What Is Holistic Physical Therapy?
Physical therapy has evolved into many specializations over the years, but they share one goal: effective treatment that helps patients return to their normal routines. Holistic physical therapy takes this a step further by treating the patient as a whole rather than focusing only on the chief complaint and diagnosis.
It blends proven traditional medicine with a holistic approach that considers outside factors contributing to a patient's injury. A person's lifestyle, diet, stress, and other elements can play an important role in how long an injury or physical condition lingers. With holistic physical therapy, a therapist doesn't just provide treatment sessions, they also educate patients on the changes happening in their body because of the injury and how those changes affect daily life.
How the Approach Works
Holistic physical therapy assesses not only the factors that led to the injury but the body as a whole. Many practitioners use a gentle form of bodywork called Integrative Manual Therapy (IMT) to locate the underlying reasons behind conditions such as chronic pain. Techniques like gentle hands-on IMT can restore mobility to the spine and lower back, correct the position of the pelvis and sacrum, and restore normal alignment between the lumbar spine and sacrum. Once a muscle spasm is released, the surrounding tissue helps maintain joint mobility, allowing the patient to return to stretching and exercise programs.
Why Choose Holistic Physical Therapy?
A holistic approach encompasses not only physical exercises but hands-on technique and individualized programs that guide a patient through their healing journey. Stress is a major risk factor for injury, so mental health is always part of the conversation in holistic physical therapy. Diet and lifestyle play a role as well, a holistic plan takes all of these factors into account to help get a patient's health back on track.
Mind, Body, and Recovery
Physical therapists have learned a great deal over the years about the most effective ways to approach health and wellness. Mental, social, spiritual, and physical health are always interconnected in a successful recovery, if stress or poor diet affects physical health, mental and emotional health are likely affected too. Consider an athlete sidelined for months with an injury: that's exactly the kind of situation where holistic physical therapy is applied.
Holistic physical therapy doesn't reject traditional medicine, rather, it builds upon a traditional approach by incorporating other aspects of health that are likely affecting a patient's physical condition.