Physiotherapy: When to NOPE! Right out and never come back
6 things if they did, I would leave and never come back
1.They see you and someone else at the same time
This is a huge red flag for me. It signals that they are not the people we should go and see. It is for one simple reason. How can they possibly figure out the problem, determine the plan and fix it when they spending half (or at worst most) of our session time together helping someone else?
They could say things like I am going to put this on you and let it do its work and I will be right back. Then you can hear them laughing in the other room with another client while you are laying with a hot pack on you.
You did not come to their offices and pay money just to get a hot pack and time for it to work. You could and probably already have put a hot pack on at home and it did not help.
That is why you are there. For the expert knowledge and training on things, you cannot do at home.
2. Treating first and evaluating later.
This goes hand in hand with seeing someone else. You arrive for your session. You are amped because finally, you are going to get answers as to what is causing your back pain and what the plan is to fix it is will be.
You go into their rooms. Talk for a few minutes and then they start doing things to fix you.
This is bad. It is even worse when they say things like I already know what is wrong and how to fix it without even touching you.
How could someone know exactly what the problem is and how to fix it without taking the time to determine what the problem is?
Perhaps this person is so good that they know already. Awesome. It means you made the right choice in going to them. I just think that not confirming that what you think is wrong with my neck verses what is actually wrong with my neck is reckless.
Perhaps I have something that is causing my problem that I forgot to mention, or the physiotherapist did not ask? Maybe there are other problems that are not my main concern but are causing it?
If you have been to a lot of people and no one has been about to find what caused the problem or how to fix it, do not accept that they person knows without looking. You might feel good that finally someone has the answers you were looking for. How would they know? They have not checked or confirmed that they are right!I would be very wary of any physiotherapist who claims to know exactly what is causing your pain without confirming and checking if you have what they think you have.
3.The Physiotherapist does not give you a tailored solution
This goes inline with the first two. If the Physiotherapist didn’t give you their full attention because they were too busy with someone else during your appointment or didn’t check to make sure what kind of pain you have, how could they give you a solution for your specific problem?
They cannot. You get, what everyone else gets.
This may not sound like a bad thing on the surface. As you are getting the same “High quality professional” service everyone else at the physiotherapy practice gets but it is an actually a huge problem.Let me explain why.
Is your back pain the exact same as Fred at two PM?
Does your neck pain wake you up at night exactly like Lebos’ does?
Do you want the same outcome of being able to read your novels at night without getting a headache just like Sally at 5pm?
Is your main concern just like Sbu, to find out exactly what is causing your pain? Or is it something else?
Everyone is different. Everyone wants to get different things out of their physiotherapy treatment.
So how does getting the same treatment plan that everyone else gets leads to you accomplishing your goals of treatment and addressing your main concern?
It does not.
When you go for physiotherapy and you get a hot pack put on you, a nice massage, some ultrasound on the painful area and needling, just like Sbu from earlier that day or Sally from 5 months ago how is that a good thing?
Is your pain, cause and outcome you want to get out of going the same?
Probably not.
4.It feels like you are a number in an assembly line
If the physiotherapist is not taking the time to find out what is wrong and develop a treatment plan especially for your problem and your concerns then why would you go to one that makes you feel like just a number.
You might be just a number when your session goes something like this…
You arrive for your appointment. You get a hot pack. After 15 minutes someone else comes to give you a massage. Then after that someone else applies some ultrasound to the area that is painful.
Then the physiotherapist comes back. Puts in a few needles and your time is up.
“See you next week?”
I would never want to go to a place where I am just a number, being passed on from person to person getting what everyone else gets, whether you need it or not. Whether you get better from getting it or not.
I feel this is why people say, “Physiotherapy doesn’t work”.
If this is happening at the physiotherapy clinic you go to. Cancel your next appointments and NOPE! Right out of there and go somewhere else.
How many sessions have you been for of his and there has been little improvement?
5.You have been going for a while and nothing has changed
Yup. It has been several sessions so far and you have noticed almost no improvement.
Yes, you feel good for a day or three but then you are right back to where you started.
If you cannot tell that there has been any difference because it keeps coming back to how it was before you started seeing the physiotherapist and so quickly after seeing them.
Yes, you could be in the small amount of people that has a condition where it is not going to get better. Maybe they have found arthritis and you know it is not going to get any better. You would know this because the Physio has taken the time to look and find the problem, explain to you what it is and tell you their plan of how to fix it and what to expect.
If they have not done that, why haven’t you left and gone somewhere else?
But if you have reached this point and noticed that your physiotherapist is seeing you and someone else at the same time, didn’t even take a proper look at you to determine what is wrong and given you the same thing as everyone else gets and every time you go then of course you won’t get any better.
The physiotherapist has not spent the focused time on fixing your problem. Does not have a specific plan of how to fix your specific problem and attain your goals.Gives you what everyone gets not what you need. And treats you like a number in an assembly line.
How could you get better like that?
You will not.
Get up. Leave. Go to someone else.
6.They want to do things you told them not to
You arrive for your first physiotherapy session. You are excited to get some answers and get a plan to get you to living a pain-free life.
BUT……
You are absolutely terrified of needles. You have been terrified ever since you were held down at the doctor’s office when you were little, and they injected you.Let us just say, just a picture of a needle gives you the sweats. You make sure to inform the physiotherapist about this so that they know.
You do not want there to be a surprise of a needle because you forgot to tell them.
Things are going well and then suddenly, they say “I am going to use dry needling on you now to help with your back pain”.
Without explaining anything further to you or considering that seeing a needle might just scare you into an early grave.
But no, they completely ignored what you said to them and going to do it anyway.
NOPE!!!!
No ways I am going to let someone do that to me.
BUT!!!There is an exception to think about.
If the physiotherapist has been working on your problem. Trying new things, trying to get the best outcome and suggests “I want to use needles because it helps with this kind of problem”. Maybe then you will entertain their idea and at least listen to how it will help the specific problem they have identified.
Then you will make a decision from there. You decide if having the needles to fix your back is worth facing those same needles.
But ignoring you and doing whatever they want despite the concerns you have raised?
That is A NOPE!!!!
If I were you, I would not even let them touch me after that.If your physiotherapist is doing that. Do they really care bout you? Do they see you as a person with fears and concerns?
Or are you just Today’s 5 PM?
You already know the answer to that.
Those are the six times when I would NOPE! And leave straight away and never come back.
The kind of care we provide here at Jason Roets physiotherapy in Centurion is the opposite of that.
We examine every one. We want to know what their problem so we can tell you and give you certainty on what is it and how serious it is.
We take the time to develop a specific plan for each of our clients so that we accomplish their goals.
Our clients are our most valuable assets. We treat them like it.
IF this is the kind of service you are looking for, we are the right people to provide you with it.
Jason
