ASSESSMENT

Discussion

Your physiotherapy appointment will begin with a dialogue. You are the expert of your body; I am the translator. The information I gather from you will give me direction for your global physical assessment and help me understand what brought you to see me. Here are some questions to consider before coming in for your first appointment:

  • What are you hoping to achieve through working together?

    - What are you having trouble with?

    - What are your movement goals?

  • How does your change in movement affect your life?

  • If you are having pain:

    - Was there any stiffness or change in function that came on prior to the onset pain?

    - What is the pain experience like for you? How does it interfere/affect your everyday?

    - Can you describe the pain?

  • Do you have questions for me?

Physical Assessment

Global Approach

A thorough physical assessment will consider how are all parts of your body are interacting and influencing each other. Your assessment will continue throughout the treatment process. Often the root of the problem can be complicated by secondary complications and compensatory movements that the body has developed to offset the actual source of the injury. Most injuries occur as a result of an underlying “weakness” in the movement system. This is why prevention is so important.

  1. System: I will begin by looking at your complexities of movement. Taking into consideration your big picture, I will examine your movement in the context of your entire body. This means analyzing a functional activity or a movement task that is meaningful to you. If movement can not be replicated in the clinic I may ask you to bring me a video and/or a photo that I can analyze.

  2. Sequence: Understanding how you move in the global context will provide me direction for assessing your coordination of movement. At this stage I will gain insight into how you recruit and organize movement. I will examine your movement sequences in isolation to help me identify maladaptive movement patterns or abnormal muscle recruitment. Dysfunction at the sequencing level may be due to poor neuromuscular control or affected segments.

  3. Segment: Depending on how you sequence movement I can determine which componenet of movement may be hindering your overall function. A hands-on evaluation to determine the source of your movement restrictions (hypomobility) or too much movement without stable control (hypermobility) will complete your physical assessment.