Providing our patients with bespoke treatment plans that are designed to support them through their rehabilitation and recovery, is our specialty! However, SP Physiotherapy is also committed to raising awareness and educating local businesses and community members about the benefits of good physical and mental health! This being said, the team at SPP has recently engaged with local GP practices to inform and educate the professionals on the importance of good mental health and wellbeing.

Last month, our Founder, Stephanie, was welcomed to the Paisley-based Greenlaw GP surgery to educate staff on the importance of desk ergonomics and good posture in the prevention of unnecessary pain and discomfort. During session one, Stephanie explained the importance of improving your tolerance to prolonged sitting while at work, as well as covering the key areas to improve the effectiveness of your workstation, such as choosing the appropriate desk height adjusting your chair to elbow height, and ensuring your monitor height is at eye level.

Stephanie returned to Greenlaw to carry out session two, where GPs and admin staff took part in a full body sitting and standing stretch routine which has been designed to help improve the general well-being of individuals.

As well as educating Greenlaw staff members on the importance of physical health, the team at SP Physiotherapy are also passionate about advocating for better and more transparent knowledge surrounding mental wellbeing and stress management. With this in mind, our fantastic Physio, Kat Lee, delivered an insightful session on mindfulness and stress management, that aimed to provide attendees with the knowledge of how mindfulness techniques can be used to reduce stress and increase self-awareness. During this session, Kat explored the different categories of stress; eustress and distress, and the ways in which an individual’s perception of an experience and their ability to utilise coping mechanisms determines which stress category they are experiencing.

Eustress is defined as a short-term positive experience that allows for an increase in performance

Distress is defined as a negative experience that leads to a negative impact on Performance’

Mindfulness exercises and breathing techniques are an excellent way to improve our ability to check in with our bodies and can lead to a reduction in blood pressure, heart rate, and improvements in RR and digestion by activating our parasympathetic nervous system also known as “resting and digesting”.

Here at SP Physiotherapy, we understand – now more than ever – the impact that the current economic pressures can have on people’s emotional and physical well-being, which is why we are passionate about educating local businesses and community members about the importance of looking after ourselves both physically and mentally. We would like to extend our thanks to the team at Greenlaw GP Surgery for their fantastic participation throughout our series of sessions and we hope attendees can integrate our techniques into their daily routine to help build self-awareness and promote pain management!