Chronic Pain
Management

Chronic pain is pain that has lasted more than three months, or longer than the original problem should have taken to heal. Physiotherapy for chronic pain works differently from treatment for a recent injury. Rather than searching for damage to repair, the aim is to rebuild what you are able to do, gradually and safely, and to reduce how much pain restricts your day.

That difference matters, because in long-standing pain the nervous system itself becomes more sensitive. Pain stops being a reliable measure of how much damage is present. It is why a scan can look reassuring while the pain remains real and severe, and why rest, repeated passive treatment and stronger painkillers so often stop helping after a while.

Treatment at APARC is built around assessment first. Your physiotherapist examines how you move, what you have stopped doing and what has already been tried, then sets a starting level you can actually manage. From there, graded exercise and pain education do most of the work, with manual therapy and other treatments used where they help you move more comfortably rather than as the treatment in itself.

We think it is worth being straightforward about the limits. Physiotherapy will not reverse arthritis or make a disc bulge disappear, and it does not replace medication your doctor has prescribed. Most people improve what they are able to do; becoming completely free of pain is a less realistic goal than living well with far less restriction, and any clinic promising otherwise is overselling.

For a fuller explanation of why pain persists after tissue has healed, read our guide to understanding and managing chronic pain through physiotherapy. If your pain is recent or follows a new injury, orthopaedic physiotherapy is the more relevant service.

Most chronic pain is not dangerous. But a small number of symptoms need same-day medical assessment rather than a physiotherapy appointment. Please contact your doctor or nearest emergency department, rather than booking with us, if you have:

• Loss of bladder or bowel control, or numbness around the groin, buttocks or inner thighs
• New or rapidly worsening weakness in a leg or arm
• Unexplained weight loss, fever, or night pain that wakes you and does not settle with a change of position
• Pain following a significant fall or accident, particularly if you have osteoporosis or take long-term steroids
• A history of cancer, with new or unfamiliar pain

These are not reasons to panic. They are reasons to be seen by a doctor first. If none of them apply, an assessment is a sensible starting point, and you do not need a referral to book one.