With Hannah Ferguson M.OMSc. BSc
Do you have foot pain on a regular basis, and have you accepted it as normal? Because foot pain should not be normal. Unfortunately, the foot is complicated, and it can often take more than just specific foot care or exercises to get rid of your pain.
My name is Hannah Ferguson, and I am incredibly lucky to come from a family of health practitioners - my parents are both foot specialists and feet were my first introduction to manual therapy!
My parents both started to learn manual therapy techniques for the feet when they were getting frustrated with a lack of progress with a certain population of their foot pain patients. They invited me along to a manual therapy course to see if it was something that sparked an interest with me after I had finished a full year of intense anatomy study. I found that the rationale made perfect sense to me - sometimes these darn foot bones shift out of place and can cause all sorts of problems, and they just need some help to get back to where they need to be!
It should not be surprising that the foot bones shift - we walk a lot of kilometers with our feet over the years and experience a lot of changes in our bodies! From weight fluctuations, trips and falls leading to ankle injuries, bad shoes, bad flooring, not to mention the changes that occur during and after pregnancy... the feet have to deal with a lot!
So, why would we not assess and treat the entire body when considering foot problems? The way we stand; where we bear our weight on our feet - all impact us. Sometimes a foot problem is not just a foot problem! Often, when I asses the foot I find related problems all the way up the legs to the hips, back, and sometimes up to the shoulders! Our body is all connected, and we should treat it as such.
Osteopathic practitioners want to understand why your body has made these changes and I have substantial experience with figuring out the “why” of foot and leg pain. If you or a loved one have foot, knee, or leg pain - I have come to help!