHAT IS A DRIVER?
A Driver is the underlying cause of your pain and symptoms. This area does not have to be painful but you can think of it as the area of your body that is the ‘criminal’ or ‘culprit’ while your painful, symptomatic region is the ‘victim’.
Consider all the ‘core’ rehab you’ve been doing to try and help your lower back pain. Maybe you’ve been doing all the right things but you’re missing the true Driver of why your core isn’t doing what it needs to.
By treating the Driver, as well as addressing the specific needs of your current injury, we not only help you recover from your current problem but help you manage your body in the long run and experience a better way of moving.
WHAT IS THE THORACIC RING APPROACH?
The Thoracic Ring Approach is the innovative and revolutionary 3D assessment and treatment model used for addressing issues with the thoracic spine and rib cage that has been created by Dr. LJ Lee.
Traditional physiotherapy (as well as other manual therapies like chiropractic) has viewed the thoracic spine as a very stiff structure and hasn’t really looked at this region of your body as a 3D model. Historically we’ve tried to push, poke, and manipulate the thoracic vertebrae to improve how it moved. The thoracic spine and rib cage were not really assessed as a functional unit.
LJ’s research into the entire thorax has proven this wrong. The thorax is an incredibly flexible part of your body with many moving parts (think of how much a golfer rotates their upper body during their swing).
Each thoracic ring is made up of 2 vertebrae in your spine, the ribs on the right and left at each level, and the connections of the ribs into your sternum. Each ring needs to be able to move independently of one another and be controlled as a functioning unit.
A dysfunctional thorax can be the reason, or Driver, for many different types of pain. Consider all the rotator cuff strengthening you have been doing to help your shoulder pain; maybe the missing link to finally feeling better is the part of the body your shoulder sits on, the thorax. What about all the core rehab you’ve been doing; potentially your muscles aren’t functioning optimally because the upper part of your core, the thorax, isn’t able to move the way it should. Maybe the constant tightness you feel across the top of your back and shoulders that won’t release with massage needs to be looked at from a 3D perspective.
All our therapists at Balance in Motion have undergone extensive post-graduate training in ConnectTherapy and the Thoracic Ring Approach (we’ve even assisted LJ in teaching the models to other Physios!), and we’re all able to identify whether your thorax is a key contributor to what you’re feeling.
