Understanding Musculoskeletal & Complex Pain
Pain doesn’t always fit neatly into one area or diagnosis.
Many people live with ongoing or recurring pain that hasn’t settled as expected — even after rest, exercises, treatment, or reassuring scans. Symptoms may shift, flare, or overlap, making it hard to know what’s really going on or where to start.
This page is for you if you’re dealing with persistent musculoskeletal pain — including back, neck, shoulder, jaw, or more widespread pain — and you want a clearer understanding of how pain can persist, and how a whole-person approach may help.
You don’t need a perfect label or diagnosis. The aim here is to make sense of the bigger picture and help you decide which area best reflects your experience.
When pain doesn’t fit one label
Persistent pain rarely looks the same from day to day. For some people it comes and goes, for others it feels unpredictable or unreliable. Pain may shift between areas, spread, or be accompanied by fatigue, tension, or increased sensitivity.
Many people are told that scans look “normal” or that symptoms should have settled by now — yet the pain continues. This can be unsettling and often leads people to question their body or worry that something important has been missed.
In most cases, ongoing musculoskeletal and complex pain is not a sign of serious damage. More often, it reflects how the body and nervous system have adapted over time in response to injury, stress, illness, or repeated flare-ups.
How I understand pain
I work from the understanding that pain is complex and rarely the result of a single issue in the body’s tissue or structures.
Persistent pain is influenced by many factors, including movement habits, past injury, stress, sleep, workload, and how the nervous system has learned to respond.
Over time, the body can become protective, guarded, or sensitive — even when tissues are safe.
My focus is to help the body become safer and more adaptable again, using clear explanation, hands-on treatment where appropriate, guided movement, and practical self-care.
The main pain issues I work with
These are the key areas I focus on. Each link takes you to a page with more detail about how that type of pain is understood and approached.
Jaw Pain – TMJ Issues
Ongoing jaw tension, clenching, facial pain, headaches, or TMJ-related symptoms that haven’t settled as expected.
Shoulder Pain
Persistent shoulder, neck, or arm pain, stiffness, or restriction that feels slow to improve or keeps returning.
Back Pain & Sciatica
Ongoing or recurring back pain, stiffness, or pain spreading into the hip, buttock, or leg.
Fibromyalgia
Widespread pain, fatigue, sensitivity, or long-standing symptoms affecting multiple areas of the body.
What if none of these quite fit?
Many people don’t sit neatly in one category.
You may experience overlapping symptoms, a long or complicated health history, or changes in pain over time.
Some people aren’t sure whether their symptoms “count” as one condition or another — or whether this type of approach is appropriate for them at all.
A clear diagnosis isn’t always required to begin. A first appointment involves a full assessment and hands-on treatment, with time to understand your experience, identify patterns, and decide how best to move forward.
If you’re unsure or would prefer to talk things through first, you can also book a free telephone discovery call to ask questions and decide whether this is the right next step for you.