What to Expect on Your Initial Consultation
The physiotherapy experience should be more than just getting some pain relief then walking out of a clinic. Patients need to be thoroughly listened to and be guided on a journey to full recovery. Full recovery does not only mean being pain-free. In fact, more often than not, the absence of pain is only the start of returning an injured area of the body to full capacity. But what is full recovery? Full recovery means returning to work, school, sport or hobbies in an even better state than you were prior to being injured. Let’s be honest, more often than not the tissues in the area or the muscles above and below probably weren’t functioning at their highest potential which increased your risk for injury to begin with.
Are you saying I’m weak?!
No, I’m saying you can be stronger…much much stronger! And no, this does not mean looking like a bodybuilder.
So how is this supposed to be done and how is this practice different from any other run-of-the-mill physiotherapy clinic?
Our initial consultation will be a deep dive into your pain and/or dysfunction. This session is all about gathering as much information as possible from you and your body. Here we set the groundwork and develop a treatment plan so you can address the root causes of your condition. Our interview will take about 30 minutes so we can really understand how your pain is behaving and how it is affecting you. We will then go through a thorough assessment, looking at symmetry, strength, function and capacity of the muscles, joints and tissues in the area. Lastly, you will be provided with a thorough understanding of your conditions and the steps we will take together to manage or fix it!
Our Services
The Ikaika Method
Note: the steps below are overlapping, intertwined, and integrated depending on the individual. This is not a recipe that is followed for everyone, instead it is a general guiding principle that is used to obtain the best outcomes for patients.
01
Control Pain
Let’s be honest, you are most likely reading this because you want your pain to go away! Pain is debilitating and will prevent you from performing at your highest level whether you’re an average Joe or a professional athlete. Our main priority in the early stages of treatment will be to control and reduce your pain (unless you don’t experience pain with your condition). We do this with manual therapies and passive modalities such as massage, joint mobilisations, dry needling, cupping etc if necessary. We will then provide you with strategies you can implement on your own to mimic these therapies. Keep in mind, these modalities provide temporary relief; a window of opportunity so you can move better, feel better and perform the exercises necessary to give you that permanent fix!
02
Restore Movement and Function
Stiff? Unstable? Weak? Immobile? Pain is a protective output response from the brain to keep you from using the injured site. Pain can alter movement patterns, stiffen muscles around joints and reduce the function in an area. Conversely, these things can cause pain. A chicken vs the egg situation if you will. At the end of the day, we want to reduce any restrictions and restore the normal movements and ranges of motion around the areas that are painful or injured. This will be done with a combination of hands-on treatment and exercise to improve muscle flexibility, joint mobility or both depending on the individual.
03
Strengthen Through Movement
Now that you have this newfound range to move in, your body will not have strength through that range as it is a region of movement it may have not been accustomed to moving through in years! It is our job to work together and get to be strong throughout your new movement pattern. What’s the point of having extra movement if you’re not strong throughout it? After all, weakness can lead to injury and/or pain down the road. Let’s be proactive (not reactive) and prevent that!
04
Build Tissue Tolerance and Resilience
Your pain is gone. You can move better and feel better. Your mood has even lifted because you’re feeling a little stronger 😉. However, there’s still work to be done. The absence of pain does not mean the area is at a 100% capacity to accept the stresses that may be placed on it. It’s time to reduce that risk of re-injury to as little as possible! We will now implement strength and conditioning exercises and integrate the entire kinetic chain for your recovery. We want you to perform at an even higher level than you were prior to injury!
05
Maintenance
This is optional. At this point, you are pain-free, your confidence is soaring and you can hold your own in the gym. You don’t have to stick around to enroll in this top-tier program, but if you want to continue to make strides in whatever area of your life consistent physical (and mental) performance is necessary, then come on board! We will train your body as a whole, get you into group exercise and challenge you in any way we can…safely of course. We can focus on specific goals or just keep working on turning you into a machine! You will fall in love with the benefits of regular exercise, accountability and most importantly, FUN. If you want to stay a warrior in the Ikaika Community, this last phase is for you.