Providing physiotherapy in Vancouver since 2009
Physiotherapists are movement specialists. We understand how the body’s muscles and joints work together to allow you to move with ease and grace. Your Cross Roads physiotherapist may use any of the following approaches to formulate a treatment plan tailored to your needs.
Physiotherapy Overview
Assessment
A comprehensive assessment with an experienced physiotherapist is the keystone to your healing journey. We take the time to understand how your symptoms impact your daily activities. We examine your concerns both locally at the muscle and joint level, and globally to see how your body is affected as a whole. This includes assessing your muscle strength, balance and coordination amongst others. The findings will determine the approach we take to treatment.
Manual Therapy
We apply manual therapy or hands-on treatment techniques to your joints as a means to restore movement and alleviate stiffness. This has a positive impact on the soft tissues surrounding the joints including muscles, ligaments and nerves. When patients describe us as having “healing hands”, it comes from years of experience working with patients and understanding through hands-on treatment how each individual’s body is affected differently by injury.
Exercise Therapy
Our focus is on restoring movement. In addition to hands-on treatment, we will teach you a customized exercise program that will correct muscle imbalances, and improve your coordination and flexibility. Our clinic has a spacious 1200 sqft. gym space housing all the equipment that you may need. Success requires your active participation in exercise therapy. In addition, you may be prescribed clinical pilates exercises as part of your physiotherapy treatment.
Electro-Physical Agents
This term refers to modalities which we may use to address your acute pain and/or any active inflammation in your joints and soft tissues. Modalities such as the use of ice or heat, ultrasound, laser and electrical stimulation (e.g. Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation and Interferential Current Stimulation) may be used. Electrical muscle stimulation may also be used to train a very weak muscle to contract.
Our physiotherapists are also trained to provide intramuscular stimulation (IMS) dry needling and/or acupuncture to treat trigger points and muscle knots which are associated with chronic muscle tension and pain.
Direct Access to Physiotherapy
Physiotherapists are primary health care providers. A referral is not required from your doctor to consult a physiotherapist. Some extended health plans may require a doctor’s referral for physiotherapy in order to receive reimbursement so you may want to check with your insurance provider.
Telehealth Physiotherapy Option
The option to consult our physiotherapists through virtual appointments is available. We use doxy.me which provides a secure service with end-to-end encryption and fulfills the requirements of the Canadian Personal Information Protection & Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA). There is no need for patients to download any software or open any accounts. Some examples of patients who may benefit from a virtual appointment include:
- existing patients who need to be reassessed and prescribed home exercise progressions and self-management techniques
- new patients with acute or chronic injury who wish to be assessed and triaged to determine course of care, including instruction on self-management of symptoms.
We can direct bill your insurer for virtual appointments as long as it is covered. Most insurance providers including Pacific Blue Cross, Sunlife and WorkSafe BC allow for virtual appointments. Book telehealth physiotherapy appointments online or contact us at 604-568-1337.