Independence is a terribly important thing, but what does it mean?  Well the Cambridge Dictionary (apparently the Oxford Dictionary doesn’t rank high on google) defines independence as

“the ability to live your life without being helped or influenced by other people”

I think this is a nice way of summarising independence.

Independence is something many of our patients are striving for.  People want to live life on their terms and be able to do anything that they would like to do.

Now independence is something we traditionally associate with the elderly.  Being able to carry on walking to the shop or looking after oneself at home, that is independence.  However I would argue that it equally applies to younger people who for example may want to carry on with their gym based activities and not need to see a therapist to do so.

Deep down I suspect independence is a massive goal of most of my patients.

Now it is my feeling that the traditional physiotherapy model or most other therapy models, actually takes away patients’ independence.  By being fixers or curers and using passive treatments such as massage, manipulations, electrotherapy, acupuncture or any other technique, we actually cause our patients to be reliant or dependant on us as therapists.

As my career has progressed, I have seen the problems that this can cause, as people lose control over their problem, and it then escalates or runs over into other problems.

Passive treatment, for sure may give you the patient, short-pain relief but it tends to be just that and when the next bout of pain arrives, you will need fixing again.  This can be hugely frustrating for you as a patient, not even mentioning the cost.  Most importantly this is clearly not the independence which you may be aiming for.

At Weymouth Physiotherapy we are really interested in providing a service which empowers our patients to self-manage their problem and reduces their reliance on us as therapists.  In essence we are working as hard as we can to get people to not rely on our care.  Read more on our treatment approach here

This may seem like a very bad business model but it is actually a brilliant health model because it puts you in charge of their health and gives you confidence.   It gives you tools to manage flare ups if you get some, it gives you the confidence to engage in movement.  This is true even if you are in some pain, as you will know you are not doing harm.  It gives you confidence to engage in life, fully independent.  What a gift to give.

The way I see it, it’s like learning to drive.  You need to be in the driving seat and in control.  Yes you will need some guidance and support initially and at times we may need to take some control.  But eventually you should not require us.  How happy would you be still having to see your driving instructor at regular timepoints in life?

This is contemporary physiotherapy and this is exactly what we offer here at Weymouth Physiotherapy.  We hope that in years to come this is the norm in the therapy world.

If you would like to get some independence and feel like you do not have control over your condition or are just fed-up of having to go a therapist regularly to get your problem fixed, then get in contact and we can discuss how we can help you.