Today I want to talk to you about a question I commonly get from clients. They ask me “Patrick, can I continue seeing my […]?” Insert chiropractor, physical therapist, massage therapist and so on.
Before answering this question in depth, imagine you have a lot of dental problems. There is a lot in your mouth that needs fixing. You may have waited for years to summon up the courage to visit a dentist. And when they first look into your mouth they may even let out a sigh. Oh boy! A lot of work to do there. Not everything will be fixed on the spot. Your dentist will probably make a plan to fix everything that is wrong, by working on specific areas at a time. You can’t fix everything in one visit.
Fixing your teeth
It may take months, spacing out the visits to the dentist, to get everything fixed. And then comes the day that they say “Alright, that was the last visit!” and you ask, “so what do I have to do now?”. The dentist will probably say something like “just brush and floss the teeth you want to keep until the next visit”. And so it is with postural therapy. The difference here is that YOU are doing all the hard work yourself. I will help you with the plan and if there are a lot of postural and functional issues, we might work on specific issues first and on other issues later. You do your exercises at home daily.
Then after a couple of months, and a couple of different menus, your body will be SO MUCH MORE functional than when you started. Now you will ask “Patrick, what now?” and I will answer in a similar way as the dentist. We will create a maintenance menu together, because you have learned so much about your body in the past couple of months. And then you do this maintenance menu, just like brushing and flossing the teeth you want to keep, to keep the function and the muscles you want to keep. If you don’t brush and floss in between appointments, or don’t do your menu, things will revert to the state they were.
Other therapists
So, what about the other therapy? Can you keep seeing your x therapist while doing postural therapy? These other therapists have other skills than I do. And they are more likely than not complementary. But what I’ve learned is that if you do your menu BEFORE visiting your other therapists, two things happen. Firstly, your body is better prepared for what they will do. You come in with A BETTER BODY. They will appreciate that, as they can get to the root cause of the problem quicker, not having to deal with as many compensations. Secondly, their treatment can speed up your progress with postural therapy. So by combining treatments you might reach your goal quicker. And they will be grateful that you flossed and brushed in between appointments. So will I!
How can I help you today?