PT sessions vary from therapist to therapist depending on years of experience, in what setting the therapist provides treatment (private or hospital), continuing education courses pursued, and philosophy of the clinic/practitioner.
Manual therapy is a vital part of healing. While modalities and exercise equipment can enhance these treatments, unfortunately, sometimes they become the main treatment. Developing the sensitivity and skill in the hands to talk to the body through touch while respecting the tissue can provide a therapist with knowledge of what the body needs.
Sessions are almost completely manual therapy and neuromuscular reeducation, and include therapeutic activities and exercise as appropriate, using modalities only when necessary on rare occasions. Exercise is often through teaching the body new ways to move and explore. These are functional exercises or movements which then can be integrated into your daily activities. They eventually become part of your daily routine until you are not even aware that you are doing the exercises. This is the key to long-lasting changes.
Of course, sometimes the body needs a series of ‘fix it’ sessions to treat the acute pain or trauma. These issues are addressed within the context of changing the movement patterns that quite possibly were responsible for causing the pain to begin with.