Whether you’re dealing with an acute injury, post-surgery rehab, or a chronic condition that impacts physical function, Physical Therapy can be the perfect solution to deal with any external injuries.
Designed to offer an ecosystem of health, movement and education, Joint Space is a clinic and movement space, where customers can recover through any stress impacting the body. Located in Alserkal Avenue, this patient centric environment ensures it provides science-based physical therapies and medicine, movement practices and movement coaching, educational workshops, seminars and talks to help address the problem at its root level.
To delve into this further, spoke to Kris Rai, Co-Founder of Joint Space on how he is revamping the wellness landscape through physical therapy.
What inspired you to launch Joint Space and talk us through the concept.
Joint Space was a passion envisioned over 15 years ago. The Joint Space journey is from patient to student, offering a seamless journey through an ecosystem of manual therapies, natural medicine, movement and education. The main inspiration for Joint Space was to create a space that would inspire others, including practitioners in their work to create a truly unique environment and integrated approach. The main purpose was to inspire our patients and community to go on a deep journey of discovery and self-empowerment for their long-term wellbeing.
Joint Space offers a comprehensive mix of physical therapy services including chiropractic, osteopathy, and physiotherapy – could you elaborate?
It is crucial to meet each patient where they are. Joint Space offers these fundamental therapies as our core clinical services, and this is where most of our community begin their Joint Space journey. Each practice has a different approach, and we use these different approaches to support the patient journey. Perhaps they start with our osteopaths, but then they are guided to work with the physiotherapists to help them move onto the next stage of their injury rehabilitation.
Talk us through the design of the space and how does it align with what you offer?
The atmosphere and energy of a space plays such an important role in a person’s journeys and experience with that space. We wanted to create a space that our community would want to come to, to feel ‘at home’ when they arrive. We wanted our community to feel inspired to go on a journey with Joint Space, and we believe we have achieved this with the design and feel of the space itself. Every detail was painstakingly taken, from the meticulous choice of colours, the finishes, the bespoke scent, the background music, the high ceilings, we aimed to take what was a shell and core warehouse and brought warmth and eastern ambience whilst still maintaining elements of an industrial feel and professionalism of a clinic.
The space also offers a series of classes and workshops – tell us about them.
Joint Space has a large movement space that allows us to run classes, workshops, training sessions, rehabilitations and community events. The classes and workshops we offer support the patient journey in combination with their treatment. The aim of the classes is for our Joint Space patients to carry on the work required to get them to where they need to be. We have Pilates classes, strength classes, mobility classes, breathwork classes to name a few. I run a movement practice with my wife and founding member Pavlina, whereby we incorporate many different movement forms and philosophies from east to west to help people connect to themselves, others and space. Our workshops are there to educate our community, to give them knowledge and power to understand how to look after themselves. These range from spinal health to women’s health, to movement and much more.
The clinic also provides bespoke movement coaching services – how does it work?
The Joint Space journey is from patient to student, and that journey requires us to learn how to move, to ensure our body is robust and resilient. Our Joint Space coaches are all high-end coaches that have unique and extensive knowledge in their fields. Everyone who trains with one of our coaches has an assessment with one of our practitioners, to understand previous medical history and injury history to create a clear understanding of the needs of each individual who goes through the movement coaching. We have options for different packages ranging from once a week to four times per week.
The Naturopathic medicine treats medical conditions by addressing their root cause – what are some of the most common concerns in this region?
Dubai, an international hub and a fast-moving city, is a city that requires a degree of energy that from my experience is unmatched in many other countries and cities. We find a significant imbalance in how people live their lives, trying to do too much, not listening closely enough to their body and as a result often ‘burning out’. Our Naturopaths are highly skilled, often placing significant focus on optimizing gut health, stress management and hormone balancing amongst many other things. Our Naturopaths play a key role in getting to the root of all our patients’ issues and is a fundamental part of patients getting to where they need to be.
Maintaining our posture is one of the main concerns for residents in the UAE – what simple exercises can practice in our daily routine to do so?
Our posture is the mirror of how we move through our lives. Posture is affected by our parents, our childhood, our personalities, our confidence, our health and of course how we use our bodies on a day-to-day basis, amongst many other things. The human body was designed to move, to be well-coordinated, robust and resilient. When we learn to move well and often, our posture improves without us even trying. There are many ways to improve our posture, but a key component of starting to improve our posture is to be mindful of how much time we spend sitting at computers, desks and on our phones. Move often and move well.
The concept focuses on a science-meets-art approach – tell us more.
Discovering ourselves, questing to find health and wellness, does not just belong to the realm of science. Before modern science as we know today, came art. Art is the expression of who we are, and appreciating this allows us to see things in a different perspective, to become imaginative, to ask questions, to examine what we see, question our observations, what is it that this person is trying to say? Art allows us to find passion for life and to become inspired, tapping into a part of ourselves that is beyond the logic and black and white of science itself. However, that is not to reduce the importance of science, it is crucial, but rather to elevate the importance of art.
This is ‘The Alignment issue’ – what activities ensure you feel aligned daily?
In a place like Dubai where life is fast, it is important to have a daily practice that offers the opportunity for you to root yourself. If we do not root ourselves, then we can be blown away in the wind of the rush. My personal practice starts at 5.30am, allowing me the opportunity to position my personal movement practice, breath work and voice work with the rising sun. The sun rising symbolises the start of a new day, the cyclical growth of energy, and practicing with the sun rising gives me the chance to merge into the day with the sun. I call this practice my observational practice as it gives me the space to observe myself at the start of each day; how my joints are moving, how my organs are feeling, how my breath and voice are resonating. For me, these daily observational practices are key to creating attunement within my structure, a space to harmonise so I can move through life more easily.
