I’m returning to a fitter, more able-bodied self. It’s wonderful….

I’ve had low back problems and neck issues since my teenage years. A combination of no fear, ADHD, gymnastics, and a genetic tendency towards lax joints probably didn’t help.

For most of my life I’ve seen osteopaths, physios, and other bodyworkers. I’ve spent thousands over the years, and it would usually help for a while, but I always ended up back in the same cycle.

Two years ago, after a fall, I fractured my wrist. What became gradually apparent afterwards was that I’d also injured my back and neck. Over time, things deteriorated: I couldn’t look behind, so I had to stop cycling, and I developed intense pain down both legs, radiating through my glutes.

Pain levels ranged from around a 6 up to a 9. (I’ve had meningitis, and that was a 10.) I thought I was sliding into long-term pain and disability, and Karen changed that.

After scans, I was referred for physiotherapy, but the NHS physio actually made the pain worse. I became increasingly dependent on pain relief. I’m a herbalist, but at that point, I was taking the maximum dose of high-strength prescribed pharmaceutical painkillers. I also don’t cope well with pain. It makes me grumpy, and it was affecting my ability to work and costing me money.

I met Karen through business networking. She gave me a couple of techniques to try, and I immediately had more freedom of movement in my neck, with no pain. That was the first sign that this might be different.

At our first online appointment, Karen assessed my posture and gait and was able to tell me something I’d needed to hear: this wasn’t simply “lack of strength” or “because of my weight” (I am overweight). It was a long-standing physical injury with years of postural adaptations, and the fall had worsened it catastrophically.

Karen started with simple mobilisers: small, gentle movements that helped me move more freely. If something caused pain, she reduced the intensity or change the mobiliser to suit. The whole process was intelligent, careful, and genuinely respectful of my body.

Karen is gently encouraging, never judgemental, and she doesn’t nag. Somehow she teaches you what to do and the information goes in without you realising. Over time I’ve built up a toolkit of techniques I can dip into at the first signs of recurrence, and since then I haven’t had a major problem.

Karen is also a trained therapist, and she’s been able to spot patterns that contribute to the physical issues. Now I can identify them too. As we sort out one thing, the next pops up and we deal with that, and gradually I’m returning to a fitter, more able-bodied self. It’s wonderful.

It also helps that Karen is enormous fun. I feel like I’m working with a friend who genuinely has my best interests at heart. She doesn’t nag, but she also doesn’t let bad patterns slide.

As well as the back and neck improvements, an incipient dowager’s hump (which runs in the women in my family) is reversing.

The only thing that limits my progress is that when things stop hurting, I forget to do the exercises. But when pain shows up, I now have tools in my arsenal that can solve the problem, and if I can’t, Karen is right there to help me deal with it.

This isn’t for you if you want someone to “fix” you. It’s absolutely for you if you want to take responsibility, understand what’s happening in your body, and become genuinely pain-free. And this was all achieved online.

If I had to sum up working with Karen in three words: Effective, Safe, and Fun.

Katherine Bellchambers