Your Physical Therapy Consult - What to Expect?
Listening
I will listen to you as you discuss your injury or mobility issue as well as your medical conditions and any surgery or physical limitations. It’s very important to listen to you to understand your history, mechanism of injury and your priorities for functional recovery. The research shows that if I listen carefully and we discuss all of your questions and issues (which we will!) that I’ll be able to determine up to 75-90% of your diagnosis.
Questions
I’ll use the clues you provide – your history, description of your condition and movement limitations to ask you specific questions. These questions will reveal clues regarding how your limitations relate to movement dysfunction with associated risk factors that may contribute.
Tests & Measures
I’ll ask you to perform certain movements – requiring strength, posture, balance and mobility. Your performance will be observed & measured – and compared to expected norms. Tests & measures will be customized to your particular movement and functional limitation issues. I’ll use the results to rule-in or rule-out certain conditions and to understand the root cause of your pain and movement problems. I’ll also determine your baseline for strength, posture, balance and mobility
Anatomy & Physiology
I will inform you about your anatomy and physiology as it relates to your injured body area or body part. This will give you perspective regarding the injury or ailment, such as degenerative changes, movement mechanics of the joint and/or muscular movement dysfunction. You’ll learn that the injured body part is often a symptom of the underlying root cause of your pain and movement dysfunction.
Holistic Human Movement
You are not a body part. I will show you how your whole body movement patterns contribute to your injured body part. In research terms, this is called “Regional Interdependence.” It’s important for you to understand how to improve your body movement habit patterns – your posture, movement, strength and balance. Most often, your movement habit patterns include compensations often due to injury, wear and tear or imbalances in posture, movement and balance factors that contribute to the cause of your current pain or mobility problem.
Your Goals
Be sure to let me know exactly what you want to gain from your physical therapy evaluation and treatment. Including pain management, daily activities that are currently limited, improving your strength, getting better balance, decreasing your risk for falls, achieving return to sports & recreation and improving your health & wellness. Everyone is different, so be sure to discuss your goals with me.
Functional Recovery Expectations
I will guide you – while working with your primary care physician, specialist physician(s) and your healthcare team – including your personal trainer, massage therapist and coach as needed. I will provide you with evidence-based physical therapy care that factors in your unique physical and medical conditions. We’ll develop a plan together in order to get you to move well without pain - and to recover better and faster.
Treatment Sessions
My evaluation and treatment sessions at Move for Health Physical Therapy are 60 minutes in duration. I will guide your therapeutic exercise, neuro-muscular re-education and functional training activities one-on-one. You’ll enhance your body awareness to improve your movement with hands-on physical therapy care. I’ll incorporate modalities such as manual therapy (joint and soft tissue mobilization), trigger point dry needling, electrical stimulation and other modalities to diminish painful symptoms so that you can move well.
Home Exercise Program
Rehabilitation is an incremental process. Your recovery will require diligent and consistent practice – to improve core stability, movement patterns and to make the gains in strength, motion, balance and function that is needed. I will give you homework to perform between physical therapy sessions. In my practice this includes options for written, pictoral and/or video-clips for specific exercises along with educational materials. It’s important for you to follow-through with your home program.
Empowerment
You’ll learn how to move well and without pain. I’’ll provide you with any temporary modifications and guided rehabilitation progressions for your return to your full activity goals. By understanding your current condition, and with the support and knowledge you gain, you will be empowered to achieve your best functional recovery. You’ll be empowered to learn what to do to get better and most importantly how and why it’s important.
Achieving Your Goals
Your Physical Therapy consult, plan of care, intervention and home program will be designed to help you to achieve optimal functional recovery - while teaching you to move well without pain. Due to the nature of human neuro-muscular physiology and rehabilitation, making a significant improvement in strength, movement patterns, posture and balance typically requires about 2-3 months. I will provide you with customized physical therapy visits, a home program, return to activity guidelines and educational materials to get you better faster. We’ll schedule each visit with enough time between sessions for you to perform your home program and to integrate improved core stability and functional movement improvements. In addition, I am available between sessions via phone, email and/or Telehealth to answer any questions that you might have. This allows us to achieve your goals with fewer physical therapy visits required.
Healthspan Improved
I will guide you as a Doctor of Physical Therapy, a human movement specialist and your personal coach. We will work together as a team. We’ll communicate closely as you progress toward your goals during each treatment session. Together we can make a difference in the quality of your movement, your posture, your strength and your balance. Abundant research supports physical activity and exercise as a key ingredient for your health - now and in the future. Being physically active requires you to have the mobility, strength and balance to move well without pain. Being physically active is very important, but if you’re limited by pain or poor mobility, then it’s often difficult and frustrating to be unable to do the activity that you want to do. I will teach you how to engage your core stability while incorporating functional movement patterns in a very natural way. You’ll begin to feel your whole body working together to provide you with the core strength, balance and pain-free movement as we (as humans) are designed to move. You’ll learn to use reflexes and automated muscular control patterns that we learned automatically as an child. Many of us develop habits and compensations that become instilled over time - without realizing it. This is most often due to sedentary activities, injuries, surgeries or wear and tear that alters optimal movement mechanics. I look forward to the opportunity to work with you one-on-one to develop a plan of hands-on physical therapy care that will help you to achieve your activity goals and to improve your healthspan. That means living not only longer but with better health, mobility and activity level for as long and as well as possible. Remember, it’s never too late, and there’s always something we can do - together.
It’s an honor and a privilege to help you. Please reach out to discuss any questions you may have or if you’d like to talk.
Dr. Darcy
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