Musicians Clinic

Testimonials




A few Testimonials about Pauls' treatment and expertise


[ A lot of musicians do not wish their details of injuries to be associated with them, so, below are a few anonymised testimonials. ]

"I am a professional drummer and went to see Paul when I began to develop severe tension, numbness and shooting pains in the muscles along my forearm and in and around my wrist and thumb. Paul realised that my symptoms were probably due to a fractured Scaphoid bone in my wrist which had occured two years previously. I was getting these sensations every time I played and was in a lot of discomfort, practically unable to play.

On my first session with Paul, he listened closely to my description of the pain and tried to establish why it may have come about. He began work and was able to get to the root of the problem immediately.

After a single, very thorough session I had fantastic results and knew I had found the right man to help me get through this injury. The tension in my arm was massively reduced and the shooting pains all but gone. I was able to resume my practising and performing schedule straight away which was a huge relief. After 3 sessions with Paul my arm felt as good as new! Paul was also able to offer invaluable advice on how to avoid similar problems arising again.

I was extremely impressed with Paul's personal and sympathetic approach and delighted with the wonders he worked on the tension in my arm which I thought was going to keep me out of work for a LONG time . I would recommend him to anybody I know with any similar injuries."  James Titshall

"I had tendinitis in both hands, after improper use of the muscles - playing difficult pieces in long practice sessions without breaks, without doing the necessary stretching exercises and without thinking about my body. The problems were on and off for about 2 years until I decided to suspend my playing for a year, to take time to think and to cure the problem. During this time I completely recovered with the great help of Paul. He not just cured effectively the problems with the muscles and the tendons (through a simple physiotherapy) but also gave me a very good knowledge which I still use to maintain myself in a good health and prevent injuries. I sent some of my colleagues from the Royal Academy of Music to him, as he is a great specialist dealing with musician's injuries (his understanding is even deeper as he himself plays the guitar). I am really grateful to Paul and will recommend him to anyone. There is hardly anything that is not completely curable from the musician's injuries! :-) " Stanislav Hvartchilkov

"For two years I had suffered from a sharp pain in my index finger tip. It was so bad that it halted my violin playing and my career in the LSO. After seeing many specialists about the problem I found Paul by word of mouth. He found the pain source on the fingertip to be due to a 'playing' callous. This discovery was so simple and yet none of the people I had seen before Paul had ever even examined the fingertip. They were all looking for neck problems, psychological causes and other more exotic diagnoses such as Mortons neuroma. Paul showed me how to soften the callous and after two weeks I was back playing again. Forever grateful to Paul for saving me when so many others had failed me. "
"After 10 years at Cheethams I attended Guildhall. The workload increased and my right arm became very painful. The in-house therapists had not helped in the slightest and had told me to stop playing for a year. This brought me to tears of despair. After several weeks of pain when playing clarinet I went to see Paul. Through his sense of touch he could feel that my Brachio-radialis muscle was very tense and of course was where my pain was. He applied his special techniques and from that day to this I have not had any repeat of symptoms."
" My job was to play cello in the pits at a very long running West End musical. I had been playing the same thing for 25 years and was quite happy performing every night. I developed a pain in the middle of my ribcage at the back on the left which was crippling me. It had gone on for months. Paul gave me a few sessions and the pain ceased. He pointed out the postural distortion that had produced it and I changed my position accordingly. I have not had the pain since."
" I fell and fractured my left wrist in my 20's at the height of my young career. The fracture healed up but my ability to play violin was diminished greatly. Paul mobilised the wrist joints, stretched and massaged everything in my forearm and I haven't looked back since."
" For a year my right arm was in too much pain to continue my work as a jazz percussionist, I had been working for 20 years no problem then this intense pain stopped me from performing to my full ability. Yes I had been to many specialists but Paul solved the problem in the first session. He watched me play on you tube and made observations about my technique even before I arrived to see him, brilliant work, thank you. It was my Biceps tendon that was the source. He softened and stretched it and WOW the pain was gone. "
A very common problem is hypertonus of the Thenar (thumb) eminence. When these muscles becomme too tense, dense and short they greatly restrict the spread of the palm. This sate most often occurs in guitarists who use a plectrum, string players bow hand, pianists with limited octave stretches, and gardeners, carpenters, anything which involves gripping for long periods of time. The pictures below illustrate a self-help technique for your thumb muscles.

There are a few ways to combat the build up of what begins as simple muscle tension. Grip the thenar eminence in a 'pincer' hold. Explore the areas within your grip. Feel for tough, painful areas of muscle and then rhythmically squeeze them between your gripping hand. I am squeezing with my right hand. Note that the middle finger of my right hand is pressing onto my index finger to give additional pressure strength.

My view

Too many conditions are in fact quite simple to correct as long as the therapist has the sense of touch, experience and the techniques to genuinely help.