What to expect inside an injury treatment session with me
An injury treatment session is an individualized approach to understanding pain, movement restrictions, and the body's protective patterns. Rather than focusing only on where discomfort occurs, the session explores how the body moves, compensates, and responds to different assessments and treatment techniques.
During an initial injury treatment session, I begin with a detailed conversation about your injury history, followed by a movement assessment, walking analysis, and hands-on evaluation. I also use the LTAP assessment to help identify areas of protection and guide treatment, which may include soft tissue techniques, cupping, scraping, breathing exercises, or specific movements.
Follow-up sessions build on previous findings, reassess movement and discomfort, and adjust treatment based on how your body responds. Each session includes personalized homework to help you continue making progress toward the activities you enjoy.
5 min Read
Well it is probably different than what you may have experienced in the past going to a Physical Therapy or other type of session!
What Happens During Your First Injury Treatment Session?
If it is your 1st appointment ever with me, we start with a chat. What are you coming in for? When does it hurt? What have you done for this so far? What other injuries and such have you had in the past? Even the time you hurt your toe in 5th grade! I want the full picture.
What Am I Looking for During Your Movement Assessment?
Next we move on to a Movement Assessment. This typically starts with you walking about 10 paces back and forth a few times. Everyone asks “what I looking at”….well the list is long actually. But everything from what your feet are doing during your walk to how you hold your head and everything in between! How do your arms swing? How do your hips move? How do your SI joints move? There is so much information from a person’s walk it is fascinating!
It is also one of the easiest places to notice change occur. Did your limp get better? Are you more upright? Do you extend your knee more? Did your foot straighten out?
So not only do I use it during the initial assessment I use it a lot as a retest as well!
From there I look at several other movement patterns, squats, rotation, toe touch, arm raise. These give me a general idea where you may hold some tension and restrictions.
Why I Don't Always Treat Where It Hurts
Then we move to the table and go through a few more positions and then I will do a passive assessment so I can feel where you hit some of those restrictions. This is also when I will assess the area that you have come in for, knee, hip, back, shoulder. I go into a deeper evaluation of those structures and ones surrounding it. Especially because many times the area that is currently painful isn’t necessarily the area that is creating the pain.
If you haven’t read my blog on the Hierarchy of Protection go read that now. It basically explains how the body creates protection patterns (on the inside of the body) that can cause tension that is then perceived on the outside and muscle tightness or joint pains.
I know this sounds a bit “Woo” but it makes total sense!
This is also when I start the LTAP. This is an assessment tool that I use that allows me to “listen to your body” and “tell” me what/where your body is protecting so we can start there. Because if your body is protecting something and we only address the point of pain….chances are we will be spinning our wheels each session trying to get that point to feel better and stick.
What Does Injury Treatment Actually Look Like?
Depending what I find during the LTAP assessment will then usually do at least one thing to address this. This can be anything from a hands on soft tissue technique, to you performing a movement, cupping, scraping, or even just breathing with a prop. It really is individual to each person and what is presented to me.
The idea is that we find at least one thing that moves the needle to you feeling better in this first session! (this also doesn’t mean that all pain is gone….it may mean that you came in with a 5/10 on the pain scale and it went down to a 4/10 by the time you leave….this is a win!) But pain isn’t the only measure. Can you squat further? Can you raise your arm higher before you feel discomfort? Can you rotate further? These are all wins as well!
From here I make sure you have no further questions and understand the movements that we went through so you can do them at home as Homework. We will schedule your next session, and you will be on your way!
What Happens During a Follow-Up Injury Treatment Session?
A typical session after your initial assessment is fairly similar but without the long chat and full movement assessment. We will chat about how you have been feeling, what has been good, not so good. What you feel has been the most beneficial. Any questions that may have come up since we were last together.
Will usually have you start with walking again. Then will run through the LTAP again, because many times aches and pains have layers, and after cleaning up one layer another needs to be addressed. So will do that and follow where it leads us. We may do this up to 3 times. Again we may do anything from a hands on soft tissue technique, to any of the above listed possibilities! Each time trying to find something that moves the needle to reducing your pain/discomfort.
What About Homework Between Sessions?
At the end of each session, we'll go over any new homework based on what we discovered that day. These exercises or movements are added to your personal Google Drive document, which you have access to at any time.
This document continues to grow as we work together, so you have a collection of movements and exercises specific to you and your needs.
This is what gets you back to doing the activities that you love. Whether that be playing pickleball, weekly runs, playing with your kids!
If you live in the South Bay and would like to experience this for yourself, click below to schedule your Initial Assessment now. Or you can get more info from my website HERE