Physical therapy vs. Chiropractics

A lot of people ask ‘how is a physical therapist different from a chiropractor’? The main difference is in their treatment approach. Yes, there are very good chiropractors out there but you will have a hard time finding one that will educate you much less encourage you to develop your self-management strategies so that you can be free of them. Physical therapists have a very different mindset in that we don’t feel successful unless you are completely independent of us. In other words, we “teach you how to fish so you can feed yourself” instead of having you become dependent on passive treatment.

The APTA (American Physical Therapy Association) defines what physical therapist do.

“Physical therapists are movement experts who improve quality of life through prescribed exercise, hands-on care, and patient education.”

“A chiropractor focuses on the diagnosis and treatment of neuromuscular disorders, with an emphasis on treatment through manual adjustment and or manipulation of the spine.” The general public in most cases are not aware that physical therapists are also trained in manual adjustments and or manipulations, but go a step further by re-training the body to incorporate the new found mobility and stabilize through exercises and movement pattern re-wiring so that we can actually restore optimal function. We can stop the cycle of re-injury and passive treatments. If you are not quite ready to go cold turkey without your chiropractor adjustments , what would actually be a better model is to learn what physical therapy exercises to do afterwards so you can stabilize a de-conditioned neuromuscular movement system and start to incorporate new movement strategies that is benchmark of a resilient and efficient body.