When physiotherapy doesn't work — a holistic perspective on shoulder pain
In my first semester of my study physiotherapy, we learned how to do a basic movement assessment of the body. I didn't know it at the time, but this was the start of a long journey — because here I discovered my chronic injury for the first time. No pain or discomfort, but a serious limitation of the range of motion of my shoulders. On both sides, I was missing about 40 degrees. I hadn't noticed it until that moment, because it didn't really limit any activity in my daily life. Even though it didn't really affect me, it still gnawed at me — I saw myself as a fit young guy, but my shoulders had the mobility of an old man. My teacher at the time didn't have any real explanation for the problem, so I had to figure it out on my own. At first I was fascinated by this seemingly mysterious injury, but over time I gradually lost interest. There aren't many activities that require end-range mobility of the shoulders, so it wasn't really limiting me in daily life. At least, not at that moment.
Why can't I perform a dead hang?
Since my teens, I've had many waves of wanting to build strength and grow some muscle. After a few short stints at the gym, I discovered calisthenics. I loved the idea of building strength and full-body control while simultaneously working on mobility and balance. My first goal was to be able to do ten consecutive pull-ups, but soon I discovered I had a problem — I couldn't perform a dead hang. Such a basic exercise — gripping the bar and hanging without any movement or muscle activation, yet it caused enormous strain on the tissues around my shoulders. I tried and I tried, but I could never get beyond the ten-second mark without pain. And because I didn't want to risk injuring my shoulders even further, I stopped. Every now and then, the desire to build strength and progress with pull-ups would return. But every time, I would stall at the very first prerequisite of training pull-ups — a pain-free dead hang.
In the years that followed, I made it my (professional) life's mission to conquer this limitation. I thought: as a physiotherapist, I have to be able to create a successful DIY rehabilitation of my shoulders. I tried everything — myofascial release, stretching, joint mobilisations, corrective exercises, and strength training. I worked on my shoulders, my spine, and everything in between. After failing to rehabilitate myself, I looked outside for help. I tried manual therapy, osteopathy, chiropractic care, and I recruited over a dozen physiotherapy colleagues over the years to help me regain my mobility. Everything seemed to do something, but nothing gave me the lasting result I had hoped for.
Finding a new roadmap to navigate my injury
At the same time, I was discovering more and more about the holistic side of health, and I began to understand that something else was stuck in my shoulders — something that exercises couldn't fix.
I learned that the body isn't just a standalone mechanical structure, but is constantly influenced by mental, emotional, and other deeper aspects of ourselves. As I started my studies in energy work, I discovered that our energy system holds all of who we are, and that all our thoughts, feelings, and emotions flow through this system. Whenever an experience, big or small, is too overwhelming it can't be fully experienced and processed. The flow of energy gets disrupted and a blockage is formed. Over time, the energy block becomes more complex and deeper ingrained in the system, as similar unprocessed mental or emotional pain attaches to it.
Placing my injury within this different framework gave me a new roadmap for understanding and navigating my recovery. I became slightly obsessed with finding the root of my shoulder problem and scoured my subconscious for any clues I could find. What emotions are stuck here? What limiting beliefs do I hold about myself? Every time I broke through a limiting pattern that seemed connected to my shoulders, I would hope their range of motion would increase — but every time, I was left disappointed. It didn't take long for me to learn one of the most important lessons in energy work: healing can't be forced. Long-standing blockages are complex, and it takes time to work through each layer. And as much as you would like it to be, you are not in control. You can't force a subconscious pattern or emotion to present itself — it will find you in its own time.
The start of something new
Eventually, during energy work, I gained insight into the fact that a lot of grief and sadness was stuck in and around my shoulders. This had come up during multiple healing sessions over the years, and each time they would initiate a new wave of emotions rising to the surface. I had no idea what these feelings were about, but it was clear they weren't connected to my daily life — they came from a long, long time ago. Right before I set out on a long journey through Asia, I received a healing that partly focused on processing painful feelings from my early childhood. In my previous blog, Why Are My Hands Itching?, I recalled what happened after this healing — an enormous outpouring of sadness, grief, and loneliness that lasted for a good few months. Like I sais earlier, I had experienced waves of these emotions before, but nothing like this. And even though I still didn't know exactly what it was about, I was glad it was finally leaving my system. I felt my whole body reacting and rearranging itself. My eczema got better, and finally — my shoulders were healing.
It wasn't an instantaneous recovery, but I could feel that something had shifted in my shoulders. My range of motion increased and the tension that had always been there was slowly disappearing. For the first time, when I did a stretching exercise, it actually worked — instead of feeling like I was stretching an elastic band, that snapped right back to its original contraction the moment I stopped.
Back home, I returned to the exercise that had given me so much frustration in the past — the dead hang. And for the first time ever, I was successful. There was still some tension building around my shoulders, but no more pain. I could hang without injuring myself, and I could finally start building towards my first pull-ups.
Holistic therapy for everybody
This is just one example of what can lie beneath the surface of an injury that refuses to heal. Your body doesn't function in a vacuum — it is connected to your thoughts and feelings, and even to the more subtle parts of yourself. Holistic therapy is not just for spiritual seekers or lost causes; it's an integrated approach that is relevant for anyone looking for lasting change.
While there are definitely recurring psychosomatic patterns to be recognized, every injury is different. Not all shoulder injuries will have a background of sadness or grief. But in my experience, almost all non-acute injuries have a significant energy block that is preventing the body's self-healing capacity from fully activating.
If you're interested in reading more about holistic therapy and what it can do for you click here.
Or, reach out directly if you are suffering from an injury right now, and you are looking to understand and work with your symptoms on a deeper level.
