Hand Therapy at Mint Wellbeing in Wimbledon, South West London
Skilled Care for Your Hands
Your hands are remarkable tools. You create, work, communicate and care using them every day. When injury, pain or dysfunction affects your hand or wrist, simple tasks like buttoning a shirt or typing a message can become a challenge.
Hand therapy is a rehabilitation specialty that focuses on restoring function when there are changes in pain, strength and mobility in your hands, wrists or upper limb. It combines techniques from Occupational Therapy and Physiotherapy such as exercise, splinting, wound care, scar interventions and joint mobilisation to provide non‑surgical management of hand and wrist disorders.
Put your hand recovery in the right hands in Mint wellbeing, Wimbledon, South West London.
What is Hand Therapy?
Hand therapy is more than a single treatment modality, it is a combination of specialist assessment, targeted rehabilitation and compassionate support through the recovery journey from injury, surgery or disease. We explore your underlying difficulties with a view to:
- Determine the cause of your pain or issue
- Reduce pain
- Reduce inflammation
- Improve hand and wrist efficiency
- Minimise the effects of scarring
The ultimate goal is to restore or maximise independence.
Hand therapists act as your resource and guide through your recovery. Hand therapy employs exercise, advice on daily activities, splinting and scar management amongst others. This holistic approach aims to promote your physical recovery while also providing emotional and psychological support through what can be a difficult and stressful time.
Conditions We Treat
Every hand is unique, and so are the conditions that affect it. Our service provides expert care for a wide range of injuries and long‑term conditions:
Tendon injuries
- Extensor carpi ulnaris tendinopathy
- De Quervain’s tenosynovitis
Wrists
- Scapholounate ligament injuries and repairs
- Lunotriquetral ligament injuries and repairs
- Explore and either treat or signpost non-specific wrist pain or “clicky” wrists
- Triangular Fibrocartilage Complex injuries
Long‑term conditions
- Hypermobility syndromes where pain and dysfunction is experienced in the fingers, thumb or wrist.
- Oesteoarthritis – develop self management of symptoms, splinting where indicated and recommendations around adaptations where indicated.
- Rheumatoid Arthritis – develop self management of symptoms, splinting where indicated and recommendations around adaptations where indicated.
- Trigger finger – signposting to surgeon if conservative management does not create change
Trauma and closed injuries
- Mallet finger
- Central slip injuries (Boutonnière)
- Finger sprains (most commonly injured is the middle joint)
- Finger joint dislocations
- Fractures of the hand or wrist including distal radius fractures that are amenable to conservative management
- Thumb joint (MCPJ) sprains (Skier’s thumb)
- Peripheral nerve compression /traction injuries – carpal tunnel, cubital tunnel, brachial plexus injuries, pronator syndrome
Post‑operative rehabilitation
- Wound care
- Scar advice and management – not limited to the hand only
- Tendon repairs – flexors / extensors – from day 5 post op provided there is access to the operation notes and does not need highly specialist wound care
- Dupuytren’s release – fasciotomy or dermofasciotomy
- Thumb CMCJ - joint replacement or trapeziectomy
- Hand or wrist fractures including distal radius fractures that require surgical fixation
- Peripheral nerve repair – median nerve, ulna nerve, radial nerve
How Hand Therapy Helps
Whether you’re recovering from trauma, overuse injuries, surgery or managing a chronic condition, hand therapy offers many benefits.
Techniques and approaches to treat your hand and wrist may include:
- Home exercise programme, most of your recovery is determined by your day to day exercises and how your use your hands (functional rehabilitation)
- Structured rehabilitation and hands on therapy to restore range of motion
- Custom splinting and bracing
- Taping techniques
- Strengthening exercises
- Scar Management
- Stretching
- Ergonomic assessment
- Therapeutic Ultrasound
Aims of therapy:
- Return to everyday activities
- Improve independence
- Reintegration into hobbies and sports
- Information and advice to help you manage the condition effectively
- Improve dexterity
- Rebuild strength
Our Approach
You deserve the best care for your hands and we believe in goal‑oriented care that centres on you. Every client receives a thorough assessment and a personalised home‑based rehabilitation programme. We aim to provide timely treatment that fosters independence by equipping you with the skills and knowledge to manage your condition. We offer custom‑moulded splints, exercise programmes and education to support your recovery.
Our team collaborates closely with surgeons, GPs, physiotherapists and other healthcare professionals to ensure seamless care.
Begin Your Recovery Journey
If hand pain or dysfunction is affecting your quality of life, Alex Watson, our Specialist Hand Therapist is here to help. With expert knowledge, compassionate care and evidence‑based techniques, we can help you reduce pain, restore function and return to the activities that matter most to you.
Get back to what you love.
Alex Watson
Occupational Therapist Specialist in Hand Therapy
BSc Honours in Occupational Therapy. Member of RCOT, BAHT, BSSH
Over twenty years working in the NHS in various specialties including older people’s mental health, forensic mental health and physical health rotations. For the last 11 years I have specialised in hand therapy (I found my jam).
Anything hand and wrist related.
Trauma (soft tissue and fractures), post operative rehabilitation (tendon repairs, fracture fixation, joint replacement to fingers / thumb), scars, long term conditions (arthritis, hyper mobility), tendon overuse injuries. I love the challenge of working out how to restore wrist function.
I also create custom splints for a variety of hand and wrist conditions.