Online PT: Recap + Recommendations
Moving to online visits was brand new to me in 2020. In 11 years of practice, I had never treated online before, and frankly, wasn’t sure how it would go. I like using my hands and know the people I work with get a lot of benefit out of hands-on therapy. It forced me out of my comfort zone to focus only on education, exercise, and self-assessment.
Do you know what I found out? A lot of the people I had been working with got better faster doing online visits. I assume it’s a combination of people figuring some things out for themselves about their body instead of me telling them what I’m finding, creating space in their own environment for their home program, and truly healing themselves.
This Pandemic proved something to me that I might not have learned otherwise: I am not the reason people get better.
I help guide you, but your body is truly healing itself.
And I know at the same time, some people need a little input to their body via hands-on treatment to help guide that healing and recovery.
I want to keep this option open in my practice moving forward. Especially since the pandemic is far from over. Here’s a little breakdown of which option is best and when, including some hard boundaries I’m setting for exposure prevention:
I asked a few folks who transitioned to—or started with—online visits what they thought about it. Keep reading to hear what they said:
“I visited 9 doctors over the course of 5 years trying to get my pelvic pain under control. I even went to two other board certified pelvic floor PT’s before I found Dr. Murtaugh. After just 6 weeks of virtual visits with Dr. Mandi I have made more progress than ever before. Dr. Murtaugh’s education, encouragement, and expertise have helped me understand my body in a way that has revolutionized my treatment. She truly listens and has a heart for these incredibly sensitive issues. I finally have hope again that pain-free sex is in my future.” - K.K.
"I was surprised at how much we could accomplish with telehealth visits! Mandi is somehow able to express physical ideas with words and translate them in such a way that I could reproduce actions in my own body. I learn very well from seeing people actually do the activities and telehealth works really well for that. While there's something very comforting about a PT being able to feel your muscles and tell you if you're doing an exercise well or not, Mandi's really great about watching intently and making sure proper muscles are activating. I appreciate how Mandi can interpret and communicate physical movement by showing, articulating what should and shouldn't be happening as well as provide helpful feedback if even the slightest muscle was trying to compensate when it shouldn't. I know telehealth isn't an ideal or even possible for some people, but I trusted Mandi to tell me if our PT plan would be productive via telehealth and I've made a lot of progress in the last few weeks and I didn't even have to get out of my pajamas! No regrets, just gratitude and progress." - C.F.
“I usually have my apartment to myself, so it’s nice and private and very comfortable and convenient. It’s nice to kinda have the extra time to prepare for the visit then I’d otherwise be driving to see you. I think one of the most important things about PT in general for me is having trust. Trusting you to teach and help me and trusting myself and my body, so having that established already makes the transition easier.” - B.M.
“Telehealth has been great! If we can't be in the clinic together, it's nice to be able to continue working on my exercises virtually. The process is easy and I'm making progress!” - K.J.