The cause of your pain is not located at the location of your pain.
Holistic Podiatry puts the podiatry attention of the feet into the context of a BIGGER picture of your whole body and overall health.
So, although you may come in complaining of an ingrowing toenail and thick callous, the reason you have these is the same reason you also have a sore knee and hip, low back pain, shoulder troubles, tight neck muscles and/or headaches. However, you probably would not even think of mentioning these to your Podiatrist and it probably did not come up in conversation.
In fact, I cannot look at just the feet, because that is not where the answers are. I see the effects of improving how your heel strike controls your posture and joint alignments positively, reducing the need for your body to use energy to maintain and move with a poor posture. The energy saved can then be used by your body at its next priority. In this way your overall health improves. Ultimately, the effect also translates into improving the foot structure and reducing the foot discomforts and deformities developing throughout your body.
The body always gives clues as to its next priority. While advancing my patients’ foot structure towards their best position, we discuss their progress, challenges and their next options, whether in mind, body or spirit, that they are looking into.
… During the years I have met, studied and worked with chiropractors and dentists as a team using the philosophy of Chirodontics©. The brilliant work of Dr Bob Walker, chiropractor and medical biochemist, simplified the complexities of all our professions and integrated them with his biochemistry knowledge to present an understanding of the goal of the whole body – macro and micro- working together. Rather than focussing only on our individual areas, we learnt to work as a team with our mutual patients to unravel and rebalance their bodies structurally, chemically and energetically.
It was Bob’s teaching in the early 1990’s, that the body needed to be level which gave me the focus to use my podiatry knowledge and skills towards the goal of leveling the hips to assist good posture.