Just like the alignment experts will take x-rays and show you how misaligned you are, the so-called postural experts will tell you, your shoulders are slouched, you have a hump on your upper back or your chin is poking forward, literally everyone with neck pain is pretty much told the exact same thing, almost like it’s scripted, the supposed experts conveniently leave out the fact that pretty much everyone without neck pain have very similar findings, some may even draw lines that act like like neon lights that show you how bad your posture is. This helps create more insecurity around your posture and pain while also giving them more authority, which greatly increases the placebo effect. People are much more likely to commit to expensive therapy to “fix” their posture. If you were to get practical postural advice as shown in the above video, i.e getting a variety of postures throughout the day rather than having a specific type of posture, the postural experts can’t actually monetise fixing your posture which goes against their entire business model.
They may not be experts at fixing your posture, but they are defiantly the experts at getting you to believe it needs to be fixed and they’re the ones to do it.
The person treating you has an invested interest in having you believe they fixed your posture, if you want to see how much your posture has actually changed ask a colleague or family member to take a photo when you’re not expecting it and I can almost guarantee not much would have changed.
it’s also worth mentioning, if you’re getting months of treatment and your pain improves this may not have anything to do with the treatment or because your posture improved, it could be the natural course of your pain, for 50%-60% of people, their pain would of resolved in that time without treatment. If the treatment is based solely on your posture the underlying factors that lead you to need treatment in the first place may be neglected so the pain often returns quickly.
From a personal point of view, I wish I could spend 10-15 minutes treating, do some adjustments and give some generic stretches and advice to “realign you” or “fix your posture”, If pain was so simple, most people wouldn’t be in pain and there would be no need for so many different therapies being offered. However, from an ethical point of view I know this isn’t really achieving much for most of my clients. Instead I do a 30-45 minutes hands on, treating several potential pain causing generators of your spine. This may be time consuming and physically demanding but I can achieve a lot more in that time. I also take the time to provide day-to-day and self management strategies as well as lifestyle advice for best results.
