What should I expect during physical therapy treatment?
What can Physical Therapy do for my pain?
At your first appointment, the physical therapist will:
- Perform an evaluation to determine a baseline status for the tissues to be treated including range of motion, strength, balance
- Discuss with you and set appropriate goals that are function based that will guide further treatment sessions.
- At follow up visits, the physical therapist will use various treatment techniques such as modalities, manual therapy, therapeutic exercise, and patient education to achieve the functional goals that have been determined at the time of the initial evaluation.
How many visits will it take?
Typically a session of physical therapy is approximately 6-8 visits.
- During those 6-8 visits your therapy team will have instructed you with various tools to gain a greater understanding of your pain. You will be taught strategies and see opportunities to help yourself and become less dependent on healthcare providers.
What can I do to help myself?
Are we ever glad you asked! One of our goals in physical therapy is instructing you in how to manage your pain. We will provide you with resources to better understand your pain as well as knowledge and exercises with appropriate progression to improve your current level of function. We are here to support you as you begin this journey in improving your health!
- There is a lot of research that indicates that people in pain are interested in knowing more about their pain. In studies where patients go through education sessions and gain a deeper understanding of their pain it was found that they have less fear, better attitudes about pain, move easier, have the ability to work more despite slight discomfort, have the ability to exercise more, and have less nerve sensitivity.