Are all physical therapists the same?

A patient that I have been seeing for several months called me last week and asked me to help to find him a physical therapist in Brooklyn.  He had just been offered a job there and wanted to have someone to call if he had a flare up of his symptoms that included back and neck pain as well as numbness and tingling in his toes.  Chronic pain conditions have a tendency to ebb and flow and his was not an exception.  Spinal stenosis can be a very debilitating diagnosis and as a responsible professional, I knew that he would need a particular type of physical therapist to get him back on track during the exacerbations. 

All physical therapists are not the same.  The training in schools today, whether the physical therapist has a masters or a doctorate is pretty much the same.  They receive the same general background in all areas of the profession, experience several clinical internships and go on to take state boards.  After that the similarity ends.  What courses one takes from that point on will determine what direction one takes in the field in addition to those he or she comes in contact with. 

When searching for a physical therapist, a patient will usually get the best results when choosing a professional that specializes in the diagnosis that is in question.  Today there are spine specialists, women’s health specialists, vestibular specialists, and even pediatric orthopedic specialists to name a few.  Experience and coursework determines these specialties.  You would not want to see a women’s health specialist if you had a neck problem and expect optimal results.

When the patient asked my advice, I gave him a list of possible treatments to look for when searching for a therapist.  I listed manual therapy techniques that I use like; muscle energy technique, strain counterstrain, primal reflex release, total motion release, and trigger point therapy to name a few.  I then looked up lists of manually trained physical therapists from various websites to give him a starting point and told him to ask each one he chose whether they were trained in those techniques. 

There is so much out there for physical therapists to learn that it is impossible to be the best at everything.  If I had a problem, I would want to choose a physical therapist that specialized in that problem and felt comfortable with all the available tools to fix the problem. 

All physical therapists are not the same.  We specialize just like other professionals.  FInding one that specializes in your particular problem can make all the difference.