Scar Therapy
Scar therapy – What is it? Why is it important?
I decided to train in scar therapy as it is a great cross over of my 2 main specialities, Sports massage and Lymphatics. We can develop scarring from any kind of trauma, weather it was an accidental injury or from a surgery.
Scar tissue can inhibit your range of movement, cause pain, discomfort locally or from the pain referring elsewhere. Scars can be a constant reminder of the trauma you had to endure either from cancer treatment or from a horrible accident.
Scar tissue can also impact the lymphatic system, causing what i call a road block in the lymphatic pathways, which can cause swelling around the scar because the fluid can’t get passed the thickened tissue. This also can reduce your range of movement.
Some scars can look undesirable to the person who has them, making them feel self conscious. Scar therapy can help improve the range of movement, decrease pain and discomfort from releasing and breaking down the adhesions and fibrotic tissue. By doing so we can also improve the appearance of the scar too, creating a better relationship the client and the scar have with each other.
I can also help with the internal scarring you may have from the injury or from key hole surgery for example as this can have a huge impact on your mobility as well if the scarring deep within you is tough and adhered.
I also can treat new fresh scars as well as old historic scars. Although older scars to take longer to make a change to we can still do this though.
I also address your mental health associated with your scar and help you through this too. The treatment plan I put in place for you is a holistic approach making sure you are happy, comfortable and well cared for throughout.
During your treatment together we find out what the goals you would like to achieve from the therapy. Then i devise a plan that I feel is suited to you which may involve kinesio taping, Deep Oscillation therapy, recomendation of applying silicone gels, sheets or creams and specific massage techniques.
We take before and after photos so we can easily track your progress.
Case study - Knee replacement scar
This was one of my case studies – A lovely client of mine had a knee replacement surgery and she was struggling with the range of movement in her knee, feeling like she couldnt bend it fully. She was getting pain, swelling and being at work by the end of the day she was really struggling. After just 2 appointments we made significant inprovement, even after one treatment we could see and feel it. look at the photos below, this was just after one single appointment, at the start of the appointment and then at the end. I manageged to release the scar tissue in places and reduce a lot of swelling bringing down the decongestion she was experiencing. We do still need to do some more work on it but she is making wonderful progress.
Case study - Accidental stab wound
This was another Case study I did – Another lovely client of mine had a terrible accident over 20 yeas ago – so a historic scar, where she fell onto a wine glass that was on the floor, crushing it against the sofa and her body. Resulting in it breaking and penetrating around 5cm deep into her lower back. Understandably she suffered some mental trauma with this accident and struggled even touching it due to having lots of sensitivity around the area. She wanted to be able to perform yoga without feeling it and to not be scared of it any more.
Below you can see the before and after pictures. We released some of the internal scarring that was causing pain nearest to her spine, the scar is now softer and protruding slightly outwards now it’s not adhered to the tissue below, giving her better range of movement and taking the pressure away from her spinal area where she was leaning on in yoga.
