What is a Physical Therapist and what do we do?

Physical therapists are musculoskeletal experts and movement specialists. We are healthcare professionals who can diagnose and treat a vast array of musculoskeletal conditions throughout the entire body. From headaches to jaw dysfunction, from back pain to broken or sprained ankles, from tennis elbow to recovery from surgeries or accidents, we can treat any joints or muscles in the body. We work in a variety of settings: hospitals and rehabilitation centers, schools, outpatient clinics, skilled nursing facilities, homes, fitness centers, or with sports teams. We help manage pain, maximize function, avoid extensive surgeries, improve performance, and help with task-specific or sport-specific training. Using specific exercises as medicine, and body positioning, we teach people how to use their bodies to optimize pain free function. Using good mechanics with our bodies can decrease stress on our joints and muscles and can maximize our muscles’ abilities. These principles impact every day duties such as household chores, work responsibilities, exercise or gym practices, as well as more specialized tasks related to specific sports or activities such as dancing or playing a musical instrument. Physical therapists assist people in healing from injuries, and we also aid people with overall physical conditioning. This can help people to maintain active, healthy, mobile lifestyles, which in turn, can help prevent future injuries.