Pain & the Musculoskeletal Body
When pain persists, something in the body has stopped moving as it should. Treatment is a careful, well-evidenced way of meeting it.
Practised in Hackney, London.
My practice is based on a reformulated view of Chinese medicine — a more direct, conversational form of acupuncture that's capable of invoking immediate physical effects. Sometimes that means relief in the room; sometimes it takes longer. Either way, most treatments use very few needles.
Acupuncture is, at its core, a way of communicating with the body's capacity to regulate itself. The clearer and more concise that communication, the more decisive the body's response. The whole approach is structured around the signal-to-noise ratio of treatment — saying less so the body can listen more carefully.
A useful course is usually four to six sessions: weekly for the first four, then spaced to fortnightly. From there, treatments can ease into a slower pace; the body learns the conversation.
One thing I always emphasise: if you're going to engage with acupuncture, it's worth giving it a proper go. Consistency in the first weeks is what makes the difference.
In the largest analysis of its kind — 39 trials and nearly 21,000 patients — acupuncture significantly outperformed both sham needling and usual care for chronic pain.
A level of durability that is unusual in any pain intervention.
The UK's National Institute for Health and Care Excellence recommends acupuncture for chronic primary pain — in the same guideline that withdrew its support for paracetamol, NSAIDs and opioids.
For migraine, tension headache and recurrent low back pain, acupuncture reduces frequency and recurrence — at least as effective as preventive medication, with fewer side effects, and with durability extending well past the treatment course.
Conditions commonly treated.
A non-exhaustive list — the system can hold more, but these are what most people arrive with.
Relief within 4–6 sessions.
Chronic back pain
Often idiopathic and intermittent, which makes it hard to triangulate. Acupuncture is well-suited to viewing the bigger picture — treating the body not as a simple mechanical system, but as a complex one. Issues are addressed on the various levels they arise and reside, from the local tissue and nerve supply through to the wider patterns of tension and imbalance that hold the picture in place.
Effects and relief are often felt immediately, with substantial results such as greater mobility without pain occurring within four to six treatments over a two-month period.
Felt in the first session.
Neck, shoulder & jaw
Tension that sits high in the body — often the residue of screens, stress, or the way the head and shoulders learn to brace against a held breath. Treatment combines local work with points further down the body that draw the pattern out.
Effects can be felt within the first session, with each subsequent treatment working to reduce the overall amount of stress and tension in the body; leading to greater relief whilst preventing future pain.
NICE-recommended for prevention.
Headaches & migraine
The evidence base here is among the strongest of any indication. Acupuncture gets to work very quickly to reduce the frequency of migraines and tension headaches — and is shown to also work preventatively.
Most patients see a meaningful drop in episode frequency right away, within four to six sessions usually proving sufficient to establish a sustaining baseline.
Eases the tension around the joint.
Knee, hip & joints
Osteoarthritic pain, post-injury stiffness, and the accumulated wear of running, dancing or thirty years of office posture. Treatment combines local points around the joint with whole-body work to ease compensation patterns above and below.
Whilst acupuncture doesn't reverse joint damage itself — it's very adept at relaxing the surrounding muscles and tissues which are often the underlying cause of pain and discomfort.
Change within one or two sessions.
Sciatica & nerve pain
Pain that travels — down a leg, into a foot, around the rib cage. Often described as electrical, burning, or numb. Treatment is paced carefully: identifying the implicated muscle groups that are causing impingement on the sciatic nerve, easing the local irritation, drawing the signal back along the channel, allowing the nerve to ease.
Most patients notice changes within the first session or two; with a frequent course of treatment leading to greater mobility and pain reduction over time.
For injuries that keep returning.
Sports & overuse
Tendinopathies, plantar fasciitis, shin splints, recurring strains — the injuries that don't quite resolve or keep returning to the same place. The work is targeted and comprehensive — with attention to the painful spots alongside broader solutions that address underlying patterns of tension and stress that can often be contributing factors to injury.
My movement has gotten much better — and especially around the affected areas, the difference is clear.
Always go away with at least one part of me feeling lighter.
I left feeling considerably less blocked.