Warrick McNeill Dip Phty (NZ)

What is Physiotherapy?

Physiotherapy is the physical treatment of the body, usually by hands-on techniques (manual therapy), to aid the return to health of a body suffering the effects of injury. Injury can be traumatic or slow onset and doesn't have to be painful - though that's when most people identify their problems.

Physiotherapy helps improve the link between the brain and the body and uses motivational techniques, education and exercise to fulfill its aims.

Often referred to as an art as well as a science, physiotherapy is an inclusive treatment model that often assimilates other treatment regimes that may initially be thought to be alternative. An example of this is acupuncture which in the 1970s and 1980s was thought to be way out, but as research has proven its worth, physiotherapy has helped bring it into the western medical model.Good physiotherapy practice is based on proven research and is continually being developed under sound scientific principles.

Our approach: Physioworks philosophy of treatment

The cause of most musculo-skeletal problems is often wear and tear, due to imprecise control of movement and poor control over gravity's effects on us. Poor postural or exercise habits can compound problems. We can be the cause of our own pains.

The body is designed to tolerate control problems, repeated movements or sustained postures to a point, but after it reaches a critical level the rate of wear and tear increases.

Our philosophy is to identify the causative factors, then educate and support the client during the rehabilitation. We put the onus of treatment on to the patient and include them in the decision making process. We refer on immediately if it becomes clear that we are treating beyond our specialties and believe in a team based treatment strategy.

Therapy can be described as active injury management as opposed to the dated concept of passive treatment. Our treatment is based on postural correction and movement control and our three major tools are education - to give you the motivation to improve, manual therapy - things we do to you to help, and exercise prescription - to enable you to continue to help yourself.