What Type Of Physical Therapist Do You Need

A physical therapist is a professional whose job is to evaluate, diagnose and treat people with injuries and other physical problems that result from illness, surgery or accidents. Basically, they are there to fix a person’s condition that limits that person’s ability to move about with the free range of movement that we are all accustomed to.

Now if you think anyone can be a physical therapist think again. Like any profession, especially one that is in the medical field, physical therapists needs to be as well-educated and trained as any of them.

This means that not only do they need a license; they also need to graduate from an accredited physical therapy program. Not only that; they also need to have at the very least a graduate or master’s degree in order for budding therapists to even think about taking the required state mandated licensing exam.

Then there are the different specialties that each therapist may want to focus on. This is the same as doctors – much like doctors have fields they focus on such as heart, children or mental, physical therapists also have the same type of focus oriented approach.

For example let’s talk about injuries of children. In the regular medical field there is pediatrics that deal with children. In the physical therapy world there are also therapists that deal solely with children. These therapists have extra training so they are able to work with children.

It is important to go to them if you’re looking for a therapist for your child. That’s because going to a regular therapist may have consequences to your child and may result in more injury than before.

The reason for this is simple – children have a different physiology than adults and if you try to tackle an injury of a child the same way you would a full grown adult you may have issues. If you use a pediatric trained physical therapists he or she will know the limits off what a child can do and so be able to personalize and focus a rehabilitation regimen that will work with the child without the risk of more pain or added injury.

If what you’re looking for is rehabilitation for older adults then you need one that is trained for geriatrics. These therapists are geared to people of older generations that suffer from a wide range of aging related afflictions. These could include those suffering from osteoporosis and arthritis as well as those coming from surgery and with balance issues.

For those coming out of surgery then orthopedic physical therapy is the way to go. This is by far the most common especially around hospitals. With this form of therapy the focus is on the musculoskeletal system and how to get all the joints, tendons, ligaments and everything else to move the way they used to move prior to the surgery.

More specifically you can even have specialists that deal with only one part of the body. That means that you can only have one that deals with back related pain and injury or those that will only focus on arms and legs.

Know more about physical therapy from Deborah Koval.