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Writer's picturekatieperronedpt

Why I Always Say "IT DEPENDS" When It Comes to PT!

TLDR: Your health and healing journey is different from everybody else’s and will never look identical to anybody else. There are so many different things that have a factor in everything we do, that a lot of answers depend on that!


One thing I always say to my clients when they ask me a question is “it depends”. I have clients now who will ask me a question and say “I know you’re going to say “it depends”, but I was wondering why…”. I laugh every time, because it’s true. Two different clients, who have the exact same injury and had it happen in the exact same way and on the exact same day, could get two different answers to the exact same question. Why? Because your healing journey depends on so many different factors and those factors are generally different for everybody.


Some examples of different things that your healing process can depend on can include: your age, your gender, any other health conditions, how active you were prior to hurting yourself, your work life, your home life, your responsibilities every day, your support system, your mental health, level of fear around your injury, your belief of how well you will heal, and so on and so forth. That is a TON of different things that will play a role.


So when somebody asks me “how long will this injury take to get better?” or “how long until I can run again”, I start off with “it depends”. And then I will give the explanation of what a “typical” timeline would like for the perfect human body, for example it may be up to 6 weeks for your sprained knee to feel better again. And then I will explain more about all of these different factors that will play a role in the answer and the timeline in this situation.


It’s frustrating for sure, for me too, because I would LOVE to be able to say “You will feel fantastic in 4 weeks and you will be running in 6 weeks, with no issues whatsoever”, but that is never the case. The truth is we can’t predict how the human body is going to react to different situations and injuries. We can help it in the healing journey, and it will still look different for everybody.


So when I say “it depends”, it’s not that I don’t want to give you a straight answer, I literally cannot give you one straight answer. For many questions, because of the “it depends” and the different factors that are occurring, I can give multiple answers to the same question and different scenarios of what could happen potentially - from worst case to best case scenario and everything in between.


Honestly, if your physical therapist is not saying “it depends” to you at least a couple of times every PT session you have with them, you may need a new PT! We’re really good at “it depends” - because… it does depend.


If you have any questions or need help with an injury or pain, email me today at livewithoutlimitspt@gmail.com and give us a follow on Instagram (click below!) for more knowledge and tips and tricks!




Thank you for being here!


  • Dr. Katie

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