In short: It’s a team approach. Patient and doctor of physical therapy become a team.
Here are the top 5 reasons why we can’t do this without you :)
The evaluation is ongoing.
We don’t believe anyone can create a 12 week “program” the first day and that sticking to it, tooth and nail, will yield results. Every visit, we uncover important details regarding the body and its many interrelated systems. There is a ton of science in physical therapy, but there is also that very important element of “How is your body going to respond?”. Maybe it’s not quite ready for something and we have to do other things first.
We don’t know what your day-to-day lives look like.
Exercises, movements, self-care we propose is only as good as how easy it is for you to fit it into your already existing routine. Learning your routines is an important step in proposing things that make sense; it’s individualized.
You know your body.
We can help with interpreting the messages and with asking (a gazillion) questions to help identify crucial details, but ultimately without your insight and input, it’s incredibly difficult to help. Unfortunately, there are no binders for “Day 1 of Back Pain” (for example), so your experience in-session and in-between sessions becomes an important guide.
There are SO many ways to get to the same goal.
If you don’t like an exercise, movement, self-care item proposed or if you get bored of something, there are SO many other ways to get to the same goal, so we hope you’ll be comfortable and confident enough to voice your opinions on the ideas we generate together in clinic.
The body changes everyday.
Performance changes everyday. This is going to depend on how well you’ve slept and eaten, how stressed you are, how much physical activity was already done today… to name a few reasons. It seems insane to us to write out a specific prescription of: 12x this exercise, 15x of that exercise, and 25x the other thing. Something is better than nothing every day. Also, since we believe
Thoughts? Questions? Concerns? Please reach out! We love to geek out!
Yours in service,
Dr. CJ Mimee, PT, DPT, RYT