Sary van der Hasselt – Osteopath

It is rare that it is only a tailbone issue,
we have to look at the whole system

Our guest in this episode is Sary van der Hasselt

Sary is born and raised in Belgium and has a mastersdegree in osteopathy. Nowadays she lives in and works in the Netherlands and is co-owner of an osteopathy clinic that has several locations. She also teaches at the International Academy of Ostepathy, and through the years has specialised in pelvic problems. A big part of the patients she sees, consult her for tailbone pain. Sary is my personal go-to when my therapy isn’t effective or doesn’t help sufficiently and there doesn’t seem to be a problem that needs medical attention.

As an osteopath she approaches health problems from a wide perspective. Next to the mechanical aspect like the joints and muscles, she also examines and treats the neurological, vascular, visceral and fascia components of problems. In this episode she will explain how she works and what components she sees that are connected to tailbone problems.

As you will hear, Sary is very knowledgable in the theoretical and the practical part of treating tailbone pain and is another true expert on the topic.

You can find the podcast in the menu under Podcast as well as the links to the platforms where it is posted.

Resources

During this episode, Sary gave us two exercises regarding tailbone pain.

1. Squat-sitting

First and foremost, her favorite exercise: squat-sitting. The deep squat pose is sitting with your buttocks on your calfs/heels, the hips open and the feet as flat as possible on the floor. It is a great posture and stretch for the lower back, the back of the pelvis, the pelvic floor and the back fascia. It is also a very natural way of sitting that still normal in many Asian and African countries, or wherever people live more traditionally. We in the industrialised countries are often so used to sitting in chairs that we are not capable of getting into this pose anymore, although as kids we all were capable of doing so.

As the pictures here show; my daugther has no problems with it, where I need to have some support to prevent falling over:

These are the instructions:

• Sit with your buttocks on the back of your lower legs
• Put the feet as flat as possible on the surface below
• Make sure that the hips are open, so the knees are spread and not close to each other
• If you are not comfortable or stable straight away, make sure you hold on to something so you don’t fall backwards, which especially with tailbone pain is something you want to prevent
• Don’t torture yourself! Stretch is normal in the beginning, but respect any pain and adjust to that by more support, releasing the stretch on these structures and limiting the time in the pose.

It is a great stretch for often stiffened up and tight areas in and around the pelvis.

It is not too suitable for people that have prolapses (often accompanied by a heavy feeling in the pelvic floor) or the first 2-6 months after delivery. When you feel it is too strainious on your pelvic floor and you have a hard time contain your urine for example, this exercise is probably too early for you; your pelvic floor must be able to hold it. Also take care when you have any knee, hip, pelvic, lower back or other problem or restriction. Be mindful of that what your body is capable of and what not and follow its feedback.

Built it up slowly to get used to the pose and the ligaments, fascia, muscles and all other structures can adapt to a less shortened position again. While training it, start somewhat more on the front of the feet if the stretch is too much for your fascia under the foot and slowly work to more flat contact with the floor. Because it can be quite straining, try the pose first for maybe just seconds at a time and then slowly built up to a level where it finally actually becomes pleasant and relaxed. When you are a bit used to it and more stable in it, you can easily integrate this posture into your daily life by performing activities in squat-sit.

I actually edited some of this episode in this pose and as you can see, with something under my heels until my body is flexible enough to do without.

2. Knees wide

Sary also advised not to cross the legs or squeeze the knees while sitting. Optimal for the pelvis and structural tension is that the hips are open and the knees a bit wider apart. So sit a bit more ‘unlady-like’ to help your pelvis. While lying in bed, you can put a pillow between the knees to reduce pelvic ension if you have pelvic issues.

To open up the pelvis and hips, Sary also shared an exercise. For this you are on your back, with the knees bend and the soles of your feet together so your knees are spread to the sides. This pose is in yoga also known as the reclined butterfly pose. Put a pillow or towels underneath the knees to support the legs a bit, but make sure you feel the stretch in the muscles on the inner side of the thighs, the adductors, that can be tight if you squeeze or cross your legs often.

Therapy by Sary

Sary works at the OsteoYou and at their clinics in Amsterdam-Zuid and Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht. If you are interested in consulting Sary, you can find here here.

Get in touch

In you have any questions about anything in and outside of this episode, comments or requests, let me know! You can email me through the contact field below or directly at roel@roelwilbers.nl.

Marianne Bleijenberg – Pelvic physiotherapist

Approach persistent tailbone pain as pelvic pain,
so as more than just a local disfunction

Our guest in this episode is Marianne Bleijenberg

Marianne is a very experienced physiotherapist and pelvic physiotherapist. Although she is 70 years of age, she still works two days a week in the clinic she founded because she loves what she does. In her working days she sees a lot of people with tailbone dysfunction and developed an expertise on treating them. After hundreds of patients treated, she built a lot of experience around this topic, which she also teaches about to other physiotherapists.

What makes her approach different from most of the colleagues is that she approaches tailbone problems from a much wider perspective then what is taught in the courses. She incorporates next to the mechanics of the joints and influence of the pelvic floor muscles, also the psycho-emotional aspect, breathing and the influence of fascia on the tailbone. This wide scope brings the patients excelent results.

In this episode we will dive into her approach and experience as a pelvic physiotherapist. On tailbone and pelvic pain but she also has very valuable things to say on therapy in general wherefor this episode is also very informational for therapists and physicians.

You can find the podcast in the menu under Podcast as well as the links to the platforms where it is posted.

Resources

Marianne gave three practical tips and exercises for people suffering with tailbone pain (you can listen to her explanations in the episode from 1:02:30 onwards)

1) Sit on a heat pack that is placed between the buttocks from front to back under the pelvic floor and until the tailbone. In this video she explains how to apply it.

2) Sit in a relaxed but not slouched position and consciously relax the belly, the buttocks, the legs and the pelvic floor. Do this preferably every hour and then shortly for a few times. You can also do this in a standing position.

3) On your back with your knees bend and feet flat on the floor, put your hands on your lower belly and normally breath through the nose towards your hands. Without forcing it, help your breathing to move the belly upwards towards the hands on the inspiration. Feel when the belly expands, the pelvic floor relaxes.

If you are looking for more specific exercises to relax the pelvic floor and some audio’s that guide you through the process, you can find them on my website by clicking here.

Therapy by Marianne

Marianne works, at the time of recording, at Zorgpraktijk Flore in Waalwijk in the Netherlands. If you are interested in treatment by Marianne, you can find the institute here.

Get in touch

If you have any questions about anything in and outside of this episode, comments or requests, let me know! You can email me through the contact field below or directly at roel@roelwilbers.nl

Sabine – Patient

It took me years to find it,
but specialists and effective treatment for tailbone pain exists!

Our guest in this episode is Sabine

Sabine was a 33 year old midwive when her tailbone pain started with a car accident. It led to a lot of pain, not being able to work anymore and a very restricted daily and social life. Now, 17 years later, she shares her story about how tailbone pain affected her life, but also her path in the medical and therapeutic world in finding the right help and specialised healthcare professionals.

She saw a variety of doctors and therapists, underwent treatments and injections and mainly shares a message of hope and recovery. In this episode she will tell her story, which I will guide by explanations about the things that occurred. It became a pleasant, informative and touching conversation which I love to share with you.

In this episode you will learn about the patient perspective of tailbone pain. This expert from experience gives a valuable insight where not only other patients, but also doctors and therapists can learn from. We go into what help and information is given and how she eventually found a solution that helped her.

You can find my podcast in the menu under Podcast as well as the links to the platforms where it is posted.

Bonus

In the episode Sabine shares how she found specialised treatments gave her hope again in healing and how that led her to create a vision board drawing about her desires and goals in the process towards recovery. She gave consent to share it with the listeners and you can see it here. it gives a good insight how things that people without tailbone pain do on a regular basis and take for granted, often are dreams for people that suffer from it…

Get in touch

In you have any questions about anything in and outside of this episode, comments or requests, let me know! You can email me through the contact field below or directly at roel@roelwilbers.nl.

Jon Miles – Researcher and patient

You are not alone as a patient
and there are solutions out there

Our guest in this episode is Jon Miles

Jon is from the UK and a researcher on the topic of tailbone pain. He is worldwide a very well known person in the tailbone world, knows a lot about the literature and also unfortunately understands how it is to suffer from coccyx pain because he did so himself for many years. He underwent almost all the therapies out there and finally had it surgically removed in 1999.

We are going to learn about his personal story as a patient, but also about his interest in the topic which led to the website coccyx.org, the probably biggest online platform for tailbone pain worldwide that had up to 150.000 unique visitors a month. On this he shares a lot of information, also by specialists, links to scientific research, patient reviews and how to find specialists that treat tailbone pain worldwide.

Next to that we will cover the research he has done himself and presented at the first and second edition of the International Symposium on Coccyx Pain.

You can find the podcast in the menu under Podcast as well as the links to the platforms where it is posted.

Resources

As mentioned in the episode, Jon’s website www.coccyx.org has hundreds of pages about tailbone problems and thousands of patient reviews about the different sorts of treatments. Visit it for more info and as well to find a specialist near you.

It also has Jon’s personal story and his presentations that he held at the first and second International Symposium on Coccyx Pain. You can find those by clicking here.

Get in touch

In you have any questions about anything in and outside of this episode, comments or requests, let me know! You can email me through the contact field below or directly at roel@roelwilbers.nl.

Dorien van Mulligen – Pelvic physiotherapist

The pelvic floor and the tailbone influence each other strongly
and in chronic pain both need evaluation

Our guest in this episode is Dorien van Mulligen

Resources

Dorien talked about the importance of the pelvic floor and breathing and other exercises to mainly relax these muscles.

The specific advice she gave for people with tailbone pain was:

• Relax your pelvic floor by breathing to your belly and pelvis (she explains the exercise at 1h03m in the episode)
• If you are in pain, prevent sitting
• Never push yourself when you are in pain by geting yourself in too much strain in daily life but also when doing exercises

If you are looking for more specific exercises to relax the pelvic floor and some audio’s that guide you through the process, you can find them on my website by clicking here.

Therapy by Dorien

Dorien works at the ProFundum Instituut in Dordrecht. If you are interested in treatment by Dorien, you can find the institute here.

Get in touch

In you have any questions about anything in and outside of this episode, comments or requests, let me know! You can email me through the contact field below or directly at roel@roelwilbers.nl.

Cecile Röst – Physiotherapist

It started with one technique,
but since then there has been a lot
and ongoing development in tailbone therapy

Our guest in this episode is Cecile Röst

Cecile is a physiotherapist, manual (musculoskeletal) therapist, and clinical epidemiologist, specialised in pelvis and tailbone pain. She founded a physiotherapy clinic where she still treats patients herself, and half the patients she sees come for tailbone pain.

She also runs a training institute for physiotherapists focused mainly on pregnancy-related pelvic girdle pain and tailbone problems, under the name Rost Therapy. Here she also teaches several courses for physiotherapists on treating tailbone pain from externally. This is for a big part based on the work of Meine Veldman who developped this technique and with whom she collaborated a lot and participated in research about the effectiveness of this method.

In this episode we will go deeper into how treatment for tailbone pain through manual mobilisations works, what the outcomes are, how there is an ongoing development in tailbone therapy and how she added to that evolution.

You can find the podcast in the menu under Podcast as well as the links to the platforms where it is posted.

Resources

Cecile was so kind to record a video especially for this podcast episode and after the short introduction, you will have a visual of how to sit down and stand up, how to widen and relax your your tailbone area. And of course she demonstrates her Peacock exercise.

More about Cecile

Do you want to know more about Cecile? You can find her at: bekkentherapie.nl

Get in touch

In you have any questions about anything in and outside of this episode, comments or requests, let me know! You can email me through the contact field below or directly at roel@roelwilbers.nl.

The world of tailbone pain

Tailbone pain can be effectively treated
although only a small percentage of healthcare providers,
within all the professions that see these patients,
are aware of that

Welcome to this podcast and the tailbone therapist

In this first episode you will all about this podcast, why it started and what it will bring you. It is also an introduction into the world of tailbone problems. Some myths and often heard ideas about this will be debunked and you will already get some practical info and tips.

In this episode we will go deeper into how treatment for tailbone pain through manual mobilisations works, what the outcomes are, how there is an ongoing development in tailbone therapy and how she added to that evolution.

You can find my podcast in the menu under Podcast as well as the links to the platforms where it is posted.

More about tailbone pain

For more info about tailbone pain and the treatment options, you will find here on my website. There will be a lot of info but also tips and exercises that can directly relieve your pain.

Get in touch

In you have any questions about anything in and outside of this episode, comments or requests, let me know! You can email me through the contact field below or directly at roel@roelwilbers.nl.