Our clinic was established in 2006 – this year, we celebrate our 10th anniversary!
What were you doing 10 years ago? 2006 was the year when Sven-Göran Eriksson stepped down from his role as England manager, Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond cheated death after crashing a jet powered car, and Daniel Craig made his triumphant debut as James Bond, with Casino Royale becoming the highest-earning 007 movie to date.
It was also the year when the Scoliosis SOS Clinic opened its doors for the very first time. Erika Maude, the Clinic’s founder, had recently returned from a trip to Spain, where she completed an intensive regime of exercise-based treatments to correct the curve in her spine. Erika was diagnosed with scoliosis at the age of 11, and after a back brace failed to improve her condition, she was told that she would probably need to undergo a complex surgical operation in order to straighten her back.
However, Erika decided to refuse surgery, and instead journeyed to Europe to try something called the Schroth method. This technique uses stretches and exercises to correct the patient’s spinal curvature and improve their overall quality of life (e.g. by reducing pain and improving mobility). Erika’s Schroth treatment worked exceptionally well, and it was this experience abroad that inspired her to found the Scoliosis SOS Clinic upon her return to the UK.
The Clinic’s original location was in Suffolk, and as the first non-surgical scoliosis clinic in the UK, it quickly became very popular indeed, with countless scoliosis sufferers travelling great distances to receive the treatments that Erika had brought back from Spain. To begin with, Scoliosis SOS patients were treated using the Schroth method alone, but over time, it became clear that the Clinic’s patients would be better served by a treatment programme that incorporated a range of different techniques rather than focusing on just one.
And so the ScolioGold method was born. This multi-faceted treatment method includes a number of different therapeutic techniques from all over the world, including:
- Schroth Method (Germany)
- Rigo-Schroth Method (Spain)
- Osteopathy (USA)
- Taping (Japan)
- FITS Method (Poland)
- SEAS Method (Italy)
- Myofascial Release (USA)
- Orthopaedic Medicine (UK)
- Trigger Point Therapy (USA)
With this new, more effective treatment programme helping scoliosis sufferers to achieve even better results, Scoliosis SOS continued to grow, and in 2009, the Clinic relocated from Suffolk to its current home in
London. Moving to the UK capital made ScolioGold therapy significantly more accessible to patients from further afield, and as a result, the Clinic’s patient list has grown exceptionally diverse over the last few years. Visit our
Overseas Patients page for a few examples – we’ve welcomed people from many, many different countries where non-surgical scoliosis treatments simply aren’t available at present.
It’s now 2016, and we at Scoliosis SOS have been treating patients for a full 10 years. Throughout that time, our primary goal has always remained the same: to offer scoliosis sufferers a real alternative to surgery and help them to live their lives to the full. Scoliosis (and the other conditions that we can help with, such as
hyperkyphosis) can be severely debilitating, causing extreme suffering for innumerable people across the globe. But our exercise therapy has given hundreds of people – including young children, seniors, and everyone in between – the chance to lead a better life, one free of back pain and the constant, looming fear of a risky operation.
Our treatment methods are becoming more advanced and more innovative on a daily basis, and the Scoliosis SOS Clinic remains one of the world’s leading lights in the field of non-surgical spinal treatment. We hope to keep it that way for many years to come – here’s to the next decade!
If you suffer from scoliosis or hyperkyphosis, please contact Scoliosis SOS today to find out more about how we can help you.
We’re very lucky here at Scoliosis SOS – our clinic is staffed by a skilled team of chartered physiotherapists, all of whom are utterly dedicated to helping our patients to change their lives for the better.
If you choose to attend one of our 4-week scoliosis treatment courses, here are some of the people that you can expect to meet:
Georgina (Georgie) Frere is our Clinical Manager and one of our Consultants. She graduated from Cape Town University in South Africa with a BSc (Hons) Degree in Physiotherapy. She is both a chartered physiotherapist (registered with the CSP and HCPC) and an accredited Langer practitioner. She also holds Level 1 and Level 2 qualifications in dry needling, and recently gave a scientific presentation at the 2018 SOSOSRT conference in Dubrovnik, Croatia.
Charlotte (Charlie) Kydd is one of our Deputy Clinical Managers and Consultants. She holds two BSC (Hons) degrees, the first in Sport & Exercise Science from Birmingham and the second in Physiotherapy from King’s College London. Besides being a chartered physiotherapist, an accredited Langer practitioner and trained in Kinesiology taping, she also holds a Diploma in Sports Massage. Recently, she has developed a passion for hydrotherapy (having attended an Aquatic Physiotherapy Foundation Course) and enjoys finding ways to combine both land- and water-based exercise programmes. In 2018, she attended the 15th international SOSORT conference in Dubrovnik, Croatia, and she is currently an Expert Panellist for the James Lind Alliance (JLA) Scoliosis Priority Setting Partnership.
Chrissy Pilcher is one of our Deputy Clinical Managers. She has a master’s degree in Rehabilitation Science from the University of Brighton, as well as a BSc (Hons) Degree in Exercise Science from Bournemouth University. She is a chartered physiotherapist (registered with both the CSP and the HCPC), and she has been trained in Integrated Myofascial Therapy (Level 1), Mulligan Concept Mobilisations with Movement (Level 1), and acupuncture. She is also an accredited Langer practitioner.
Luke McKendrick holds a Master of Science Degree in Physiotherapy from Oxford Brookes, plus a BSc (Hons) Degree in Sports and Exercise Science from the University of Wolverhampton. Like our other ScolioGold Therapists, he is a chartered physiotherapist (registered with the CSP and HCPC). He is also certified in the SEAS method.
Mollie-Rose Turkentine has a BSc (Hons) Degree in Sports and Exercise Science from the University of Brighton. In addition to this, she holds a First Aid Qualification and a Level 2 in Personal Training. She recently became the highest-qualified Sports Massage Therapist in London’s Square Mile when she passed her BTEC Level 5 Professional Diploma in Sport and Remedial Massage Therapy.
Kara Cattell – pictured above, far right – completed a BSC (Hons) Degree in Sports Therapy at the University of Essex. She has extensive experience as a sports massage therapist, first aider, and was previously a judge for acrobatic gymnastic competitions. She is also a certified Medical Acupuncture and Dry Needling practitioner.
Adam Frymorgen – pictured above, 2nd from left – holds both a Master of Science and a Bachelor of Science Degree from the University of Physical Education in Krakow, Poland. A chartered physiotherapist (CSP and HCPC registered), he is also trained in sports rehabilitation.
All of our physiotherapists are certified practitioners of the ScolioGold method, our own unique therapeutic method that is specifically designed to combat scoliosis and other spinal conditions. If you would like to find out whether our physiotherapists can help you, please contact us now to arrange an initial consultation at our clinic in London.
Last updated 8 March 2019.
Have you attended one of our scoliosis treatment courses? If so, we’d love to read your review!
We at the Scoliosis SOS Clinic love getting feedback from our patients and their families. Reviews help us to make sure that we’re doing everything we can for the people who visit our clinic, and so we’d really appreciate it if you could take a couple of minutes to give us a rating and tell the world about your Scoliosis SOS experience.
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Need to get in touch with the Scoliosis SOS Clinic? Give us a call on 0207 488 4428 or click here to submit an enquiry online.
