Everything in life is built on relationships. Your health care is no different.

When it comes to making sure you are healthy, you want people who know your needs and who you trust to work in your best interests. This is true of doctors and all other providers, including physical therapists. The best providers will want to build connections with patients.

“We want to build good relationships with patients because we provide one-on-one care,” said Dr. Karyn Staples, PT, PhD, NCPT of ProHealth Physical Therapy and Pilates Studio in Peachtree City. “When we are with a patient, we are focused directly on that person, looking at not only how he or she is doing things, but also why.”

A patient may come to physical therapy for any of a number of reasons, but each of them is setting aside time and money to do it. Every patient needs to feel confident that there will be a long-term positive result from that regimen. Establishing a relationship between the patient and the physical therapist leads to a camaraderie or sorts, with both sides working toward the same goal – making the patient better.

If the patient has a setback down the road, he or she will want to return to that relationship, thinking, “I’m going back to that therapist at ProHealth because she knows her stuff, and because she cared about me and wanted me to get better.”

“All of healthcare is a relationship industry in that sort of way,” said Staples. “You are kind of creating a sale, not like buying a product, but the idea that this relationship where someone knows what you need and can help you is something you want to come back to.”

Physical therapy rarely, if ever, produces a final result immediately. It can be a long road to recovery. That requires the patient to believe in the physical therapist and trust that the results will be there in the end. It takes cooperation on both sides to make this happen.

A good therapist will ask the right questions (starting with “how do you feel?” and “how does it hurt?”) and gather the necessary information from the patient, working with an expert level of understanding of how the human body works to arrive at the appropriate conclusions regarding movement, strength development and rest that will put the patient on the path to recovery.

“Often someone comes in who has been in pain for a while, and is just tired of being in pain,” said Staples. “Sometimes people don’t understand what is going on or why. We break it down into what positions they might be in during a typical day, how their posture is. From there, we try to find those places of comfort, so we can progress to positive movement experiences and positive positioning. It can be as simple as how you sit in a chair that is causing pain. Much of our job is education on alignment and posture.”

As the patient becomes more knowledgeable about his or her own body, the rapport with the physical therapist is strengthened. The patient is more compliant due to this increased trust level, and it becomes a true team effort.

“I think we do a good job here at ProHealth of establishing the fact that it is a two-way street,” said Staples. “You have to do your part, and we have to do our part.”

ProHealth Physical Therapy and Pilates Studio is located at 1777 Georgian Park in Peachtree City. For more information or to book an appointment, phone 770-487-1931 or visit prohealthga.com.