What You Need to Know About Physical Therapy

After entering the awesome field of Physical Therapy about a decade ago, it has become my passion to educated and inform anyone and everyone about how to take better care of themselves.

This blog will serve as another forum for me to get the word out on healthy living, body basics and what physical therapy can do for you.

Before I can get into specific health topics, I must explain more about physical therapy so you know the foundation of my knowledge. To become a licensed physical therapist, one must graduate college with a Bachelor's degree and then compete to be accepted in a graduate program (2-3 more years) in physical therapy. Most PT students now graduate as Doctors of Physical Therapy. This is a clinical Doctorate degree, not a PhD. However, you may come across PTs who have been practicing with Master or Bachelor level degrees since before Doctorate programs were available. You should inquire about an active licence in PT, years of experience, continuing education or specialties when looking for a qualified physical therapist.

Physical therapy, as a profession, is growing and evolving in exciting ways. You can see a "Direct Access" physical therapist without a physician's prescription for 30 days of treatment. This allows you quicker access to treatment and less out of pocket co-pays. Ultimately you have the right to choose where you go for physical therapy and when. You should consider physical therapy any time you have pain, loss of motion or functional decline. In many cases, you can avoid more invasive medical treatments when you learn how to get to the root of your problem and solve it with specific exercises prescribed for you.

My future posts will identify many of the common pain syndromes we treat in my office on a daily basis as well as topics about sports, recreations, occupations and general healthy living. I welcome your comments, questions and suggestions for future topic ideas. Until next time...