If you've made it this far, you might be wondering, what is an Athletic Therapist? What do we do? How am I any different than a physiotherapist. All valid questions - before I became one, I didn't know the answers either. Let me tell you a little about what I do.
Let's start off with a quote I'll often tell people about my job, "if you want to live your daily life actively and you have pain, an athletic therapist can help you - you don't need to be an athlete". Don't let the "athletic" part of the job description scare you away - as far as I'm concerned, if you have a physical issues that limit what you really want to do, I can help. Athletic therapists deal with injury prevention, rehabilitation, and emergency care. I went through 4 years of in-depth orthopedic (bones, muscles, joints) assessments and treatment through school and have two plus years of "real world" experience - so if you have anything between nagging neck pain to a sprained big toe, I can help. I've been in a variety of settings - high school sports, university and college teams. University AT clinics, college AT clinics and private multidisciplinary clinics all over the GTA. I've seen athletes, special populations, chronic pain patients, and the general public - In each case, I refine my skill set - I constantly evolve how I treat based on the latest research! As well, I've become a firm believer in exercise based therapy - but we can save that conversation for our initial consult!
Let's start off with a quote I'll often tell people about my job, "if you want to live your daily life actively and you have pain, an athletic therapist can help you - you don't need to be an athlete". Don't let the "athletic" part of the job description scare you away - as far as I'm concerned, if you have a physical issues that limit what you really want to do, I can help. Athletic therapists deal with injury prevention, rehabilitation, and emergency care. I went through 4 years of in-depth orthopedic (bones, muscles, joints) assessments and treatment through school and have two plus years of "real world" experience - so if you have anything between nagging neck pain to a sprained big toe, I can help. I've been in a variety of settings - high school sports, university and college teams. University AT clinics, college AT clinics and private multidisciplinary clinics all over the GTA. I've seen athletes, special populations, chronic pain patients, and the general public - In each case, I refine my skill set - I constantly evolve how I treat based on the latest research! As well, I've become a firm believer in exercise based therapy - but we can save that conversation for our initial consult!
"If you want to live your daily life actively and you have pain, an athletic therapist can help you - you don't need to be an athlete."
What makes my profession unique is that while I may see you come through my door with an injury, I can also see you when the injury happens, be it on the field, the track, the rink,the courr or even the factory floor. Again, we specialize in assessment at the time of injury, as well as acute management of that issue to limit the further problems. And should you really be hurt on the field or the job? I'm trained for that, being a Certified Red Cross First Responder with sport specific emergency skills, able to control life-threatening situations no matter the circumstance. Emergency situations are where I thrive - working under pressure and providing athlete's comfort in an extremely frightening and vulnerable position.
In terms of injury prevention, that's where you come in, and we work as a team. Through our thorough assessment, I'll work with you to figure out why you might have chronic pain, and ways to limit setbacks and problems with rehab.
In terms of injury prevention, that's where you come in, and we work as a team. Through our thorough assessment, I'll work with you to figure out why you might have chronic pain, and ways to limit setbacks and problems with rehab.
HOW DO WE DIFFER FROM PHYSIOTHERAPY? |
Another extremely common question I get is how we differ from physiotherapy. While there are similarities, the main differences is our education. A physiotherapy degree is a two years Masters level program, where by the end, graduates have been exposed to four 6-week clinical blocks, one of which is entirely orthopedic in nature. They also work with a variety of cardiorespiratory or neurological rehabilitation settings, such as stroke patients. In comparison, the Athletic Therapy program in Ontario runs either 3 or 4 years (depending on the institution). At Sheridan, where I graduated, it as a degree with a Honours Bachelors in Health Sciences designation. As AT students, we went through 3 years (1200 hrs) of on-field and clinic work, and are specialized in musculoskeletal injury identification and management. We are trained in prophylactic taping, and were placed in various sporting environments - high school, college, university, and minor league to professional sporting associations. Again, this is all during our undergrad. By the end of the program, we have accumulated 600 hours of on-field experience and clinical experience, making us orthopedic specialists as soon as we graduate and pass a National Certification Exam.
DISCLAIMER (Insurance Coverage):
As a reminder, be sure to check with your Insurance company, asking if "Athletic Therapy", specifically, is covered under your policy! We are recognized by many of the major companies, however we are not always on every plan. As well, we are not covered under "physiotherapy", as it exists as a totally separate designation.
DISCLAIMER (Insurance Coverage):
As a reminder, be sure to check with your Insurance company, asking if "Athletic Therapy", specifically, is covered under your policy! We are recognized by many of the major companies, however we are not always on every plan. As well, we are not covered under "physiotherapy", as it exists as a totally separate designation.
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