Mensendieck

About Mensendieck exercise therapy

Walking, sitting down, bending, lifting: we move all day, mostly without thinking. Everyone has their own posture and way of moving, but these are not always good for your body. That is how complaints of the back, neck or shoulder can develop.

The cause may be physical overload from sport or work, a chronic condition or pregnancy. Mental overload often plays a part too: pressure at work, a busy home, major life events or worries. We have a lot of experience with sleep problems, burnout, stress, dizziness, hyperventilation and anxiety or panic.

Mensendieck exercise therapy is a recognised paramedical profession in the Netherlands. We look not only at your complaint but at you as a whole. The aim is to improve the way you move so that complaints stay away in the short and the long term.

Treatment

You can come to us without a doctor’s referral. We are trained to make a sound diagnosis and to assess whether your complaint can be treated with exercise therapy.

Treatment starts with an intake interview about your complaint and your circumstances, followed by a physical examination of your posture and the movements that cause your complaints. We discuss the findings so you understand how the complaint developed and what you can do about it yourself.

Together we make a plan. In each session you practise under guidance, and at home at the pace we agree. The exercises fit into daily life, so they take little extra effort. In follow-up sessions we adjust them to your progress.

Complaints

Mensendieck exercise therapy helps with complaints that show in posture or movement, such as:

• Back pain
• Neck, shoulder and arm complaints
• Hip, knee and foot complaints
• Pelvic complaints, also during pregnancy
• Scoliosis
• Osteoarthritis
• Ankylosing spondylitis
• Chronic pain
• Headache
• Dizziness (BPPV and PPPD)
• Complaints during or after sport
• Trauma after an accident
• Stiffness with ageing
• Breathing problems
• Hyperventilation and anxiety
• Stress and panic
• Burnout and overstrain
• Sleep problems
• Physical complaints with a psychological cause

Sleep exercise therapy

If you have trouble falling asleep, staying asleep, or wake too early, sleep exercise therapy (SOT) can help. SOT looks at the full 24 hours: the day affects the night, and a bad night affects your day. We work on the length, quality and timing of your sleep, using breathing and relaxation exercises, insight into sleep behaviour and sleep hygiene, and mindfulness.

Dizziness therapy

Dizziness can have many causes. For two common forms, exercise therapy can help well.

BPPV (benign paroxysmal positional vertigo): short, intense spinning dizziness with certain head movements, for example when you turn over in bed or look up. It is caused by loose crystals in the balance organ. A simple repositioning manoeuvre of the head, such as the Epley manoeuvre, often resolves the complaints within one to a few sessions.

PPPD (persistent postural-perceptual dizziness): long-lasting dizziness or unsteadiness on most days, often worse when standing, walking or in busy surroundings such as a supermarket. Your balance system has stayed on high alert, for example after an earlier attack of dizziness or with Ménière’s disease. With gradually built-up balance and habituation exercises, breathing and relaxation, you learn to move with confidence and ease again.

Saskia specialises in dizziness. She is one of 17 therapists in Amsterdam listed in the overview of the Dizziness Knowledge Centre (Kenniscentrum Duizeligheid), an initiative of Gelre hospitals to improve care for people with dizziness.

We start with an intake and examination. If dizziness comes on suddenly together with, for example, problems speaking, seeing or swallowing, or loss of strength, call your GP or 112 straight away.

Combined with shiatsu

Stress is an important reason why movement complaints persist. Shiatsu relaxes body and mind, and makes you more aware of which muscles you do and do not use during the exercises. If a combination can help your recovery, we will discuss it with you. We only do this if you want to.