Verwood Physiotherapy

During your first physiotherapy appointment with us we’ll take the time to look with you at the full history of your condition, as well as your lifestyle and general medical history. We’ll find out everything we can about your symptoms, including when they’re at their best and their worst. We’ll approach your body as a whole – assessing your structure as well as your functional movements to get to the root of the problem, and tapping if need be into a range of other Body Consultancy specialisations including chiropractic, osteopathy, podiatry and massage therapy.

All this will help your physio to recommend the most effective individual treatment plan that will work best for you.

Analysing your body movement

Your Body Consultancy physio will treat you holistically. That means we’ll assess very closely how you move – taking into account the function of your body and its controlling systems as a complex machine.

To help us do this you’ll need to undress to your underwear.* Your physio will then be able to look at how you walk, how you stand, if you place your feet correctly, whether you’re rounding your shoulders, and so on. The purpose of this in-depth physical examination is to help us find the exact cause of your problem, and reduce the chances of it recurring.

* We have private changing facilities and will provide you with a gown to wear over your underwear. If you’re unable to undress for religious or other reasons, please talk about this with our reception staff and your physio before your appointment. Headgear of any kind does not normally present a problem.

Recommending your treatment

After completing your assessment and examination, your physio will explain what’s wrong and recommend a plan – including an outline of roughly how many treatments you may need. Blood, urine and other laboratory tests are sometimes needed, and if so your physio will discuss them with you at the time. If they diagnose a problem that won’t benefit from physiotherapy treatment, they’ll refer you elsewhere without delay.

“My experience with the physiotherapist Tina has been fantastic. From the start she has been highly professional, friendly and knowledgeable. Her treatment and recommended exercises has resulted in a 85% improvement in four sessions.”
– Melanie Strachan

Your physiotherapist may well find restriction and irritation in the joints and muscles of your body. To deal with these, your individual treatment plan will be specifically designed to reduce your discomfort and then mobilise, adjust and strengthen your body to prevent your injury from reoccurring.

This is likely to involve soft tissue work such as massage and stretching, but may also include other techniques to reduce inflammation and correct problems caused by unwelcome adaptations or overcompensations.

By the end of your short initial treatment plan you should be feeling very much better and symptom-free in most cases. Your physio will then work with you to create a plan of action and/or exercise programme to further reduce or eradicate your condition.

Continuing care

If the cause of your complaint is something like poor posture, your working environment or some other complication that would be harder to change permanently, then you may have to manage the problem. This means it may be necessary to continue maintenance visits at regular intervals – a bit like having your teeth checked regularly by your dentist.

Your plan is also likely to include changes in your lifestyle that can help you to keep fit, healthy and pain-free – for example exercises and stretches to do at home.

There’s good evidence that manual therapy paired with exercise therapy produces the best results for many conditions.

You can count on your physio to monitor your progress back to full health, continue to guide you on home exercises, and give you other aftercare advice.

“Treatment was very effective and I felt an improvement even after the first session. Treated a back problem and a long standing problem with my neck – both better than they have been for years. Very pleased.”
– Anonymous

Governed by the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC), physiotherapists help people affected by injury, illness or disability through movement and exercise, manual therapy, education and advice. They maintain health for people of all ages, helping patients to manage pain and prevent disease.

Working to reduce restrictions and pain within the body, physiotherapists treat a wide variety of musculoskeletal injuries or conditions that affect the bones, ligaments, muscles, tendons and joints.

The profession helps to encourage development and facilitate recovery, enabling people to stay active and in work while helping them to remain independent for as long as possible.

Physiotherapy is a degree-based healthcare profession. Physios use their knowledge and skills to improve a range of conditions associated with different systems of the body such as:

• Neurological (stroke, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s)
• Neuro-musculoskeletal (back pain, whiplash associated disorder, sports injuries, arthritis)
• Cardiovascular (chronic heart disease, rehabilitation after heart attack)
• Respiratory (asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, cystic fibrosis).

Multi-disciplinary approach

As well as expertise in physiotherapy, we can refer you within our clinic to professionally qualified chiropractors, osteopaths, sports therapists and massage therapists. We also have an excellent relationship with local consultants and surgeons.

Disease screening

As primary care practitioners, we’re trained to screen for and refer any very serious medical conditions. We don’t treat life threatening disease. Prolonged pain with no specific onset should always be investigated further because many illnesses first show up as aches and pains.