Intro to Physiotherapy

Intro to Physiotherapy

1) What is Physiotherapy?

Physiotherapy is a regulated health care profession dedicated to maximizing your mobility, function, and well-being in an effort to return you to your best level of living at home, work, and play.

Physiotherapists have established roles within the community and practice in a variety of health care settings including private clinics, hospitals, rehabilitation centres, community centres, workplaces, patients’ homes, community outreach teams, professional sport teams, palliative care facilities, research facilities, and universities. Physiotherapists collaborate with other health care professionals to achieve treatment goals for their clients with acute or chronic conditions.

2) What are some benefits to having Physiotherapy at One Wellness?

Our Physiotherapists:

1) Are highly experienced and extensively trained at a post-graduate level. They are active members of the community and promoters for betterment of the profession.

2) Value education to empower people in understanding how their body functions.

3) Utilize evidence-informed assessment and treatment approaches including manual therapy (soft tissue release, active release technique, joint mobilization and manipulation, cupping, graston technique), exercise-based interventions, intra-muscular stimulation (IMS), anatomical acupuncture, and shockwave therapy.

4) Want to empower people to improve their movement capabilities so they can perform in life, recreation and athletics. We believe that you must include movement education to get people out of pain, build capacity to live life, and improve performance.

5) Treat one client at a time, in private rooms. Their only focus is on your concerns.

3) Is Physiotherapy only for athletes or the injured?

Our Physiotherapists treat a variety of individuals including:

A)    Professional and Olympic athletes

B)    Recreational athletes and weekend warriors

C)    Infants, toddlers and youth

D)    Individuals 65+ years old

Every client comes to Physiotherapy with different goals. Usually the goal is to work on a tight or painful area of their body, however, an ever-growing number of clients find that working with us to improve the way they move and function reduces their chance of developing a future injury. Research would support this notion: Physiotherapists can help you learn how to properly warm-up, gain sport/life specific strength, move efficiently, and address areas of reduced mobility.

4) Is Physiotherapy painful?

Our bodies are quite amazing – they respond and adapt to repeated stimuli. During a standard treatment, your Physiotherapist may want to help reduce muscle tension or joint stiffness and in order to do this they may use manual therapy based treatments or needling. These treatments are often a little uncomfortable, but should not be associated with any sharp pain. Your Physiotherapist is always happy to talk with you about your tolerance to treatment and if you feel that the treatment is too uncomfortable you should feel 100% secure in discussing this.

5) What can I expect during my first assessment?

During your first assessment, your Physiotherapist will like to learn a lot about you: A few questions you may be asked includes:

• What do you do for work, recreation, sport?
• Have you had any previous injuries of significance or other medical diagnoses? Do you take any medication?
• Tell me about your injury. Have you seen any previous health care professionals for the injury? Have you had any imaging?
• How does the injury impact your life? When do you feel discomfort?
• What are your goals? (For example: Are you preparing for a race?)

After discussing your current concerns, your Physiotherapist will want to learn about how you move. They will ask you to move in certain ways (for example: touch toes, squat, watch you walk/run), and then test your strength and flexibility in certain ways.  

The Physiotherapist will then ask you to sit or lay down on the treatment table so that they may start to assess muscle and joint movement to determine how they will best help with various treatment techniques.

The rest of the assessment will allow the Physiotherapist to treat your concern with various treatment techniques, provide you with a couple of specific exercises that you can do at home to create a positive change, and discuss any important concepts with you.

6) Is physiotherapy covered by insurance?

It can be, yes, depending on your extended health benefits. Each person’s plan varies, so it’s best to check with your provider as to what coverage you have.

7) I’ve hurt myself at work, what do I do?

Report the incident to your employer immediately. Once you have reported the injury or illness to your employer, contact WCB at 1-866-922-9221 to start a claim with WCB Alberta. Finally, make an appointment for an assessment with One Wellness to start treatment to assist in your recovery.

8) I’ve been in a car accident, what do I do?

Report the accident to the police right away. As soon as you are able to, call your insurance company to the accident claims centre. They will provide you with what kind of coverage you have, and how to go about claiming the accident. You will be required to fill out a form, called an AB-1 for the insurance company.

Once you able to receive therapy, call One Wellness to book an appointment for an assessment.