How weekly osteopathy gave me my life back – in the studio with disabled artist Charlotte

When Charlotte relocated from Melbourne to London, she was about to give up hope. She was in constant pain living with undiagnosed Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and struggled to find an osteopath that understood her rare condition. That’s until she booked Urban therapist, Fabio.

Charlotte, in her words, plays with mud for a living. She creates sculptural, bespoke ceramics for restaurants as well as private clients, and if you head to her Instagram, you’ll be greeted with everything from teardrop-shaped plates to face sculptures and soap dishes.

She first started spinning the wheel during the pandemic, taking a week-long intensive course that opened the gates to her new career with clay. Fast-forward to this year and she’s set up her own studio in East London – a first for her and her business, Preaface Ceramics.

Life with EDS

Charlotte has lived with the symptoms of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, a collection of rare conditions that affect the connective tissue, all her life, but only recently had a formal diagnosis in 2021. The lack of education about EDS, even in the medical community, meant she wasn’t taken seriously – despite one surgeon saying he’d only seen these types of accidents in professional rugby players.

The turning point? When Charlotte dislocated her thumb while washing her hair at age 44. Luckily she was seen by a doctor who knew about EDS – he put her forward for the Beighton test, a method for diagnosing EDS, and after scoring seven out of nine it was clear EDS was at play.

“It affects me in many ways,” she says. “I live with pain chronically, but it’s the amount of pain that would send most people to the hospital. Some days I dislocate things like my shoulder or my hips, my hands.

“It took me a long time to actually admit that I was disabled, to myself and to others, because of the stigma attached with disability. It’s an invisible illness so people find it difficult to understand.”

Disability advocacy is something close to Charlotte’s heart: “For all the “awareness days” we have for different disabilities, people still don’t really understand what it’s like. A lot of people think that disability is somebody in a wheelchair, but disability is so much more than that. It's a spectrum that people have to manage constantly,” she tells us.

“Changing the narrative is about acceptance and inclusion. We all have to play in the same field, and playing in the same field means we all need different accommodations. Ask us what we need, rather than assuming that you understand.”

So how does Charlotte level the playing field in the world of ceramics – a profession that’s famously hands-on? For one thing, she’s taught herself to centre clay using her left hand, as her right thumb is the one that usually dislocates: “It does stop me occasionally. But I’ve found adaptations and tools that are specially made for people who are disabled, which is fantastic. Some people see it as cheating. I see it as actually being included, included in a craft that’s ancient.”

When convenience is life-changing – how Charlotte’s Google search led to the Urban app

Having previously lived in New Zealand, Australia and France, Charlotte’s always had a go-to osteopath to help her cope with the pain. “In the UK, it's not so normal that people seek osteopathic care. I'd had the experience of having an osteopath before and desperately needed one.” 

But it wasn’t easy to find someone who understood: “Even some doctors reply with ‘what’s that?’ when I say I've got Ehlers-Danlos.” So it was quite a shock when she booked Urban osteopath Fabio. She told him she had Ehlers-Danlos, to which he replied “oh right, what type?” Her intensive search for the right pro was finally worth it.

As well as relief from aches and pains, Charlotte found something even more healing: validation. “The more we worked together, the more I felt listened to… I feel seen, I feel accommodated and I’ve found someone who understands how important it is for me to continue to work.” 

She’s been having weekly Urban osteopathy sessions ever since, and loves that it makes life that bit easier on high-pain days. It allows her to control her sensory environment too, something invaluable to her as an autistic person with ADHD.

“I love the fact that he comes to my house so I don't have to go anywhere. As a neurodivergent person, I'm over stimulated. When he leaves I'm usually pain free, and I can relax in my own home. And the fact he works late, I'm not a morning person and I also like to have a treatment at the end of the day and to be able to relax. So that makes a huge difference for me.”

“I wouldn’t function like I do in the studio and in daily life without these treatments.”

Finding Fabio has helped Charlotte in ways she couldn’t imagine, with regular appointments making it easy for him to notice when things aren’t quite right: “The great thing about seeing somebody on an ongoing basis is that they get to learn how your body is. So there are some days he'll do acupuncture, and there are some days where it will just be a deep tissue massage, and then there will be some days where bones will be put back in.”

And so in a bid to give back, she spreads the word whenever she can: “I feel like it’s almost a symbiotic relationship that I have with Urban,” she says. With a lot of neurodivergent friends, she tells them about the ease, convenience and safety she feels when using the app.

The plan for Preaface

When Charlotte started Preaface, she began working in pottery studios open to all. But being neurodivergent, autistic and having ADHD, Charlotte started to find sharing work spaces a challenge: “I wanted to have a space that not only catered to my neuro divergency, but also for other people to come and feel safe.” And as of this year, she got the keys to her very own quaint studio in Gossamer City.

Her goal is to eventually create a model that’s portable, making it easy for other neuro-divergent people to set up a studio:  “For me, having a model of a studio that caters to the neurodiverse brain would be the dream.”

Love Charlotte’s creations? See more of her work or get in touch with her directly via her website or Instagram.

Or if you’d like to find your own Fabio, download the Urban app today to browse our pros and book a treatment.