What to Expect

Our philosophy is to Assess, Treat, Improve and Maintain. Rather than see someone for a few sessions and see some improvement than can be lost, we aim to give every patient the tools to continue their improvement beyond their initial few sessions and to maintain and further their progress.

Assessment

Hydrotherapy / Aquatic physiotherapy typically starts with a 60 minute assessment session where our therapist will spend some time on land with you, discussing your injury or condition and looking at your function and range of movement in order to plan what can be achieved in the pool.
The second part of this initial session would then be in the water where you would be taken through some exercise and therapy.

Continued treatment

After your initial session, further appointments would last for 30 minutes and be completely in the pool. These would initially be done on a 1-2-1 basis with your therapist where your treatment can be monitored and progressed where necessary. We can also make sure that if you experience any pain or discomfort between sessions that your exercises are amended accordingly. This course of treatment will give you the quickest and most effective form of recovery

Self-management sessions

We do offer the opportunity to move on to unsupervised sessions where your therapist would set you a program of exercise to work through on your own in the pool. Self-management sessions are ideal for those who are experienced in exercising in water, for those who are self-paying for their treatment or as a continued exercise plan after a treatment program with a therapist. Entry into self-help sessions is at the discretion of your Aquatic physiotherapist. We must make sure that you are able to perform your exercises safely and efficiently before allowing entry. During self-help sessions, there is no therapist in the water with you but there would be a member of staff on hand to help and pass equipment etc.

A typical program for a post-surgery patient may be:

1. Commencing aquatic physiotherapy within 1-2 weeks of surgery. This allows the patient have their bodyweight supported and thus reduce stress on the surgery site/joint and speed up the healing process. As the patient can actively exercise so soon after surgery compared to ‘passive’ movement during land physiotherapy sessions, less strength, mobility and function is lost in the early stage of recovery.
2. A course of 3-4 sessions with a therapist to progress treatment and ensure the patient is reacting well to treatment and that initial goals are being reached.
3. The patient would often be referred back for land physiotherapy to continue their recovery and a course of 5-10 self-help sessions would be started where the patient can begin to exercise unsupervised and start to regain independence. We will produce a personalised program of exercise for the patient to continue to work through in our pool, or if more convenient to take to their local pool and this would be reviewed and progressed where necessary.