A thin needle into a tight band of muscle, used by a physiotherapist when that band is part of why you cannot move well. It sits inside the physiotherapy session, with your consent, and it is not a treatment you book on its own.
Dry needling uses a solid needle on a myofascial trigger point — a tight, irritable band in a muscle — to change the tone of that muscle so the rest of the session can work on how you move. The aim is the movement problem. The needle is one tool inside it.
Hidekazu Kuwabara is a BIG-registered physiotherapist. He has also completed the International Toyohari Training Program (Japanese meridian therapy) of the European Branch of the Toyohari Association (EBTA), and brings a background in Japanese acupuncture to how he understands the body.
Tight bands that keep referring pain after a day at a screen, when stretching the sore spot has stopped changing anything.
Forearm and neck tension that sits in the muscle, assessed before anyone decides a needle belongs there.
Back pain in which a guarded muscle is part of the pattern. Needling does not replace looking at how you bend, sit and load.
Overloaded muscle from training, once the assessment has separated that from a joint, tendon or training-load problem.
History, what you have already tried, and how you actually move. A lot of pain that feels muscular is being driven from somewhere else. If that is the case, needling the sore spot is the wrong first move.
Only when a trigger point is part of the problem. It is brief. It can be sharp for a moment. It is not offered as a stand-alone ritual, and it is not offered to every patient.
The session goes back to the thing you came for: restoring a movement you can keep using during the week. The needle is there so that part can happen, not instead of it.
It is performed by Hidekazu Kuwabara, a BIG-registered physiotherapist with a dry needling certification, inside a physiotherapy session at Arent Janszoon Ernststraat 665A.
Soreness in the muscle for a day or two afterwards is common. That is a local reaction, not a sign that the session “took” or failed.
It is not appropriate for every person or every pain. The assessment decides. We do not publish a list of medical exceptions here, because that decision belongs in the room, with your history in front of us.
Dry needling stays inside the physiotherapy session. It is not a cure, and it is not a reason to skip the movement work.
Book physiotherapy with Hide. If dry needling is useful, it happens inside the time you have already booked. There is no separate dry-needling tariff.
Arent Janszoon Ernststraat 665A, 1082 LG Amsterdam·+31 6 4006 6580
The first session is for listening — your history, your pattern, your goal. Treatment begins the same day.
Call +31 6 4006 6580. Physiotherapy is €68 for 25 minutes. You pay the clinic and receive an invoice; reimbursement depends on your policy.