How I help people with low back pain and sciatica in my physiotherapy clinic in Truro, Cornwall

My physiotherapy clinic in Truro, Cornwall is often busy with people wanting help with low back pain with or without sciatica. Many people find me when searching for physiotherapy for low back pain Truro or sciatica treatment near me Truro Cornwall because they’re looking for a clear, evidence‑based approach that gets them back to the coastal activities they love.

Over the years of helping people with back pain, I have developed a framework grounded in an ever‑evolving evidence base. The inspiration for my research review published in the Southwest Clinical Schools Journal came from the treatment framework I adopted from Peter O’Sullivan, the creator of Cognitive Functional Therapy (CFT) (O'Sullivan et al., 2018; Kent et al., 2023). It was so influential that I travelled to London last year to learn from him in person and completed his 3‑day Masterclass course, gaining my Level 1 CFT qualification.

If you live in Truro, Porthtowan or Newquay and your back pain is stopping you from enjoying the beautiful North Coast Cornish coastline, then let me explain why my approach — combining Cognitive Functional Therapy, holistic physiotherapy Cornwall principles, and lifestyle medicine — will help you get back to the activities you love.

Making sense of your back pain starts with listening to your story

How many times have you been to a Physiotherapist, Chiropractor or other healthcare provider with back pain or sciatica and they didn’t ask what you think is causing your pain, what your worries are, or what you expect from treatment?

Instead, you come away with a generic exercise sheet and a generic explanation: “Your back pain will either go away, or you’ll have to live with it.”

But no one has listened to your story.

What if I told you this might not be something you have to learn to live with?

Here are 9 themes of questions that anyone who attempts to help you with your back pain should ask — and what I will ask you if you come to my clinic:

1. Tell me the story of when it started, from the beginning.

2. What activities, sports or things do you love to do (and why), and how is your back pain impacting these?

3. What do you think is causing your back pain, and why do you think this cause can be helped?

4. What are your biggest worries or concerns regarding your back pain?

5. What are your daily habits and health like? (food, movement, sleep, stress, time for yourself)

6. Do you move differently now because of the pain?

7. How much support do you get from people around you?

8. When your back pain is at its worst, what are you doing? And when it’s at its best?

9. If you woke up tomorrow without back pain, what would you do?

   
   

Why do I ask all these questions?

Because they build a detailed journey of your back pain and allow me to understand how you’re experiencing it. This becomes our road map to recovery, part of my three‑pillar approach, and helps us create clear, workable goals.

Goal‑directed movements, activities and exercise for improving low back pain and sciatica

When you go on holiday, you start with the end destination in mind. When you go food shopping, you take a list (unless you forget it — which I often do).

But most people’s experience of physiotherapy exercise prescription is the opposite: fragmented, generic, and without rationale.

Many people I see at Tide Physiotherapy & Health in Truro — and in my NHS role — say they’ve already had physiotherapy. Their experience is often the opposite of the questions above, followed by a sheet of exercises that don’t relate to what they want to get back to doing.

The heart of rehabilitation should be around establishing what you want to get back to doing.

Within the first 10 minutes of seeing someone with back pain or sciatica, I’m already trying to figure out what they currently cannot do that they want to get back to doing. Every exercise, movement or activity we use is reverse‑engineered from your end goal.

You can have an exercise sheet if you want, but I prefer having you record me demonstrating your exercises with the coaching cues that worked for you. We are all visual learners, and this makes your rehab more meaningful.

Whole‑body healing: calming things down, rebalancing, and building capacity

When you’re in a scary situation, your body tightens, your heart rate increases, your breathing changes. When you get the flu, everything aches — even though you haven’t injured anything.

These are examples I often give in my physiotherapy clinic in Truro, Cornwall to explain how your immune, nervous and endocrine systems influence how your back feels.

The whole‑body healing pillar expands the lifestyle medicine approach within CFT and looks at your health system‑wide. Everything we do daily — food, stress, environment, sleep, movement — impacts low back pain and sciatica.

With a background in Sport & Exercise Science, and majoring in Nutrition, ongoing nutrition qualifications, and published writing on nutrition and pain, this is an area I feel is hugely underappreciated and fundamental to managing chronic back pain long‑term.

This is something I deliver consistently at Tide Physiotherapy & Health, and something many other root cause back pain specialists Truro providers do not explore.

Ready to make sense of your back pain?

If you’re ready to make sense of your back pain or sciatica, have a clear road map to recovery, and work with a physiotherapist who integrates lifestyle medicine, goal-directed movement, and evidence‑based rehab, then book your consultation now.

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References

Kent, P., Haines, T., O'Sullivan, P., Smith, A., Campbell, A., Schutze, R., ... & Hancock, M. (2023). Cognitive functional therapy with or without movement sensor biofeedback versus usual care for chronic, disabling low back pain (RESTORE): a randomised, controlled, three-arm, parallel group, phase 3, clinical trial. The Lancet, 401(10391), 1866-1877.

O’Sullivan, P. B., Caneiro, J. P., O’Keeffe, M., Smith, A., Dankaerts, W., Fersum, K., & O’Sullivan, K. (2018). Cognitive functional therapy: an integrated behavioral approach for the targeted management of disabling low back pain. Physical therapy, 98(5), 408-423.