Pelvic Tilt

I had a new client recently (62 year old female), who came to me for pain right on her spine, just between her hips, on her right buttock and front of her thigh and knee pain.  Both her knees were giving her jip and she wondered if Bowen could help. 

I explained how Bowen works (as I usually do for new clients) and that we like to do an ‘all over’ assessment and treatment to make sure everything is properly balanced.  Quite often issues can be referred, in other words pain can be felt in one location that is caused by another being out of balance.

Having listened carefully to all her concerns, I asked her to climb aboard onto the treatment bench.  The first position is face down (prone) where my first surprise happened.  I’ve never, ever seen anyone quite so twisted in the pelvic region before and I’ve treated a few.  So much so, that I had to lean over and try to slip my fingers underneath her right hip, so convinced was I that she must have something underneath her hip that was forcing it upwards.  Her right buttock was at least 8cm higher than the left.  I wished I’d taken a photo before I started work.  I asked her if she felt like she was laying straight and flat, which she assured me she was and that she was comfortable.

I explained what I was doing and why as I started work, checking all the muscles, tendons and ligaments for excessive tension or discomfort as I went.  Oddly her leg length seemed ok, which is not usually the case with an out of balance pelvis.

Just before I needed to turn her over (supine), I rechecked her alignment and was greatly pleased to see that it was now only very slightly higher on the right side (about 1 cm).  Now would have been a good time to take another photo – hmmmm!

Anyway, I progressed with my treatment on all areas, but concentrating around and affecting the pelvic area, with very little actually done on her knees.  I explained to her how the pelvis can affect SO many other areas of the body if out of balance. All went very smoothly and she got up feeling very relaxed and ‘straighter’.

As she was such a chronic case (years) of pelvic tilt, I requested she return the following week to ensure that the treatment had stayed with her.  As often happens with an imbalance that’s been there for years, it may take a few treatments for the body to ‘learn’ to stay balanced.  Sometimes, people also have to learn to move differently too, as they now have more functional capacity than they’ve had for a long time.  Learning new habits, such as not always crossing your legs the exact same way (as it’s comfortable that way!) when in actual fact they are simply supporting an imbalance that is now no longer an issue.

Anyway, two more treatments and her pelvis was only slightly showing the imbalance and she reported she felt like she walked “like a soldier” for a couple of days (whatever that meant for her), until she became more comfortable with her newly balanced body.  Oh and she reported that her knees, hadn’t been a bother to her since the first treatment.  She’s off on a holiday now so we’ll see how she pulls up when she returns.  She had strict instructions to be VERY careful handling her luggage off the carousel as many, many clients do damage lifting and twisting while getting luggage from there.

If YOU have hip/pelvis problems contact us at Brilliant Living Solutions