Testimonials

Whilst pregnant with my second child I noticed that my stomach went into a strange dome shape in certain positions. This continued post-partum and I mentioned it to my doctor at my 6 week check who assured me nothing was wrong. Thankfully, a chance conversation with a friend led me to Debs and a diagnosis of a diastasis of the rectus abdominis muscles. After an initial consultation I was informed that my separation was 16cm in length and 7cm at the widest point. Debs was confident that I could improve this within 12 months. 8 months later after a programme of sustained targeted exercises I have reduced my diastasis to 1cm width and closed the length to 5cm. The fact that my treatment has helped to strengthen my core and protect me from future back problems is wonderful. An added bonus, however, has been seeing my stomach look it’s flattest since my early 20s! (I’m now 42). I’m so much happier with how I look in my clothes and would definitely recommend a visit to Debs if you are concerned you have similar issues.

Carla Tomlinson

I have lived with a prolapse since the birth of my fourth child, some 27yrs ago. It had gradually deteriorated and, facing invasive surgery, I was referred to Deborah Schofield to see if anything could be done to improve the prolapse by looking at my pelvic floor muscles and bladder habits.

I will be honest, I had not expected this to help much. How wrong could I be! Deborah was such a professional and so analytical, caring and helpful. Thanks to a whole rethink on how I engage my pelvic and bladder muscles, I feel much more confident about controlling the prolapse without surgery. I would thoroughly recommend going for this physiotherapy service to both young and old. It was an education and I am very grateful for Deborah’s help.

Becky Packer – Nov 2017

During my first pregnancy I suffered with pelvic gIrdle pain, nothing seemed to help with the pain and night times were miserable. After giving birth to my beautiful boy, the pain improved significantly but did not disappear. I started exercising again and learnt to live with the pain. I started seeing Deborah when I was considering expanding my family and had many months of physiotherapy prior to my pregnancy with my daughter. My pain improved significantly and for the first time on nearly 5 years I could sleep without pain. When I became pregnant with my daughter I continued seeing Deborah and receiving physiotherapy treatment & increased the frequency of my appointments. I listened to her advice, continued Pilates and wore a Serola belt, in addition to receiving the regular treatment sessions. The pain did return but too much milder degree than in my first pregnancy and I felt it was far more manageable. I continued walking reasonable distances and working until I was 8 and a half months pregnant, something I had not thought would be possible at the start of my pregnancy. I gave birth to a lovely little girl and have not had any significant pelvic pain following this pregnancy. I can’t praise the care I received from Deborah highly enough, without her treatments I’m sure that my second pregnancy would have been very different. I did not think it would be possible to make such a difference to pelvic girdle pain by having physiotherapy and doing appropriate exercise until I had experienced it myself. Starting physiotherapy treatment pre-pregnancy and preparing my body for carrying a child made a massive difference rather than waiting for the problem to recur and then reacting to the pain.I’d highly recommend seeing Deborah for physiotherapy to anyone with PGP or who is or is considering pregnancy after previous PGP. It is possible to manage PGP despite all the pessimism that exists when you read about it or talk to healthcare professionals. Thanks Deborah for your care & treatment.

Sarah Sibley – Respiratory Consultant

I just wanted to say that Debbie your 100% one of the best things to happen to me this year!! Words can’t explain how much you’ve impacted my life and helped me get ‘me’ back. I wish someone had mentioned pelvic physio to me sooner but nevermind, I have you now and when people say to me “why are you able to do this now..?” I say that the techniques you’ve taught me have had such a massive impact on me. Along with cutting my hours down at work I am literally like a different person. I’m walking 20-30 thousand steps more a week compared to the summer. I can have sex and not be bed ridden the day after. I can walk up a hill with my friends and not be left in agony. It’s honestly amazing.
Emily December 2020

My story’s really complicated, but I am hoping this review will help other women in the same situation. I had vaginismus and wasn’t diagnosed until I turned 31 after years of suffering in silence and thinking that I wasn’t normal. I had been married for nearly 3 years and hadn’t been able to have sex with my husband.

Following a gynae procedure that I was told needed to be done under general anaesthetic to investigate intermenstrual spotting, the recovery from it took a real toll on me and my health, and essentially I thought I had developed vulvodynia. I was running out of options as every healthcare professional I went to, just didn’t seem to know what to do, and the pain I was feeling was just continuing.

Even though I had told doctors I had vaginismus, they still wanted to poke and prod me and didn’t seem to have any understanding of what the condition actually was – these were actual gynaecologists too, which just made me feel like I should just give up on getting better – if they didn’t know what was going on with me, then who would be able to figure it out?

After constantly searching the internet and forums for some answers for nearly 4 months of pain, someone recommended pelvic floor physiotherapy to me, and suggested that I go and see Deborah. Deborah has helped me navigate through vaginismus and I was recently signed off by her as my pain has completely gone, and I am now able to relax my pelvic floor normally. I didn’t have vulvodynia, I had extreme vaginismus.

I can’t recommend Deborah enough – she was empathetic and totally understood where I was coming from. She taught me some great techniques to help me progress every few weeks, gave me ‘homework’ to do in my spare time as this was an essential part of the treatment, and if it wasn’t for her then I would more than likely be in the same situation as I was in last year – in pain and still searching for answers.

Through Deborah’s sessions and the biofeedback, I now have a normal, relaxed pelvic floor, and I am on the next phase of my vaginismus treatment in the form of counselling. Physiotherapy and counselling need to go hand-in-hand, but due to the specialists that need to be involved on the counselling side, I am still on a very long NHS waiting list to even see someone. So I am continuing with the techniques that Deborah taught me until then.

Overall, I am halfway there, and I am so grateful to Deborah for helping me through such a tough time in my life. Her help and advice have been second to none and I only have her to thank in helping me navigate my body, understanding my concerns and essentially, helping me to overcome vaginismus – I didn’t think this was possible but now, I really have more hope for myself, and, my future with my husband. Thank you Deborah!
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MJ – January 2020

I finally found Debbie after 9 1/2 years of suffering with SPD/PGP to find answers for my pain and things to help. After the first realignment session (which I must admit scared me not knowing what to expect) my hips were level. I immediately felt less pain. She then got to work on releasing 9 years of compensating muscles. This work is still ongoing but I can really feel a difference. Not only that I presented her with a 5.5c, gap in my stomach muscles,which after 3 weeks of her ‘magic’ exercise reduced by 1.5cm… yay!!! Debbie us incredibly knowledgeable and super friendly. I highly recommend that you see her. I still have work to do, but after my consultation I left saying to my husband ” she understands what I’m going through, and I think she can fix me”. I wasn’t wrong.

Rebecca Payne

Deborah is absolutely fantastic. The treatment she has given me has been absolutely life changing- I’ve gone from having significant urge incontinence (going to loo at least every 45 minutes, several large leaks a day and being able to do any physical activity with out leaking). Deborah has worked miracles. I was really embarrassed and nervous, I’d had 6 months NHS physio so thought there was nothing that could be done for my issues. Deborah was sympathetic, kind, honest and encouraging. She really put me at ease with what is a very intimate examination. She really knows her stuff, explained why I had my symptoms, how I’d not been accurately diagnosed by the NHS and put an action plan together. Together we worked on stretching out my pelvic floor before we then worked on strengthening together. Over 5 months the change has been huge, I’m almost back to pre-pregnancy strength and my self-esteem and confidence have improved so much. I don’t worry about where the nearest loo us, and I’ve even been on bouncy castle! No tens lady for me. Cannot recommend her enough.

Jen Manton – 19 November 2017

I had the pleasure of experiencing a pregnancy massage yesterday. Deb made me feel extremely comfortable and the techniques that she used really helped with the tension in my shoulders and pain in my pelvis and legs. I slept really well last night, for the first time in ages. The fact that she has a special cushion which allows heavily pregnant ladies to lie on their fronts for the massage is heavenly! Thank you x

Alexandra Chiorando