What is Physical Therapy?

What is "physical therapy"? For many people, they're not exactly sure what physical therapy even is. For some who have experienced it, the definition varies from literally undergoing "pain and torture" to receiving hot/cold packs with electrical stimulation, or just merely getting massaged and doing generic exercises. Unfortunately, there is a conflicting identity of what we actually do and how we can help a large number of people. The number of physical therapy clinics has been expanding fairly rapidly, and they are becoming as visible as your local Starbucks or McDonald's. However, there is no uniformity in the types of services, let alone the quality of the provided service. This often leads to a skewed perspective of physical therapy, which is often associated with mill-like clinics that see multiple patients within the hour or places that just incorporate exercise regimens that are based on decades-old concepts.

We define physical therapy simply as a method of assessing someone's physical ability to move freely and participate in daily life, and using our hands and specific exercises to help restore that ability if pain or another issue interferes with it. In order to achieve that goal, we spend the entire session with our patients to understand the full picture and properly address the underlying issues that are keeping them from the activities they love to do.

Having worked in a variety of clinics over the past 10+ years, we experienced the full gamut of treatment styles and patient care. Ultimately, we realized there was a common theme with all of these places: increasing patient volume at the expense of time spent with the actual physical therapist. While some people had seen progress despite the limited time, there were many who had to be treated for a much longer period of time than necessary. We felt that this was ultimately a disservice to each patient who was committing his or her time and finances to get back to the life they wanted.

This led to the launch of Hybrid PT where patients would get the undivided attention and care from a physical therapist during their sessions, and accessibility to that provider at night and on weekends. We also wanted to have a space where our patients could have access to equipment not commonly found in clinics. We wanted to distinguish ourselves from the average PT clinic and be a part of the growing movement to dramatically improve the quality of care for our patients.

If you've had physical therapy in the past and have had a poor experience, or did not get the outcome you were looking for, then I would recommend reaching out to us at (201) 429-3996, email at jpark@hybridptnj.com or schedule a free discovery visit at https://www.hybridptnj.com/discovery to see how we're different and how we can help you get back to the life you deserve. If you're dealing with a nagging pain with your back, shoulder or knee that is keeping you from enjoying your life and you don't know where to start, then I would recommend checking out our free pain guides at https://www.hybridptnj.com/pain-help-now.

Keep checking our blog for more helpful information in the future.