Billy Gilhooley is a physiotherapist based in Melbourne and director of Specific Physiotherapy Preston. He takes a hands-on, targeted approach to treatment, focusing on identifying the exact cause of pain and helping patients achieve long-term results rather than short-term relief. If you’ve ever had something “fix” your pain… only for it to creep back in a few weeks later, you’ll know how frustrating it can be. A lot of people I see say the same thing — it felt better for a bit, then it slowly returned. Sometimes worse. Sometimes just enough to be annoying again. It’s incredibly common, especially with things like neck stiffness, lower back pain, or injuries that never quite seem to fully settle. And over time, it starts to feel like you’re just managing it rather than actually fixing it.

The cycle most people get stuck in

What usually happens looks something like this:

• Something flares up
• You rest it, stretch it, or get some treatment
• It settles down
• You get back to normal
• Then it comes back again

That cycle can go on for months… sometimes years. The problem isn’t that nothing is working — it’s that the real cause hasn’t been properly addressed.