Conditions / Flat feet & bunions

Flat feet & bunions

Some pain isn’t random — it’s your knees, hips, or lower back reacting to how your feet move. You’ve tried different shoes, stretches, rest. The ache keeps showing up anyway.

Or it’s a bunion, flat feet, or pain across the ball of the foot that’s slowly changed how you walk. Either way, there’s usually a reason — and it’s worth understanding before you keep changing shoes.

What’s actually happening

A careful, hands-on look at how you stand and move — your posture, the way your joints line up, and how load travels through your legs and feet as you walk — is what connects the dots between where it hurts and why. For runners this often takes the form of a running assessment, looking at gait, footwear and training load together. None of it relies on guesswork; it’s a structured process.

For bunions specifically, care typically starts with conservative management and practical footwear advice — aiming to relieve pain and keep you walking comfortably before anything further is considered.

It’s worth getting checked if pain keeps returning despite rest, your shoes wear unevenly, you’ve been told you “walk a bit differently,” you’re noticing pain under the ball of your foot, or a niggle is starting to change how much you’re willing to do.

How we can help

An objective look at how you stand and walk — covering flat feet, bunions, ball-of-foot pain and gait-related pain
Gait analysis and running assessment, connecting your feet to the rest of your body
Hands-on treatment where appropriate — foot mobilisation, manipulation, IASTM, dry needling, supportive strapping, shockwave therapy or musculoskeletal release, alongside a structured strength program
A written summary you can actually understand

The decision on how to proceed always stays in your hands. We’ll explain both short-term options for relief and longer-term strategies, and what each realistically involves — where techniques like dry needling or shockwave are suggested, we’ll tell you beforehand what the sensation is generally like, rather than leave you guessing.

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Reviewed by Burwood Podiatry. This page is general information, not a diagnosis — book an assessment for advice about your own feet.