Assessment & Treatment

When you attend for your initial assessment we want to use the assessment session to find the answers to a few key questions:

What are your treatment needs? That is, what needs to change and improve, in your movement and function, so that your life can be easier and more active?

What is your potential for making these changes and improvements with the right physiotherapy input?

Will physiotherapy work? And if so, what would be the realistic goals we would work towards reaching?

Do we have an idea about how many sessions may be needed, and how spaced out or intensively grouped those sessions should be?

During the Assessment session we will take a detailed medical history from you and discuss your current problems and your goals of therapy. We will then examine your movement and balance problems, looking at aspects of muscle tone, posture, strength, coordination, and sensation. We will assess your ability to function in tasks such as standing up, walking, reaching and using your hands.

During your initial assessment we will identify your main difficulties with movement and balance, and we will establish your treatment needs. We will discuss realistic goals and ways forward to achieve those goals. This is the time when we will discuss with you what our recommendations for treatment sessions are – and we will always be honest and realistic with you about what you can hope to achieve. Once we have completed the assessment and we have discussed with you our thoughts about realistic goals, we will talk about a proposed treatment plan to reach these goals.

It is best to wear loose fitting clothes that are comfortable (such as gym clothes, shorts and tee shirts) that can allow access to areas of your body that we will need to assess, such as your joints, limbs and trunk. We will always ask your permission before we touch you or move any clothing, if this is necessary.

The assessment session normally takes around an hour, but may be slightly longer if necessary.

We offer assessment and treatment sessions at the Clinic and are also able to treat you in your own home if this is required and appropriate. You are welcome to bring a friend or relative to accompany you to any of your sessions.

After the initial assessment session you can book in to begin your programme of rehabilitation treatment, tailor made to tackle your individual problems. This will involve aligning and activating joints and muscles to enable better postural control and stability so that you are more able to move and function successfully. We will do this through facilitating movement patterns, strength training, and helping you to exercise and practice movement skills. This will be 1-to-1 treatment time and may involve the use of equipment such as treatment plinths, gym balls, the treadmill, and floor mats for example.

Treatment sessions will normally last around 1 hour, but can be extended as necessary or if requested. You are always free to have as few or as many treatment sessions as you wish to achieve your goals – and we will work with you to shape the rehabilitation programme to best suit your individual needs and situation. You are never asked to make a long-term commitment to future treatment sessions, and you are in control at all times.

We also offer treatment sessions in ‘Intensity Blocks’ so that if you are coming from a distance to get to the clinic you may like a couple of sessions a day over a couple of days, perhaps staying overnight nearby to access your rehabilitation programme. We have a number of patients who choose this pattern of intensity treatment and find it works very well for them and their recovery.

During your rehabilitation we will provide you with a Home Exercise Programme that is targeted to your individual needs, enabling you to practice away from the physiotherapist, continuing to maximise your potential.

We will always discuss your potential to make further improvements and will be honest with you if we feel you have reached your ‘best’ functioning level. We will work with you to problem solve any practical difficulties and design a maintenance programme of exercises and stretches to keep you at your optimum level of fitness and functioning.

We also offer long-term reviews and check ups as required to keep you at your best performance. We aim to help you reach your full potential and then maintain it.

Specialist Neurological Rehabilitation enables your recovery from a neurological illness by recruiting new brain pathways, encouraging the brain and spinal cord to make new connections for functional recovery; a process called ‘neuroplasticity’. This is achieved through re-aligning joints and muscles, stimulating and activating them, improving postural control and giving lots of opportunities for strength training and practice to refine new movement and balance skills.

Assessment and Treatment from our Specialist Neurological Physiotherapists at TherapyMatters is tailor made for your individual problems, and will target your treatment needs effectively and specifically to help you improve your movement and function in your daily life.