Going to a physical therapy clinic for the first time can be very similar to your first day of school. You might have some nerves about meeting the therapists and the exercise specialists, much like the nerves that you get when you are meeting your teacher or professor for the first time. And as everyone who has survived their first day of school or therapy knows, your teachers or therapists are there to educate you and help you reach your goals.
After being evaluated by one of our Physical Therapists, the patient will learn their home exercise program and then relax while on ice or heat. One of the first things that a new patient will notice while relaxing is how open and free flowing the clinics at ProActive are. The patient would notice that there is plenty of room between treatment tables to allow for plenty of movement and the transition from the treatment room to the gym is very open.
The patient’s second visit is when they really get to experience the ProActive clinic atmosphere. During their second visit, the patient is treated in the treatment room with the other patients and therapists and therefore can engage in conversations with them or if they choose, they can stick to talking to their treating therapist. Many of the conversations that go on in the treatment room are about what happened over the weekend, what’s going on in the world of sports, the newest pop culture news, or any of the other topics that may come up when talking to friends. After they are done in the treatment room, the patient heads into the gym. Once they get into the gym to exercise the conversation can continue with the exercise specialists, if the patient so chooses. Many patients share their own stories with each other when they are exercising in the gym. Many of these stories are told when a patient, who is on the back end of their therapy, sees another patient doing an exercise that they did at the beginning. While in the gym, not only are the exercise specialists encouraging the patients, other patients are encouraging each other, whether that be verbally or through their actions. Once the patients have finished their exercises they are set up on heat or cold coupled with electrical stimulation, most of the time, and can continue sharing their stories. Whether those stories are about life experiences, what is going on in the world, or about their injury.
This is the type of clinic atmosphere that we promote at ProActive Physical Therapy. We encourage conversation amongst the therapists and patients in the treatment room. That conversation and encouragement is continued in the gym, where our exercise specialists do their best to provide our patients with the best experience they can have while rehabbing a total knee replacement. And finally at the end stage of therapy for the day, when the patients get heat or ice, the patients can hold a conversation between themselves and possibly plan another therapy meet-up or a get together outside of the clinic.