What everyone assumed. That this was simply how her back was now, and that management was the ceiling.
What I found. Her job keeps her seated, and her pelvis sits in a forward-tilted position. Once I had her actively rock it back to neutral, the movements that normally produce her pain stopped producing it. That’s a useful thing to discover, because it means the tissue isn’t damaged beyond use — it’s being loaded badly.
What I did. Mostly soft tissue release, active resistance stretching, hands-on and instrument-assisted massage work, and decompression to give the spine back some space. At her most recent visit I adjusted perhaps three things.
She came in at a 5 out of 10 on the pain scale and left at a 2.
Where she is now. We’re training her pelvis to hold neutral, which is a slower project than releasing tissue but the one that determines whether any of this lasts. She’s also extremely active, and rather than asking her to stop the things she enjoys, we’ve worked out where she can pull back so she isn’t repeatedly setting herself off.