At Aim Physiotherapy and Work Health Solutions we aim to find the most effective way of relieving pain and other symptoms and restoring normal movement and function. Often this often involves hands-on therapy where the Physiotherapist performs a range of manual techniques directly on the client’s body. These techniques include:
- Joint mobilisation – gentle and repeated mid to end range stretching of specific spinal; and limb joints, aiming to restore normal joint mobility.
- Joint manipulation – localised, end-range thrust techniques, aiming to restore normal range of movement.
- Soft tissue massage – from gentle to firm manual pressure applied by the therapist to muscle and other soft tissues of the spine or limbs, aiming to reduce muscle tone, increase blood flow and restore normal movement.
- Trigger point therapy – the use of deep pressure and soft tissue manipulation to treat irritable and tight points in muscles and alter the tone and mobility of the affected tissues.
- Myofascial release – a technique that works directly on the muscle via soft tissue manipulation or indirectly by stretching of the limbs, aiming to alter the tone of the muscle and improve circulation and mobility.
- Dry Needling – using fine needles, trigger points are deactivated in the muscles, producing a change in the tone and mobility of the muscles.
- Stretching – stretching techniques are often performed by a therapist to improve overall range of movement, particularly when the client is unable to perform these movements alone.
- Neural mobilisation/stretching – a structured approach to treating dysfunction arising directly from a nerve. It utilises techniques to safely move dysfunctional nerves in the limbs and improve their mobility.
The selection of techniques varies between clients and is dictated by the nature of the problem and the findings of a thorough clinical assessment.
Physiotherapy treatment helps to alleviate symptoms and quickly restore movement, function and the resumption of usual activities including work and sporting pursuits.
In addition to relieving your symptoms, we help identify and change any underlying factors that may be contributing to the problem, including poor posture, muscle weakness and instability, muscle imbalance, poor co-ordination and ergonomic issues in sporting and day-to-day activities.
The physiotherapist’s overall management of your problem involves:
- Listening to you to understand the background to your injury or problem
- Observing and assessing your movement and your overall physical condition
- Analysing and identifying your problems
- Providing education regarding the presenting problem or injury and possible solutions
- Developing a treatment program with you and, where appropriate, and your family or carers and other members of the health care team
- Managing the treatment or training program based on your jointly agreed goals
- Evaluating progress, modifying treatment if necessary, and stopping treatment once goals have been reached
- Promoting and guiding self-management of chronic conditions