About my network
Six therapists I refer people to
Movement can resolve a great deal, though not everything. Complaints that get worse rather than better as you move call for something else. I know the therapists below personally and work with them, and when a complaint calls for what they do, I refer you on.
All six look at the body as a whole and treat the fascial network.
Sacha van Rooij
Atlas Profilax therapist
Whiplash, a fall on or a blow to the head, a forceps delivery: any of these can tilt the base of your skull out of alignment on the atlas, the uppermost vertebra of your neck. The small deep muscles beneath the back of your head lose their balance and become fixed in that position, governed by your autonomic nervous system.
This is also where your dura mater attaches to the spine; further down, it hangs free in the spinal canal. When there's a misalignment, it's pulled to one side, and you notice this in the nerves that exit on that side.
Headaches, migraine, a stiff neck, dizziness and nausea when you move, memory problems, fatigue, nerve pain in unexpected places, a pelvis that sits askew.
Anyone who's had their neck manipulated after a neck injury usually doesn't want to repeat the experience. Sacha doesn't crack your neck. She first tests how the misalignment presents and which muscles are doing what. The treatment itself is brief and given only once, even if the injury happened years ago, with a follow-up after six weeks.
Contact Sacha:
https://www.atlasprofilax.ch/en/directory/atlastherapy-in/veldhoven
Hugo Bertijn
Osteopath
Osteopathy is a form of manual medicine based on principles drawn from anatomy, embryology, neurology and physiology. Hugo examines and treats your complaint in the context of the whole body, with a focus on how your connective tissue moves.
He never treats a single joint, muscle, tendon or membrane in isolation. He works with gentle techniques on the organs, blood vessels, skull and nerves, with joint manipulation, and with stretching techniques for the connective tissue.
When pain doesn't resolve by moving differently, I refer you to Hugo.
Contact Hugo (website in Dutch):
https://www.bertijn.nl/
Brigitte Willems
Physiotherapist specialising in coccyx-related problems
A misaligned coccyx is the result of a fall onto your tailbone or of childbirth. The deeper fasciae of your pelvis then lose their balance, and your spine follows.
Pain when sitting, sitting lopsidedly, pain or weakness in one leg, pelvic floor problems: any of these can be a sign that your coccyx is no longer straight.
Brigitte corrects the position of your coccyx. The treatment is painless and you keep your underwear on. Even an injury from years ago can still be treated.
Contact Brigitte (website in Dutch):
https://www.valkfysio.nl/collegae/brigitte-2/
Kim Snijders
Paediatric physiotherapist and Schroth therapist
Standing crooked, and in pain? Kim works with the Schroth method, developed for scoliosis. Through targeted exercises and by breathing into your shorter side, you learn to correct the rotation from within. Your ribs rotate back as a result, so that the asymmetry in your spine can lessen. Your connective tissue helps to hold that twist in place, and that's where the exercises take effect.
Kim brings yoga into her work. The breath carries the movement, and the corrections are small and gradual.
Contact Kim (website in Dutch):
https://fysiotherapiebronzwaer.nl/team/
Melinda Hendriks
Physiotherapist specialising in fascia therapy, oedema and scar treatment
An ankle operation, abdominal surgery, breast surgery. Scar tissue forms, on the outside and within, and where it lies the drainage of lymph can stall. A movement becomes stiff, or no longer goes all the way through.
If your jacket has grown too tight, Melinda helps the adhered layers glide over one another again, and teaches you how to keep that up yourself.
Melinda works with the fascial techniques of Willem Fourie.
Contact Melinda (website in Dutch):
https://infyzo.nl/ons-team/melinda-hendriks/
Peter Welters
Physiotherapist specialising in podopostural therapy, visceral and craniosacral work
Beneath a podopostural insole sit small elements that guide the position of your foot, and your foot responds to them itself. That response travels all the way up through your body, into the position of your neck and head.
When the position of your feet keeps getting in the way as you practise, I refer you to Peter.
Peter learnt visceral work at the Barral Institute and craniosacral work at the Upledger Institute.
His practice is in Almere, and once a month he holds a clinic in Valkenburg.
Contact Peter (website in Dutch):
https://inessensalmere.nl/over-ons/