Hello and welcome back to the ThreeSpires Physiotherapy blog. I thought in this blog we might take a different tack and do an interview with one of our physiotherapists (in this case me!!) and have a look at what their background is and what they consider to be important in terms of physiotherapy and patients.

So, below is a series of answers to some questions I was asked about me and my thoughts on physiotherapy - questions posed to me by my partner Jenny.

1.      Can you tell us a bit about yourself?

I am a qualified and chartered physiotherapist. I graduated from the University of Central Lancashire with a first class honours degree in Physiotherapy. I really enjoy being a physiotherapist for a range of reasons which I am sure we will get onto in due course. I have a lot of interests as well as physiotherapy; we have a 5 year old son who keeps me very busy and I am also a very keen rock climber, something which I do quite a few times each week as time allows.

2.      Why did you want to be a physiotherapist?

Working with people, helping people and doing something medical really appealed to me so physiotherapy seemed like quite an obvious choice.

3.      Do you enjoy being a physiotherapist?

Yes!! 100 hundred percent. Physiotherapy is a great profession, where you get to meet a large number of new people each year, work in interesting situations, develop new skills, learn new concepts and help patients improve the quality of their lives. It’s a great job and I really enjoy it.

4.      Why did you start ThreeSpires Physiotherapy?

Well, for a few reasons. Firstly, I moved down to Lichfield to start a family with my partner Jenny in 2013 and I wanted to set up a physiotherapy practice. Having looked around it was obvious that there was a real gap in community physiotherapy provision where a physiotherapist would visit patients at home. Providing a good quality home visit physiotherapy service was something that I had been wanting to do for a while and so we decided to try it…

5.      Why home visit physiotherapy and not a traditional clinic?

In my opinion there are lots of reasons why having a physio visit you at home is better than having a traditional clinic set up where patients visit the physiotherapy clinic. Firstly, people lead such busy lives these days and have so little time available to go to a traditional physiotherapy clinic that I simply saw that it would be so much better if the physio was able to come to them. physiotherapy service to clients/patients in their own homes. I personally have known many people who just struggle along with aches and pains that a physiotherapist could easily help but they simply don’t have the time to get to a physiotherapy clinic either because the clinic closes too early or they would need to take time off work.

Secondly, there are many people whose mobility is very restricted and have difficulty leaving the home or they may reside in a care home. These patients often have conditions such as Parkinson’s Multiple Sclerosis or may be recovering from a stroke. For these patients visiting a physiotherapy clinic is simply not an option and having a physiotherapist visit them where they live makes a huge amount of sense. Patients such as these benefit greatly from physiotherapy at home and this is evidenced by the great success of our neurological physiotherapy service, post-operative rehabilitation service and physiotherapy service in care homes across Staffordshire and the West Midlands.

6.      What do you think makes a good physiotherapist?

Ooh! That’s a tough one and is something that I ask myself whenever we are looking to recruit a new physiotherapist to the practice. Obviously having good clinical knowledge and experience are important but mostly I think it is about having empathy with the patients and being interested in their lives and difficulties. When I chat with patients about our service they always comment on how good our physiotherapists are and how caring and interested that they are and for me this is the quality that makes someone a good physio more than anything else.

7.      What is your favourite area of physiotherapy?

Quite honestly I don’t have one! I find all areas of physiotherapy really interesting and one of the things I most like about the job is the variety. I really enjoy seeing sports injuries, helping patients with low back pain, assisting someone with a knee replacement and also helping patients recover after a stroke. So, to be truthful I can’t really pick a favourite area.

8.      Any last comments?

Hmmm… not really I think we have covered quite a bit about me and why I am a physiotherapist. So probably good to leave it there….