What to expect at our clinic?

Whether coming to an initial appointment or follow up session, this page explains what you can expect from your time with us.

Your First Appointment

No matter what therapy you’re booked in for, your first session will involve an initial discussion with you about what prompted you to come and see us and what you want to achieve from your time with us.

Where you are attending a physical therapy session such as physiotherapy, exercises therapy or massage the discussion will also focus on what you believe caused the pain, what hurts and when, and if there’s anything you do that makes the pain worse. Your therapist will also test your range of movement, looking at how you move your body, and look at other signs such as levels of inflammation. Your therapist might also do other tests as well, including checking your reflexes or blood pressure. This helps your therapist to diagnose the cause of your pain and immediately start to develop a treatment plan.

In most circumstances your therapist will be able to offer treatment in your first session, too.

Your treatment plan

The development of your treatment plan is very much a collaborative effort between you and your qualified therapist or practitioner.

Our number one priority here at Bradley Stoke Physio & Health is that you get what you need from your time with us. Therefore, the recommendations your therapist makes will, as far as possible, take into account information from you about:

• Your lifestyle
• Your health and fitness levels
• The time you have available in your day
• The space available to you during your day (whether you’re at home, in a busy workplace, are constantly out and about, for example)
• What you need (some people simply want the pain to go away; others might be motivated by needs to return to work, attend events, and so on; others may only want information about what’s causing their pain)

Where physical therapies are being used to treat you, your qualified therapist will use this information and their observations about your particular condition to propose an action plan that will likely incorporate:

• Advice on how to reduce your pain
• Exercises you can do at home or during your working day
• Guidance as to how to prevent the pain happening again

If you are using our Wellbeing service, this information about you and your situation will also be used to suggest a plan that will support you in achieving your goals.

If at any point your therapist believes you would benefit from a different therapy or type of support, including seeing a GP, they will advise you accordingly.

Follow up treatments

In any follow up treatment sessions, your therapist will chat to you to find out how the recommended exercises or advice has been working for you. Your therapist will then use the rest of the session to progress your recovery with further treatment and updating your action plan as necessary.

The key thing for us here at Bradley Stoke Physio & Health is that your plan works for you so don’t be afraid to be up front with your therapist about what you have and haven’t been able to make work in between your sessions! All of our therapists appreciate the reality beyond the treatment session, so there can be options to revise your action or support plan as needed. However, your therapist will also be honest with you about how this might affect your progress.

What should you wear to your therapy session?

Comfortable loose clothing is always a good idea.

If you’re receiving a physical therapy your therapist may need to stretch, massage or examine the affected area. This can be tricky to do through clothing so it will help if you’re ready to remove clothing in order to allow your therapist to assess you properly and if your clothing covers the limb or area of your body to be treated. Please be assured that your dignity will be protected at all times.

If at any time you’re not sure about something, or would like some more information, please do ask your therapist or any member of the Bradley Stoke Physio & Health team. We’re a friendly bunch of people who genuinely want you to feel better as a result of your time with us, so your comfort and happiness with the service and support we provide is very important to us.