Physiotherapy Ottawa
Restoring your movement, flexibility, and strength, is our number one priority with physiotherapy at Expert Physio Plus in Ottawa. If you’ve sustained an injury or are looking for ways to improve your health and wellness while reducing pain, reach out to us today so we can develop a treatment plan that suits your unique needs.
What is Physiotherapy?
Physiotherapy uses many techniques to treat, restore, and maintain your mobility and well-being. It generally consists of four essential phases:
- Pain relief: In this stage, our focus is rest and recovery and reducing pain and inflammation. These priorities help prevent amplifying the injury and allow your body to begin the healing process. Some methods we may use, depending on the severity of the issue, include protective casts, ice or heat, tape, or over-the-counter or prescribed pain medication.
- Motion recovery: Pain and swelling from injuries can make it difficult to move like you used to. Together, we will help you engage in flexibility exercises to help you get your range of motion back and promote long-term functioning.
- Strengthening: When your body sustains an injury, you often lose muscular strength and endurance during resting, in a process also known as atrophy. This next stage in our journey together consists of using weights or resistance equipment to target specific muscle groups and gain your strength back.
- Functional integration: This final phase of physiotherapy addresses more complicated capabilities, like coordination, speed, agility, and balance. Depending on your injury and goals for the treatment, we will work together to help you return to pre-injury levels, whether you want to continue playing sports or resume your regular day-to-day functioning with ease.
Whether you’ve been injured or your body just doesn’t move as comfortably as you’d like, this can prevent you from doing the things you love and remaining active in a way that makes you feel good. While some people may be apprehensive about physiotherapy for fear that it’ll hurt, at Expert Physio Plus, we’re here to reassure you that our Ottawa physiotherapy professionals will listen to your needs and create a unique treatment plan. Understanding and taking into account your point of view is a priority, so we can help you improve your strength, flexibility, balance, and mobility without making you feel any pain or discomfort during your sessions.
Conditions Treated by Physiotherapy
Whether you sustained a sporting injury, were involved in an accident, or your body isn’t performing as it used to, we’re here for you. Our physiotherapists can treat many different injuries and conditions, regardless of their source. The most common conditions we see include the following:
- Musculoskeletal pain in the back, neck, shoulders, knees, or other joints and muscles.
- Concussions
- Dizziness and vertigo
- Chronic pain
- Conditions like osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, Bell’s Palsy, and fibromyalgia
Our Ottawa physiotherapy experts understand that each individual faces unique challenges. That’s why our multidisciplinary team will work together to help you gain autonomy over your body again. In other words, we have trained physiotherapists, massage therapists, Osteopath manual therapists, kinesiologists, and other specialists that combine their expertise to contribute to the best recovery journey possible.
What to Expect at Your Appointment
First and foremost, when you come to Expert Physio Plus, we want you to feel seen and heard. We understand that being in pain can be vulnerable, so we want to listen to your concerns and develop the best treatment plans to get you back on the right track.
During your initial assessment:
We may ask you to perform some basic movements, like sitting down, standing up, walking, lifting, or stretching. We will evaluate your capabilities in each of these areas to help us understand your needs so we can create a customized treatment plan to relieve your pain and help you recover. Additionally, since everyone has different needs based on their bodies and pain levels, we will ensure to ask about your concerns, health risks, and personal goals to make your plan truly yours.
In your following sessions:
We will perform ongoing evaluations to monitor and track your progress. You will learn new exercises and techniques that you can take home with you to keep practicing. We encourage you to develop a routine and make time for these take-home exercises because this will promote quicker recovery and yield the best results. In these sessions, we may also use techniques and specialized equipment for therapies like the following:
- Manual therapy
- Acupuncture
- Cupping
- Shockwave therapy
- Manipulation
- Ultrasound
- Dry needling
It’s essential to remember that there’s no cookie-cutter approach to maintaining your health and well-being. While many treatments generally follow the four phases of physiotherapy outlined above, we will ensure that we tailor the steps within each stage based on you and your goals. Depending on the issues you face, we may recommend customized session durations, exercises, and combinations of therapies using a multidisciplinary approach.
Is Physiotherapy Hard?
In short: yes, and no. The pain-free, healthy, and active lifestyle you want is not always easy to achieve, especially if you experience chronic pain or have a condition that hinders your mobility. Sometimes, the very thought of performing exercises can leave you feeling uncomfortable — and you’re not alone. Fortunately, there’s a way to overcome these obstacles and worries and gain the active and mobile lifestyle you desire through physiotherapy. We will guide you every step of the way. Our Ottawa physiotherapy specialists can help you get in the habit of doing safe, daily physical activity, even if you experience chronic pain and are hesitant or unsure where to start. The hardest part is often the commitment, but once you get comfortable with your routine, physiotherapy becomes easier as you begin to feel good and see improvements in your mobility and pain levels. While masking your symptoms with anti-inflammatory or pain-relieving medications or abandoning an active lifestyle may seem like the only option, we’re here to support you and remind you that getting back to doing the activities you love is possible. Once we achieve this mindset together, physiotherapy becomes much more manageable.
Benefits of Physiotherapy
Since our Ottawa physiotherapy experts dedicate time to customizing each plan and incorporating multidisciplinary techniques, benefits can vary from person to person. For example:
- Physiotherapy can reduce and eliminate pain, no matter what condition or injury you experience.
- It can help you gain your strength, flexibility, and mobility back so you can keep enjoying the life you want to live.
- It can manage and prevent sport-related injuries so you can perform at the top of your game as an athlete.
- You can maintain and improve your health and abilities with physiotherapy to manage and potentially counteract common conditions that come with aging, like arthritis, hip pain, osteoporosis, and Alzheimer’s disease.
Call Us to Book an Appointment Today
At the end of the day, we want to assure you that improving your well-being and lifestyle is more than possible with physiotherapy, even if you’ve struggled with pain for a long time. If you’re ready to begin your journey towards better health, strength, and mobility, book an appointment today at our Orleans or Gloucester location.
