What is physiotherapy? From an Edinburgh Physiotherapist.

As a Edinburgh physiotherapist, the question ‘What is physiotherapy?’ is an interesting and ever changing one.

Well if you get the definition from our professional governing body, the Chartered Society of Physiotherapists then ‘ Physiotherapists help people affected by injury, illness or disability through movement and exercise, manual therapy, education and advice. They maintain health for people of all ages, helping patients to manage pain and prevent disease (more here). But the word Physiotherapy? The Physio relates to nature. We work with living things called humans and we use therapy. This is treatments in order to relieve pain or heal injuries.

What do Edinburgh physiotherapists actually do?

This is the ever changing aspect of our physiotherapy profession. As an Edinburgh physiotherapist our goals may be the same as always – relieve pain and improve function. We help manage conditions if we can’t sort them, we educate and give people knowledge about their problems, we provide reassurance and empathy. How we do it has fundamentally changed and depends much more on the person we see before us.

Simply choosing the cheapest and quickest treatment without the right scientific or personal individualised approach, creates a blanket one size fits all approach which we do not think gives the best results. We don’t simply give you a sheet of exercises and send you away. If exercise is the key to your success, then we make sure you know your program properly and review you if necessary to make sure you comply and progress as planned. Physiotherapy should be about meeting the expectations of our patients and if these are unrealistic or damaging beliefs then we need to challenge these, we have the best interest of our patients at heart.

What are the treatments?

The types of treatments at Physis include;

Hands on Manual Therapy

At Physis, we believe in the power of touch. Whilst most conditions will get better without hands-on treatment, manual therapy can both alleviate pain in the short to medium term, making the recovery more tolerable, and give accelerated progress through certain stages of the healing process.

Massage Therapy

Massage has long been a method of aiding recovery throughout history, but as time has progressed our understanding of the effects has improved. With the result that we now know what works and what doesn’t. Massage can vary in intensity and depth to achieve different physical and psychological responses. Our therapists are well trained in different techniques and will adapt their delivery depending on your requirements. Some of our team are both physiotherapists and trained massage therapists. All of our practitioners work together to provide the best combined approach to your care. (More on Massage)

Exercise Rehabilitation

In order to return you to a normal healthy state, you will often need to restore the loss of either muscular or joint range of motion, regain muscle strength lost through deconditioning and disuse, and even re-learn optimal ways to move, which allow your body to function with less pain.

Other treatments

More information on treatments can be found here

What makes the physiotherapy at Physis different?

There are lots of physiotherapists in Edinburgh providing physiotherapy. We know most of them as this is still a friendly profession. All of our therapists are fully trained, qualified and registered with the Health and Care Professions Council. What makes us different from most is that the physiotherapists at Physis believe in using recognised and proven medcial science to treat our patients. Now that may sound easy enough but science has many grey areas and these create quite a bit of discussion within our profession.

Physis physiotherapy believe in getting to the root cause of your problem. We make sure, where possible, the issue goes away and stays away. Our Physiotherapists help you to self manage where possible and understand what lifestyle changes will reduce the likelihood of a recurrence and we make sure you understand why we have chosen the treatment option we advise.

Physis Physiotherapy don’t sell blocks of treatment, we don’t scare our patients into coming back when they do not need to. Our skilled professionals are always learning and making improvements to treatments to help you return to sport or work quicker. We do not follow treatment fads. We analyse the pros and cons of ‘new treatments’ and if our patients expectations of what they need don’t match the science we try to explain why.

Does this work?

Since 1999 we have seen over 25,000 patients. Over 75% of all of our customers come to us from recommendations. The majority of recommendations are from friends and family. Thenwe are referred to by GP’s and consultants. So we think it does. If you are not sure go and read our reviews on google.

If you would to discuss your pain or injury and want to see an Edinburgh physiotherapist or another physiotherapist at one of our other clinics please make an appointment or contact us on: 0131 478 4646.