One-on-One Physical Therapy and Its Benefits
For years many health centers and clinics offered group physical therapy sessions as a standard for patient care.
During such sessions, two or more patients are treated by one therapist who splits their time between them. It means that the individual patient gets only a tiny fraction of the therapist's time.
It clearly isn't the optimal approach for the best results. Fortunately, this model is becoming less popular these days, and more clinics now focus on one-on-one physical therapy, which is more patient-focused.
One-on-one physical therapy session offers the best individual care and attention as well as many other benefits.
Let's dive deeper into one-on-one physical therapy and its benefits.
What is One-on-One Physical Therapy?
The one-on-one therapy model focuses on private individualized treatment sessions, usually hour-long, between the therapist and the patient.
If you are wondering how long a therapy session takes click here to understand better.
These types of sessions are much more effective than group sessions and are the best option for an effective, holistic treatment program.
Benefits of One-on-One Physical Therapy
Individualized care
Firstly, there are no distractions during the one-to-one physical therapy session, only complete privacy to converse, ask questions, and offer solutions. If you want to find other important questions to ask your therapist click here.
The patient gets an in-depth understanding of the treatment, its effects, and how the entire treatment process will work.
The therapist can also focus their time and attention on the necessary hands-on treatments and evaluating the body as a whole.
It's also beneficial for the physical exercise part of the treatment part. The therapist can demonstrate and modify the exercises appropriately and ensure the patient does everything correctly for the maximum effect.
Lastly, because of the custom treatment plans, patients can set their own goals for the treatment and track them with the therapist with reasonable expectations.
Building trust
Another great benefit of one-on-one sessions is building trust and a relationship between the physical therapist and the patient.
It creates a comfort level that you wouldn't achieve in a group session, gives the therapist the chance to treat the patient as a whole, and notice subtle changes, progress, and potential issues.
That's not possible in a group setting because of a lack of time.
Generally, with the one-to-one model, the patient works with the same physical therapist who creates and executes the treatment plan. It means they know your history, struggles, and growth.
Lastly, because the therapist focuses on one patient, you may need fewer sessions as the treatment will be more effective. As you will get direct in-person instructions about home exercises, you'll also better understand the work you need to do at home and progress faster.
Injury prevention
During the one-on-one physical therapy sessions, the therapists are able to identify various body imbalances and risk factors that need attention in order to prevent injury.
Because the therapists focus only on one person, they can thoroughly investigate, evaluate and address all these factors.
For example, the physical therapist may notice a limited range of motion or a pain point for the patient and directly address that area with manual therapy.
Find out more in this other article about how painful physical therapy is.
For physical exercises in group settings, many tasks are assigned to assistants and aides who may not have the necessary training to notice potential issues and correct and modify. If the physical therapist uses the help of an aide in private sessions (which is rare), they are always under strict supervision.
Lastly, muscle strengthening and balance training are essential in injury prevention. During a one-on-one session, the physical therapist will work with you to strengthen your body, improve core strength, and lead to greater balance.
After the program, you'll have more stability, balance, and flexibility, making injuries and falls less likely.
Improve balance and muscle strength
Improving balance and muscle strength takes time, but it is crucial to solving such issues as bad posture, decreased mobility and such muscle aches like shoulder pain.
Physical therapy, and especially done one-on-one, improves the patient's mobility by increasing the range of motion and strengthening the muscles.
During such sessions, you'll perform exercises designed to strengthen your muscles under the direct supervision of your therapist. They will be able to demonstrate the exercises, observe you perform them, and modify as needed.
Once you strengthen your muscles, you'll also be able to work on improving your balance.
This includes such exercises as walking with various head motions, standing on one leg, altering your visual system during movement to challenge your balance, and using particular pieces of exercise equipment to help challenge your balance as well.
Creating situations that challenge your balance may lead to falls while doing the exercise. Working closely with your physical therapist helps ensure that you do the right exercises that challenge your balance while still maintaining safety.
Health wellness
Even though physical therapy primarily focuses on treating the particular issue and injury, only a holistic program can ensure progress and possibly prevent future health problems.
During one-on-one physical therapy sessions, the therapist can assess the patient, their pain, and everyday struggles from both the injury perspective and a whole-body perspective. This approach focuses on the root cause, and it takes time to determine, making group therapy sessions less effective due to time constraints.
In addition to that, the physical therapist can be essential in advising and teaching about the lifestyle changes necessary for patients to increase the quality of life.
Besides the physical activity advice, the therapists are usually trained and can advise on nutrition and weight management as well as sleep, stress management.
Since there's enough time during the one-on-one physical therapy session, the therapist can positively contribute to these changes in their patient's life.
Final Thoughts
Given the opportunity, it is highly recommended that the person chooses a one-on-one physical therapy treatment program over the group sessions due to multiple advantages.
In this setting, patients receive individualized care, build trust with their therapist, and track their treatment progress closely. They also get the needed training and attention for injury prevention, improving balance, and increasing muscle strength.
Lastly, private physical therapy sessions can be beneficial for overall health and wellness with advice on nutrition, weight and stress management, and sleep and harmful habits management.
Contact Miracle Rehab Clinic and book your one-one-one therapy session with the best team of professionals.
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