TLDR: Physical therapy can be used for a lot of different reasons, both for preventative care, rehabilitation, and maintenance! No matter what you want or need physical therapy for, physical therapy can help and it works! Physical therapy works because it takes a look at the person as a whole, puts the pieces together and treats the “full picture” and not just the symptoms. Physical therapists take the time to figure out what is going on functionally, and not just where the pain or limitation is, or what the x-ray says. By taking a look at the whole picture and coming up with a customized physical therapy plan for each individual, it allows most people to benefit from it in some capacity! PT works!
If you have ever heard of physical therapy or have have been referred to physical therapy, chances are it was more than likely because you were already injured or in pain, had recent surgery, or were about to have surgery, or had some type of limitation in your body that was holding you back from something in your life that you wanted to be doing. Physical therapy can help with all of those things and get you back to living your life fully and limit free. But that is not all it is or all it does!
If you look up the definition of physical therapy on the internet this is the first thing that pops up for the definition “the treatment of disease, injury, or deformity by physical methods such as massage, heat treatment, and exercise rather than by drugs or surgery.” Once again, this is correct! What it doesn’t include though or mention, is the fact that we do SO MUCH MORE than just get you better after an injury or pain. We can prevent those things from happening too.
So a better definition of physical therapy (I think, and I think many PTs would agree) is: PT is skilled care, provided by an educated and skilled physical therapist, that helps a person to move, function, and live better, with as few aches, pains, and limitations as possible. Does this sum it up perfectly? No, definitely not, but it does a better job. Let’s talk about why and why PT works!
When you come to physical therapy, no matter the reason, the first thing that is done, is your physical therapist will complete a full evaluation on you. They will learn about why you are coming to PT, if you are currently having any issues, if you are trying to prevent anything specific or just general aches and pains, your history of previous injuries, pain, and surgeries, your activity level and day to day routine and activities you like to do, things that you can’t do right now (if any) because of any limitations you may have, and what your goals are. From there ,they will continue by looking at your strength, range of motion, joint mobility, any neurological signs, checking for anything “abnormal” that may require further evaluation from another medical professional, your gait, certain functional movements, and depending on what your goals are, they may check other movements and activities that you are trying to get back to.
After getting all of this information, your PT will be able to start to put together a plan of care for you, that is specific to your current level of function and the goals that you have. All throughout your PT plan of care, your physical therapist will continue to evaluate you and your progress and level of function and make any adjustments that may be needed. This is all to ensure that we are never missing anything and we are getting you to your goals as quickly as possible. And it is one of the reasons that PT works. If we were just to evaluate you once and set goals based off of that and then never look into these things again, we wouldn’t be as successful at helping you!
Physical therapy works for different reasons, depending on why you are there in the first place. One of the most important things that great physical therapists do though that makes it so successful, is look at the whole person who comes in. When you come to PT, you should not be a number to your PT. You are an individual and you have specific needs and goals and reasons for being at PT. You are also not just your pain, your injury, or what your x-ray says. When you come to PT because of pain or an injury, as a PT, I am going to look at that specifically, and I am also going to look at your full body mobility and strength, what your health overall is like, and any restrictions and limitations that you have. Sometimes, it seems like the questions that I’m asking are not relevant to why you are at PT to begin with. I promise you though, they are. There are things that PTs will think of and know that may be related to what you are dealing with, without you even fully realizing that it was a struggle for you or that it is actually related.
By looking at the full picture, physical therapists are able to put all of the pieces together and find the cause of that pain or injury and what it is doing to you functionally. Many times in the healthcare system, unfortunately medical care providers are looking at one piece of the puzzle and not taking into consideration all of the other pieces, and the puzzle as a whole. Physical therapists have the skill and the ability to look at each of those puzzle pieces and know how important each of those pieces are, and we look at the whole picture and what the body “should” be doing or what “should” be happening with movements and what is currently happening for you - and we put it all together.
Throughout your course of physical therapy, as PTs continue to ask questions and evaluate and re-evaluate movements and function, other pieces of the puzzle tend to fall in place. You may remember about an old back injury from the gym, or that you twisted your ankle playing with your kids at some point. Or, something new may even come up during your treatment. You may come to PT to work on your shoulder and as we are going along through treatment, your shoulder is feeling great but at the exact same time your shoulder starts feeling better, your neck starts to bother you. These are all pieces to the puzzle! This constant evaluation allows us to get all of the pieces of the puzzle and put them all together so we can treat you fully!
By looking at you as the full individual you are, and not just one area of pain or limitation or concern, we are able to focus on your overall function. We are not just treating pain, swelling, or strength. We are treating everything and helping your whole body to get stronger and to function correctly as a whole unit the way that it is supposed to. If we treat the whole body, then we are able to make sure there are fewer areas of compensation and less chance of further injury or pain or complications. If we treat the whole body, we are treating the root cause of the problem and not just putting a bandaid or a quick fix over what’s going on. We are working to fix it, prevent it, and maintain that fix by treating the cause and every piece of the puzzle and the whole person.
One of the reasons that physical therapy works is because we take the time to figure out what works best for you, put the puzzle pieces together, and focus on function! There are many other reasons for physical therapy and why it works and what goes into it! This is just a piece of it!
I’m happy to talk more about it too - if you have a specific question about the process, feel free to ask!
If there is anything specific that you would like to learn about, comment or email me and I am more than happy to talk more about it!
Thanks for being here!
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Dr. Katie
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