What to expect / what will we do?

Arrival

When you arrive you will be greeted by one of our Receptionists and asked to fill out some simple details. We ask that you arrive 5 or 10 minutes early for your first appointment.  It gives you a chance to fill out the forms and catch your breath if you have been rushing from the car.

Greet

Your Physiotherapist will then greet you in the waiting room and take you through to the treatment area.  We do not use an open gym lay out in our clinic.  Your assessment and treatment will be in a private treatment room so that you do not need to share your experiences with other clients and Physiotherapists.  We consider your privacy to be of paramount importance. All conversations and records are kept confidential.  We will only release information about you and your condition to other health practitioners or specialists with your approval.

Listen

We will listen to your explanation of your concerns and reasons for seeking Physiotherapy assessment.  We will ask you specific questions about your problem in an attempt to understand it thoroughly.  We want to know what you expect from us.  We will also view any scans or reports from previous investigations or treatments.

Examine

After gathering this information we will then assess you.  Depending on what you have come to us for it may mean some simple movements followed by us pushing on or gently feeling the movements of your wrist, knee, back or whatever your particular area of concern.   Assessments will vary considerably from person to person.  The physical assessment is a deduction process where the results from one particular test will guide what we do next.  By the end of this assessment we will usually have a good idea of what your condition is and what we and you should do about recovery.

Explain

The next important step is to explain to you what is wrong and what is not wrong.  We give you a diagnosis and recommend a course of action which in most cases will involve some manual therapy treatment from us and some exercise for you to do at home.  This takes the form of a discussion.  It’s not us telling you what to do since we respect that you also have a good idea of what you body responds to and what it does not.  We recommend a plan of action giving you an idea of how much treatment is required and a time frame for recovery.

Treat

We then implement the treatment and develop the exercises required.  Massage, soft tissue release, mobilization, manipulation or any of the many other techniques we utilise.  At the end of the session we will be clear about our recommendation for further treatment or ongoing exercise.  We will usually print pictures of the exercises we have recommended and write down how much to do and how often. Everyone is different and some may not need further treatment while some may need a series of sessions.

Follow Up care

After you leave we encourage you to telephone us or email us if you have concerns about your condition.  We don’t usually take phone calls during someone’s treatment session however we do allocate time each day for returning calls.  We will always be happy to speak to you.