Occupational Therapy

Next Wave Occupational Therapy focuses on managing your pain and helping you get back to your daily life. We develop a treatment plan that reduces your pain and improves your function.

Whether you suffer from complex or chronic pain or even chronic fatigue, you can achieve life-changing improvements with occupational therapy.

Next Wave Occupational Therapy offers individual consultations, home visits and telehealth. You can also apply for NDIS support for our occupational therapy services.

Our mental health occupational therapist provides help for people people who also need psychological support.

 

Who can benefit from occupational therapy?

Anyone who suffers from chronic pain or fatigue can benefit from Next Wave’s occupational therapy, as follows

  • Referred pain (headaches, migraines, carpel tunnel syndrome)

  • Chronic Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS)

  • Neural pain (MS or spinal injuries)

  • Muscle pain and stiffness

  • Chronic pain

  • Arthritis (Rheumatoid, Inflammatory, Osteoarthritis)

  • Incontinence

  • Pelvic Floor Dysfunction

  • Persistent abdominal pain

  • Chronic Pelvic Pain

  • Musculoskeletal pain

  • Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (EDS)

  • Fibromyalgia/ Chronic widespread pain

  • Functional Neurological Disorder (FND)

  • Chronic fatigue Syndrome (CFS/ME)

Occupational therapy at Next Wave builds confidence, hope and quality of life.

 

Occupational therapist treating a person with complex chronic pain

Occupational Therapist OT treating chronic pain

Complex pain

A diagnosis of complex pain is given when your pain has been present for more than 3 months and is negatively impacting your quality of life. It doesn’t respond to usual pain treatment and pathology has ruled out other more serious disease.

Complex pain may be associated with conditions such as arthritis, a centralized pain syndrome, neuropathic pain or idiopathic pain with no known cause.

Next Wave Occupational Therapy focuses on self-management, helping you improve function and life participation without exacerbating your pain.

We help you understand the cause of your pain by identifying what body mechanisms, thoughts, feelings and activities may be contributing to (or resulting from) it persisting.

Chronic Pain Management

Next Wave Occupational Therapy provides pain care treatment which focuses on helping people live well, despite pain. Pain becomes chronic when it persists for more than 12 weeks despite treatment.

There are many strategies that can help people to not only manage chronic pain but also to live a meaningful life.

Our OT Pain Care Program focuses on helping people to understand why their pain persists. OT Pain management teaches people ways to manage pain such as pacing, use of assistive technology and equipment, sensory modulation and stress management.

We help people set goals, build functional capacity, manage stress and increase energy levels so they can do the daily living, work or leisure activities that matter.

 

Occupational therapist talking to someone with fatigue

Women’s Health

Every woman is unique and has different needs across the lifespan. Next Wave Occupational Therapists support women as their physical, emotional, and spiritual needs change throughout life. We help women to reconnect with all dimensions of their life and find ways to bring balance within their current life demands.

Women’s Health occupational therapists can help with:

  • Persistent pain (Endometriosis, headaches, pelvic and period pain)

  • Pregnancy and post-partum help

  • Stress management, anxiety, post-natal depression

  • Fatigue, energy and sleep

  • Menopause Health

  • Pelvic Floor Health and Continence

We help you to build balance, vitality and enjoyment in your life.

Find out more here

Chronic fatigue

Characterised by profound tiredness that doesn’t go away with rest and with no known cause, chronic fatigue is a debilitating condition. Diagnosis usually occurs after six months of unrelenting symptoms which can include insomnia, extreme tiredness, memory loss, reduced concentration, headaches, orthostatic intolerance, and muscle and joint pains.

With many different presentations, Next Wave Occupational Therapy focuses on managing symptoms with a holistic approach delivering what an individual person needs.

  • Managing fatigue symptoms begins with a thorough assessment and meaningful goal setting. Testing includes sensory modulation, cognition, sleep, heart rate, pain, fatigue, post exercise malaise (PEM), digestion and immune function.

  • Hands-on therapies, massage or acupressure, help to reduce discomfort and improve your quality of life.

  • Energy management strategies focus on you being able to do the self-care, work and leisure activities that are most important to you.

 

Occupational Therapist OT giving soft tissue massage

 

Soft Tissue Therapy

Soft tissue therapy encompasses a range of therapies that are used to treat injuries, pain and stiffness. These therapies include myofascial trigger point release, soft tissue massage and acupressure.

  • Myofascial trigger point release is used to treat contracted muscles, restore normal movement and help your body heal.

  • Soft tissue massage is used to reduce tension and pain in your joints, muscles and tissues.

  • Acupressure (like acupuncture) is used to treat energy systems by applying manual pressure to specific points on your body.

An occupational therapy approach also assesses what the contributing factors are to the pain or muscle injury. This can include stress, poor sleep, positioning, nutritional status, activity levels.

For more information on Next Wave Occupational Therapy, call us on 08 9337 6460 or send us an email enquiry. If you want to make an appointment with one of our occupational therapists, please book online.