Life is rarely without its challenges. Sometimes you just need someone with professional qualifications and skills to help you. There are many different types of physical and mental therapists out there and its a minefield to know what and how they will treat you.
Whether it’s for feelings of anxiety, an injury or discomfort in certain parts of the body, it’s important you know that help is available for every problem life throws your way.
There are various types of therapists that can offer help but finding the right one is not always an easy task. It’s important that you get a professional who understands your challenges, lifestyle, budget, and preferences.
The first call should be with your doctor or physician who should help point you in the right direction, To help you understand what some of the key therapists do, we have created a quick overview of some of the more commonly used therapists.
#1. CHIROPRACTOR
Description
A form of treatment that focuses on mechanical disorders to the neuro-musculoskeletal system, with a primary focus on treating the body through the spine. A trained specialist uses hands or an instrument to apply force or pressure to a joint to encourage and improve mobility and function, which in turn, aids the body’s response to healing.
How they help you?
Chiropractors use hands-on manipulation to restore alignment to the body to encourage the body to heal itself. They use spinal adjustments to restore spinal integrity and function. The main focus is on the body’s relationship between the nervous system and spine.
What they help with?
A variety of joint, muscle and spinal injuries. Lower back pain, sciatica, neck pain, whiplash, trapped nerve, frozen shoulder, postural issues and much more.
#2. Osteopathy
Description
A method of treatment that assesses and treats musculoskeletal disorders and their interdependence with the other systems in the body. Osteopathy was founded by Dr Andrew Taylor Still, an American physician in the 19th century. Osteopathic philosophy gives a holistic approach to health and stresses the importance of the musculoskeletal system in a person’s health and well-being. The aim of treatment is to support the body’s self-healing capacity.
How they help you?
Osteopathy takes a holistic approach, looking at the body’s systems as a whole to treat injury or disorders. Treatment includes using manipulation of the body’s joints and muscles, massage techniques and stretching to improve movement and recovery.
What they help with
Osteopaths can help with a variety of joint, muscle, and spine issues. They can also help with postural problems, headaches, back pain, arthritis, pregnancy issues, sleep cycles, nervous, circulatory, and lymphatic conditions.
#3. Sport Therapist
Description
Sports therapy is a direct treatment responding to sport or exercise-related injuries and rehabilitating patients to recovery.
How they help you?
Sports therapists provide hands-on treatment to numerous sporting injuries, advise on injury prevention and support rehabilitation, using a range of physical techniques and methods. A variety of techniques they use include. soft tissue massage, mobilisation, frictioning, stretching, taping and strapping and exercise referral.
What they help with?
Sports therapists help with muscle, tendon and ligament injuries, tennis elbow, frozen shoulder, ACL/MCL tears, lower back pain, hip pain and much more.
WATCH OUT!: Many massage treatment centres offer ‘Sports Massage’ and claim that they have skilled therapists that offer ‘Sports Massage’. This is often misleading as a sports massage treatment is a very physically demanding session for both the patient and the therapists, where focused work on the patient’s muscles can be quite painful.
#4. Soft tissue Therapy
Description
If you need a therapist that focuses directly on the soft tissues of the body and restores muscular dysfunctions, then a soft tissue therapist is your best bet.
How they help you?
Soft tissue therapists help with soft tissue injuries, muscle dysfunction, restoring muscle function, and movement. They use frictional mobilization and manipulation of muscles in order to improve muscular functionality and to promote healing.
The therapist focuses on the soft tissues of the body to relieve tight and overworked muscles, tissues, tendons, and ligaments by breaking down tension, restriction, and restoring muscle tone.
What they help with?
They help with the treatment and/or alleviation of musculoskeletal pain, sporting, and non-sporting injuries, chronic and acute tension, as well as improving body flexibility, strength, and wellness. All this has the additional benefit of improving your mental well-being too.
#5. PHYSIOTHERAPY
Description
Physiotherapy focuses on movement and exercise to help people suffering from injury, disability or illness.
How they help you?
A physiotherapist guides people through injury, illness, or a disability using movement, exercise and hands-on therapy. Â
What they help with?
There are different branches of physiotherapy that specialise in different areas; musculoskeletal (strain, sprains, joints), neurological (strokes), cardiovascular (heart disease) and respiratory (asthma, COPD).Â
A physiotherapist may have to assess the physical condition of a patient to diagnose problems and implement a treatment plan, or they may assist with the re-training of patients to walk, or help those having to use crutches, walking frames, or wheelchairs.
#6. Massage Therapist
Description
One of the most common therapies, massage therapy involves the use of hand techniques to relieve tension and stress to the body’s muscles.Â
How they help you?
Massage therapists help with stress, tension, and relaxation. A holistic approach encompassing the whole body’s circulatory system to increase relaxation and induce an overall feeling of well-being.
What they help with?
If you are suffering from stress, a busy schedule and are unable to switch off to sleep for a period of time, or you feel some mild discomfort in places on your body, a massage therapist could be what you need..Â
#7. Psychiatrist
Description
Psychiatry is a specialist branch of medicine that diagnoses, treats, and rehabilitates mental disorders.Â
How they help you?
A psychiatrist is a medical doctor that helps with personality disorders, psychotic disorders, eating disorders, anxiety, mood swings, and depression. They have a deep understanding of physical and mental health, and how they relate with each other.
The major difference between a psychiatrist and a psychologist is that psychiatrists have medical training and can prescribe and administer medicinal drugs and other therapies as part of a treatment plan.
What they help with?
Psychiatrists treat mental illnesses like schizophrenia, depression, bipolar disorder, eating disorders, such as anorexia and bulimia, hallucinations, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), insomnia and sleeping problems, addiction, including to gambling, drugs, alcohol, suicidal thoughts, self-harm and obsessional thoughts.Â
#8. Psychologist
Description
Psychologists are therapists that study human cognitive, social, and emotional behaviour. They can assist in developing coping mechanisms and strategies to change behaviour and to improve understanding of your own behaviour patterns or thoughts.
How they help you?
By helping you develop the coping strategies and tools to manage stress, anxiety, phobias, and other problems you face. A psychologist can help you understand why you feel a certain way and what to do when certain negative psychological experiences occur, to help minimise the symptoms such as depression and other mental health problems.
What they help with
Psychologists can help with depression, anxiety, addiction, OCD, post-traumatic stress, grief, trauma and much more.
#9. Life Coach
Description
Life coaches do a variety of things, some of which overlap with psychology and other branches concerning mental well-being. One area that Life Coaching can focus on is learning techniques such as NLP ( neuro-linguistic programming) which help you to focus on developing how you use your mind to manage how you think.Â
How they help you?
Life coaches can assist you to identify goals, or obstacles holding you back and help you by suggesting strategies to overcome them. Life coaches will guide you and show you the tools you need, and the steps you need to take, to get you closer to what you want to achieve. Life coaching can often merge into mentoring, where mentoring is a much more directive approach to getting what you want, typically where the mentor has already done or achieved the desired result you are going after.Â
What they help with?
Coaching can be very specific to your personal needs, in terms of what areas you want to grow. They can help you to focus and direct your energy to where it needs to be so you can achieve the goals you have set out.Â
Here are some examples of what they can help with; your personal life (building strong relationships, dating), work (developing skills, leadership, career ladder), physical aspirations (improving your diet, losing weight or getting the body of your dreams) and entrepreneurial aspirations. If you’re a business owner, how to further develop your business and help you unlock aspects of your business that are not working.
