Frequently Asked Questions
What about hands on treatment?
Hands on treatment includes massage, manipulation, electrotherapy, acupuncture, dry needling, traction, and other similar treatments that needs to be “done” to you by a treater. Many people have found this has helped them recover from previous injuries or find that it reduces their pain for a short time. This type of treatment is called passive treatment and does not tend to provide a sustained reduction in pain nor lead to significant sustained improvements in your ability to function for those with a more complex condition.
What treatment works for complex and chronic pain conditions?
A physiotherapist’s approach to managing chronic pain should incorporate an active rather than passive approach. An active approach empowers a client to understand their condition, utilises supervised exercise as a “training ground” to teach the client how to independently upgrade (or temporarily downgrade) their exercise program and how to implement strategies independently to cope with any setbacks.
What does physiotherapy rehabilitation include?
Physiotherapy will include a thorough explanation of your condition to empower you to take control of your symptoms to allow for safe movement, a graded increase in exercise and activity, and general exercise for global reconditioning. Your physiotherapist will adopt a coaching role to provide an active rehabilitation approach, assisting you to return to the activities that are most important to you.
We provide you with a range of self management strategies so that you may confidently prevent flare ups in pain or to manage exacerbations in pain effectively.
What do I do when I feel like it’s not working?
It is unlikely to be straightforward or easy and people with chronic pain may experience regular set backs during treatment. Indeed it may take many episodes for the person to be consistently confident that they can effectively self manage. If you have concerns please discuss this with your team.
However, as this occurs, the frequency that you consult your physiotherapist should reduce. Beware that this approach requires treatment from a physiotherapist who has undergone extra training in providing this approach.
What is different about Empower Rehab’s physiotherapists?
Our physiotherapists are “CBT informed physios”, which means that they are specially trained to undertake a more detailed assessment of all the factors that impact on your recovery in order to develop an individualised treatment plan. They are experts at identifying the interaction of the physical, psychological and social factors in order to address the barriers to achieving your goals. Only a very small number of physiotherapists in Australia have been accredited by the Australian Physiotherapy Association (APA) as Pain Physiotherapists, recognising their unique skills in treating complex and chronic pain conditions. All the physiotherapists at Empower Rehab are APA titled “Pain Physiotherapists”.
Will this help me if I have already tried exercise?
Many people have been given exercises to help with their recovery, only to find this has led to an increase in pain, or that it has not helped them return to their usual activities. We provide a functionally based exercise approach, ensuring its at the right level for you as well as linked to the specific activity that you want to resume. Often the exercises can include additional strategies that may be provided by a pain psychologist to help you achieve your goals where you have previously been stuck.
