Physio – Tonic Physiotherapy

Physiotherapy

A different kind of Physio

Our aim is help optimise your level of ‘wellness’, whatever that may mean for you. Wellness is not simply the absence of illness or injury. You can be ‘well’ even with pain, an injury or illness and, equally, you can be ‘unwell’ without.

Whether you are an injured athlete or dancer, or simply stressed and tired and struggling to get through your day, our unique approach can help. We provide a truly integrated and holistic mind-body approach to wellness.

And while you may need some help with this initially, we want you to be empowered to maintain wellness without us! So our focus is on helping you develop strategies you can maintain at home (or at work, sport or dance), rather than making you dependent on visiting us for ‘treatment’.

Generally speaking, everyday habits (including movement and postural habits, but also many more), need to be changed for lasting improvement and true wellness. This means ‘passive’ treatments alone (eg. hands-on therapy) won’t necessarily be sufficient for lasting change. This requires ‘active’ involvement from you, whether through exercise, awareness of posture and breathing habits, or lifestyle changes.

We help with all kinds of things that can get in the way of “wellness”:

movement and functional problems – whether caused by pain, injury, stiffness, instability, hypermobility or weakness
stress issues – including burn-out, anxiety or depression
fatigue or lack of energy – including chronic fatigue, ME, adrenal fatigue, fibromyalgia and other medical conditions
poor sleep
lifestyle habits

Vicki’s practice is unique in that she combines Specialist-level Physiotherapy with Yoga Therapy to provide a truly holistic approach to wellness. This blends the best of evidence-based practice in both Western and Eastern medicine.

So we do use these common PHYSIOTHERAPY treatments:

exercise prescription
muscle re-education & movement retraining
stretches
hydrotherapy
advice and education

as well as these when it is warranted:

soft tissue massage & myofascial release
joint mobilisation & manipulation
taping & bracing

And because of additional training and expertise, we use these* too:

PILATES – for pain management, rehabilitation & conditioning
Kinesiotaping – a specialised form of elastic taping
dry needling

* these techniques are not standard in Physiotherapy and require additional training

And as Vicki is an IAYT-Certified Yoga Therapist, she also incorporates a range of YOGA practices into her programmes. See here for more information on the Yoga techniques Vicki uses and teaches.

The treatment and self-help techniques used with each client are carefully chosen based on:

comprehensive assessment (both 1-hour initial and ongoing reviews) of body posture, biomechanics, movement, flexibility, strength, control, balance, habits (and more)
client needs, values, priorities and circumstances
up-to-date scientific research demonstrating maximum benefit for particular conditions

To understand more about Physio, Pilates, Yoga and Yoga Therapy, see our FAQs and individual Services pages. For more on evidence-based Physio and Yoga Therapy, also see our Facebook page.

We work in close partnership with our clients, listening to your story to help ascertain the underlying causes for problems, setting goals that fit with your needs and circumstances, and assisting you to self-manage issues. We want to teach you the skills required to take care of your own body (and mind)!

We also commonly work with other health professionals (eg. other physios, chiropractors, OT’s etc) to provide a complementary and multi-disciplinary approach for our clients.