If you have ever been to physical therapy and failed to
progress or had a poor outcome, you probably concluded that physical therapy
was just not for you.
A bad experience may turn you off from physical therapy all together. What many people do not realize, however, is that not all physical therapy is the same.
A bad experience may turn you off from physical therapy all together. What many people do not realize, however, is that not all physical therapy is the same.
The aspect I love most about being a Physical Therapist is
having the freedom to choose from and ability to utilize a wide range of
treatments. Depending on the patient, diagnosis,
and presentation, the treatment could vary greatly. Treatment can range from therapeutic
exercise, functional activity, joint mobilization/manipulation, nerve
mobilization, soft tissue techniques, and modalities, just to name a few.
Unfortunately, many clinicians that specialize in a specific treatment method
may become narrow minded and try to fit every patient into the same model. For example, a clinician may try to force
every low back pain patient into a McKenzie model, or try to
"stabilize" every spine patient regardless of their diagnosis. While these methods can be very effective,
they will not work for everyone. If you
do not fit into their model, you do not get better. In addition, some clinicians are more/less
knowledgeable than others, making them unable to offer treatment they are
unfamiliar with. I feel that the more treatment options I am familiar with, the
more patients I have the potential to get better. If a patient is not responding to treatment,
instead of saying "Physical Therapy is not working for you", I can
say, "This treatment is not working for you, so let's try something
different."
Another factor to consider is the amount of time your
Physical Therapist spends with you during a treatment session. Many clinics require practitioners to treat
multiple patients at the same time. Even
if the clinician is excellent, they are clearly unable to give you their full
attention and effort in this situation.
The more time your Physical Therapist can spend with you, the more time
there is for skilled manual treatment, ability to assess your response to
treatment, and ability to identify factors that are contributing to your
condition.
If you were to have physical therapy at 10 different clinics
in your area, you will almost certainly have a very different experience at
each. In addition, you will likely have
a different experience working with different therapists within the same
clinic. If you are not responding to or
not satisfied with your treatment, you should try another clinic before giving
up on physical therapy. Or, if you have
had a bad experience in the past, I would encourage you to give physical
therapy another try somewhere else. You
have the freedom to be treated by any Physical Therapist you choose, even if you
were recommended to go somewhere specific by your doctor. Put your outcome in your own hands and make
an educated choice to get the best results possible.
Posted by Dr. Shaun Vollmer, DPT
I totally agree with you, It's happened maximum time but we
ReplyDeletehave to aware of it and have to improve our idea, our mindset and need to be
more sociable.
Just thought I should leave a short comment saying thank you
for your hard work and effort putting all this information together. Some of us
appreciate it.
nj physical therapy