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Lucy Macdonald

Chartered Physiotherapist and Director of Octopus Clinic
BSc (Hons) MCSP HPC

Reputation

 

Lucy Macdonald has developed an excellent reputation over the past twenty years for successfully treating injuries that have been unsuccessfully treated elsewhere. Her patient’s inspiring testimonials include those from leading orthopaedic consultants and sports doctors and professional sports people but she is equally proud of those from her everyday patients, people who just want to get back to their beloved sport, sit comfortably at work or simply enjoy their lives.

Lucy is known for her honest and comprehensive communication and her ability to establish the cause of the problem and treat it directly. Her experience and extensive post-graduate training enable her to provide fast pain relief and injury resolution to enable swift accomplishment of individual goals from being able to pick up the kids, sit in a long meeting or do an Ironman triathlon.

‘This time last year I could barely get out of bed and move without pain killers and I was planning on running an Ultra Marathon…! I asked Lucy for help to get me to the start line. As part of my training I worked with Lucy to fix a back problem I have suffered with for the best part of 25 years. Lucy was just incredible, her knowledge of the musculoskeletal anatomy is just outstanding. She hardly laid a hand on me, importantly she taught me to reconnect to my body and gave me the tools and exercises to help myself. I had a few set backs but Lucy was always there to get me back on track. I have been to so many physios/ osteos etc with little success. It’s not too bigger claim to say that the treatment I got from Lucy has changed my life – I now live without constant pain…and I completed the Ultra Marathon! Thank you Lucy, you are just awesome!’

Drive

 

She has always been driven by a desire to enable individuals to fulfill their optimum potential. This, combined with her immense determination and dedication enables her to have high success rates with her patients that makes her love being a physio.

Lucy is passionate about informing and empowering people on how to live pain free lives so carries out weekly Live Q&As on social media and has produced and presented over two hundred exercise and advice videos, has written extensively on injury treatment and prevention, and contributes regularly to media including the BBC, Telegraph, Independent, Daily Mail, Mirror, Express, Times, and a variety of health and fitness publications.

Lucy enjoys public speaking on topics she feels passionate about which include pain management and prevention, running, and marathon training. She gets consistently excellent feedback from her presentations and workshops.

Specialisms

 

Overall specialism: complex/chronic cases often where treatment has failed elsewhere (including hypermobility conditions, tendon pain, and RSI)

Body part specialisms: multi-location pain, knees, hips/groin, shoulders, back.

Sports specialisms: running and marathon training

Techniques

 

Lucy treats 80% of her patients by video consultation using advanced rehabilitation and coaching skills to address a combination of the structural biomechanics and underlying pain pathways to enable people to get back to the things that they love doing, no matter how long they have not been able to do them for and no matter how many other therapists or doctors they have seen. Her mantra is “it’s not what you do it’s how you do it that counts.”

Having said that, Lucy is not against hands-on treatment! She knows that techniques like joint manipulation, massage, acupuncture, and taping can help to ease pain and catalyze recovery so she works closely with her team at Octopus Clinic and with other talented therapists worldwide to deliver a dual approach of hands-on and video-based treatment.

 

Personal

 

Lucy became a Chartered Physiotherapist at Liverpool University 20 years ago (and still misses the Scouse sense of humour!) She decided she wanted to be a physio when she was thirteen years old and considers being a physio to be part of her identity. She is happiest hanging out with her family, walking or skiing in the silence of the mountains, generating endorphins in her running shoes, letting her heart soar at live music events like the opera or WOMAD music festival, wiggling and whooping at her weekly Zumba classes, getting wound up in a political discussion over a glass of wine, laughing her head off at stand up comedy, dancing under the light of the moon or having a good chin wag with her mates.

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