Menai District Physiotherapy & Sports Injury Centre, Illawong NSW 2234
ConnectTherapyTM is a unique physiotherapy assessment and treatment model that considers the impact of whole body function, especially movement & postural patterns, on a person’s symptoms/site of injury.
It works very well for those pains or injuries that do not get better with localised treatment alone. Often pain and injury in one area of a person’s body is driven by an imbalance or dysfunction in a region away from their pain site. This region is referred to as the driver. The focus of ConnectTherapyTM is to identify and treat the driver of a person’s symptoms in order that optimal treatment and maximal recovery be achieved.
ConnectTherapyTM was developed by Dr Linda-Joy Lee, an internationally recognised physiotherapist, author and educator, and is the model employed by professional sporting clubs of the likes of Manchester City Football Club in the English Premier League.
The physiotherapist will first conduct a detailed interview regarding your complaint to ensure a thorough understanding of your movement history has been attained. Any reports or imaging will also be reviewed. The primary movement activity that causes you symptoms (this is known as your Meaningful Task) will be identified and assessed.
The next step is to assess your standing alignment from head to toe, followed by an assessment of your biomechanics during your Meaningful Task. Whilst observing your Meaningful Task your physiotherapist will determine how each region of your body is moving relative to the other. Any areas that are moving non-optimally are noted.
Once the non- optimal areas are identified, the physiotherapist will then manually assist those areas to optimise movement in that region. The effect on your biomechanics and pain will be noted. Following assessment, one or two areas of manual correction will give a marked improvement to the performance of the task and this will become the primary area for treatment – your driver has been identified!
Regardless of whether you have an acute or chronic injury, we want to determine the effect your current injury has on the rest of your body AND how the rest of your body relates to your current injury. Your body is interconnected, and all injuries and conditions can benefit from assessment and treatment by means of the ConnectTherapyTM method. After all, you may have many parts, but you are one body.
Due to the time required to conduct a thorough whole body assessment, your initial consultation may not involve treatment.
Treatment should however commence within 1-2 days after your initial assessment depending on patient/ therapist availability.
If you have an acute injury or have high levels of pain during your initial assessment, your physiotherapist will treat the irritable area initially and will perform the ConnectTherapyTM assessment at a later date.
As treatment may involve multiple areas occasionally additional time in the form of extended consultations may be required for subsequent treatment sessions. If you have a condition that maybe more complex in nature, you may benefit from a ConnectTherapyTM consult