Why Do You Need a Physical Therapist?

You may think that you do not need physical therapy and can manage your health on your own. While managing your health as an individual is part of the goal physical therapists often aim for, there are many advantages in participating in physical therapy sessions with a skilled physical therapist. The tools you may gain and the knowledge you will learn will be invaluable along your health journey.

If you need physical therapy, it can be for a wide variety of reasons. Maybe you’re recovering from a stroke, have just recently been injured, or are elderly and need assistance gaining your balance to prevent potentially fatal falls. If your doctor has written the script for attending physical therapy, there is always an important reason they have done so. While in physical therapy, you will learn crucial tools during each visit, experience hands-on quality care, and overall benefit from your time in treatment. Seeing a physical therapist offers you access to a professional trained and certified to address unique needs for each patient. The needs of each person may vary, but the same high-quality care you will receive is guaranteed for every client that works with Physical Therapist Alex Klurfeld.

Physical therapists undergo years of special training that not all doctors do. Their specialty is in the body’s musculoskeletal system. This knowledge is crucial because it aids them in helping their patients focus on healing these often-tedious problem areas. And their skills aren’t just limited to healing injuries. They can offer specialties that cross over with massage therapy and chiropractic therapies. Their knowledge also includes hydrotherapy, pain management, and several other alternative therapies. An excellent physical therapist knows numerous ways to treat a problem, can call on years of training and practice, and alternate between treatments when one works better than the other. 

Another advantage to having a trained physical therapist by your side is that they can track your progress for you.  Like a sport’s coach, they cheer you on, point out areas that need improvement, and help you reach set goals. They take notes, document information your doctor needs to know, and work with other medical professionals on your care team as a team. They also recommend alternative methods to treat your conditions. For example, they may recommend that along with more traditional physical therapy treatments such as exercise, you also try electrical stimulation (ESTIM) to either contract dormant muscles or provide temporary pain relief for a condition that causes chronic muscle pain.

Physical therapy addresses the healing, management, and prevention of disabilities or injuries. The services that a physical therapist provides include relief, structure, and overall wellness. A critical aspect of physical therapy is the prevention of surgery. Because physical therapists use non-invasive methods, the risk for things like infection due to surgery is eliminated. 

A whole-body approach is another advantage to attending physical therapy once your doctor writes you a script. A keen-eyed physical therapist knows how to read the situation when assessing you. They look for signs that even you do not realize you are showing, such as groaning, wincing, or your eyebrows drawing together that indicate you are experiencing pain. They can notice a limp, hesitancy to use a particular muscle or even an imbalance in your muscles as you move. They can even observe that you rely on one side of your body, a specific limb, or have a harmful habit unknown to you that will result in pain as you move your body.

A physical therapist can check your strength and the lack thereof.  By offering assistance in building and conditioning strong muscles, physical therapy can provide relief of painful or swollen joints. Their whole-body approach also looks at strengthening those weak muscles to prevent other muscles from taking the brunt of doing all the work in supporting your skeleton.

Physical therapists can improve your balance, whether on land or in water.  With methods like aquatic therapy, physical therapists provide their patients with a cushion to avoid injuring themselves if they fall while improving their balance. They also know that gravity is different in water and that the strain on joints and muscles is less so when applying this method in a physical therapy session. Hydrotherapy doesn’t only benefit balance, however. It offers strength building, stretching, and often relief from chronic pain that tends to be debilitating for patients.

You may find you need a reliable physical therapist to promote overall mobility.  Loss of mobility can be the result of many factors. Some factors may include chronic pain preventing a person from moving, a neurological disorder, a traumatic brain injury, or other injuries that resulted in broken bones or torn tendons. Sometimes, age is a crucial factor in the loss of mobility. Conditions such as arthritis and osteoporosis are common reasons your doctor may recommend you see a physical therapist to promote mobility.

Physical therapists target treatments for aches and pains. Maybe that is neck pain, back pain, tendonitis, repetitive movements in the workplace that cause carpal tunnel syndrome, or other common ailments. They can help relieve pain, rebuild the body, and refocus you on what you should or shouldn’t be doing by educating you on your body’s movements. Physical therapy can improve total body function.

Another role of a physical therapist is teaching. Often this is the adaption associated with injuries a patient may have experienced. Education may be showing a person with a broken leg how to use crutches properly. This can also look like demonstrating how someone with a disability can operate a wheelchair without discomfort. Another helpful approach is teaching ways to build core strength for the one needing to rely on assistive devices and lessen the fatigue of doing so. 

Regardless of your individual needs, having a skilled physical therapist on your care team is vital. Alex Klurfeld brings his years of knowledge, experience, and dedication to working with patients just like you to every physical therapy session.

• Laura Inverarity, D. O. (2019, August 16). How do you know if you need physical therapy? Verywell Health. Retrieved October 6, 2021, from https://www.verywellhealth.com/do-i-need-physical-therapy-2696643.