2020-02-17
Top 5 Ways to Help Readers Use PT in Everyday Life

As a physical therapist you want to ensure the hard work continues outside of the therapy room and into everyday life. You create stronger more resilient clients this way and make sure the therapy you are offering in session is being complemented afterwards and in between clinic visits. Your website and online material are essential content for your patients to read up on therapy and help them to understand the effects of their treatment, including how this resonates with their daily life after or between visits.   

How can you help readers use physical therapy in everyday life? There are many different reasons why people will need physical therapy. For some it is down to a particular incident, whereas for others it is for a chronic condition. Therapy can be of use to everyone who is active, some more than others. Here are 5 ways to help readers use PT in everyday life.

1. Publish a regular home exercise blog

Regular blog posts with great content make your readers come back time and time again to your website. Home exercise posts are an excellent way to help readers use PT in everyday life and keep active at home. They can continue their exercise routine at home and learn new ways to use physical therapy in everyday life. Ensuring the treatment works for longer and is more effective compared to just their clinic visits alone.

Start easy to follow blog posts where your clients can learn exercises that will help to keep their bodies healthy and injury free. You can create exercises for different abilities and stages of treatment, so beginners can follow the easier exercises and the more advanced moves can be saved for the more developed athletes.

There are many different types of exercises you can recommend and you can also categorise them by treatment and conditions too. This will ensure that their physical therapy is only enhanced by the exercises and not hindered by trying exercises that are too far ahead. Include things like high intensity workouts to yoga and Pilates and don’t forget the warm ups and cool downs too as they are an essential part to reduce the risk of injury.

2. Explore managing existing conditions

By talking about different conditions on your physical therapy website you can show how treatment is effective for all kinds of physical problems. If you share regular content, focussing on different conditions each time you can reach a wider audience and encourage the use of physical therapy at home. You can also share real life stories about certain conditions to show how individuals have responded and improved with physical therapy.

For example, you can share stories about how to treat sports injuries and how physical therapy works to recover from these types of problems. Or it could be using physical therapy to manage conditions such as arthritis and how to improve mobility at home as well as in the clinic? If people are suffering with symptoms you mention and are not already a patient, they may be encouraged to book an appointment with you.

When treating different types of conditions, you can direct your patients to the information pages in your website. This not only drives traffic to your PT website, but also enables your clients to continue their physical therapy at home and aid their recovery. Creating bespoke pages for the common conditions you treat at your clinic will give your clients the resources they need to use physical therapy in everyday life.

3. Encourage healthy habits

As a physical therapist you are often thought of as only treating the body. But often physical therapists treat the person as a whole and this is helped by encouraging good healthy habits to improve their wellbeing. This can be a range of different things that will help your readers develop ongoing healthy habits. It will improve their mindset which is important when continuing physical therapy.

You could share meditation techniques for relaxation, knowing that relaxing the muscles in the body can help recovery for injuries or tired and sore muscles. This is also true for yoga routines as mentioned above. You can also share healthy eating tips which makes the person feel better from the inside out. You might have specialist in your clinic that can guest post about different healthy habits and can give a new perspective to your clients too.

By writing content that gives information about how to stay healthy outside of physical therapy they will continue to read your blog and visit your website. It encourages them to complement the physical therapy treatment they are receiving from your clinic. It will also improve the results of your therapy if clients are positive and looking after themselves in all aspects of their lives.

4. Make it part of their routine

Discuss the benefits of regular physical therapy with your clients and how it should be part of their routine. The number of visits required for clients will change on an individual basis, but focussing on the importance of physical therapy as an ongoing lifestyle choice rather than a one-off treatment may be more beneficial. They can also continue and enhance their treatment at home with exercises and stretches you provide.

Make physical therapy a daily, weekly or monthly routine depending on the needs of the client. You could see it as a check up to keep on top of conditions and prevent regression and deterioration. It is a great way for patients to keep in touch with the clinic too and find out what else you can do to improve their wellbeing.

Regular contact with clients is key, so sending email reminders and information about new services you are offering will ensure they are thinking about their therapy and remind them to book in for their next session. Schedule your appointments in advance, giving them the right interim between visits and making them more likely to come back.

5. Help to improve pain management

Physical therapy helps to relieve pain and tension which can be an ongoing problem in everyday life. Using therapy effectively will help to reduce pain caused by daily activities and improve the patient’s quality of life. Making small changes, introducing exercise routines and regular therapy can make a big difference.

Writing about how to manage pain in your blog and on pages on your PT website will give your readers the information they need to help themselves at home. It will also give insights as to what types of therapy helps for different types of pain, when to book in with a therapist and what your clinic or services can do for them. 

Some patients may have problems with everyday tasks such as getting out of bed in the morning and bathing or washing. In an aging population keeping mobile and agile without pain is essential and physical therapy can help with that. Offering help and guidance to improve pain management with physical therapy both at home and in the clinic.

What conditions can physical therapy help with?

Any type of physical pain can be helped with physical therapy, there are treatments that work better for some than others but overall therapists want to reduce pain and improve mobility for their clients. Sports injuries and regular athletes often need physical therapy for over working their body and to recover for rigorous exercise or training. Then there are physical conditions such as arthritis, COPD, neck pain, back pain and osteoporosis to name but a few. Each condition may favour a different type of treatment, but overall physical therapy can help a multitude of conditions in everyday life. This is something you should be showing your patients and potential new clients too.

How will you help readers use PT in everyday life?

You want visitors to your website to be able to find what they are looking for straight away and navigate quickly. Once they find the right page, you must ensure the content is relevant and informative on the topic to keep readers engaged. It can be hard to set up and maintain your physical therapy website with so many other things to concentrate on in your business. If you need some help, patient sites offer marketing and content creation as well as patient information for all your online business needs. Take a look to see what patient sites could do for you. 

Essentially, you want your readers, be they new clients or existing customers, to understand that physical therapy is more than just a one-off treatment. By making therapy a way of life and a routine way of keeping on top of their health you will encourage loyal patients and improve their physical and mental wellbeing.

Do you need some help with your physical therapy website and marketing? Download our Free Evergreen Marketing Blueprint for Physical Therapists and start creating long-term assets that generate new patient bookings for years to come.