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Modern medications may often offer a highly effective way of treating a number of diseases and viruses, however they come at the risk of experiencing harmful side effects, and thus may not always be the most healthy treatment, depending on the patient and the case at hand.
Holistic therapies on the other hand, offer much of the healing and relief properties provided by medications, without having to consume potentially harmful chemicals.
This more natural approach has much less risk of adverse reactions, and as a result, makes these therapies an ideal treatment option for children, adolescents, and young adults, as well as those with weaken immune systems, or patients suffering from other ailments that prevent the consumption of certain medications.
What is physical therapy? Physical therapy (PT) refers to the treatment of disease and other ailments by utilizing physical methods such as exercise, deep tissue massage, stretching, heat treatment, and other methods instead of surgery or medications.
PT is typically employed in order to rehabilitate the body following injury, improve mobility and range of motion and to reduce chronic pain.
PT is generally categorized into 6 different types:
Electrical muscle stimulation, manual therapy are also considered types of PT, as too is exercise.
What is occupational therapy? Occupational therapy (OT) is a branch of health care designed to help patients, of any age, who have physical, sensory, or cognitive problems, regain independence in all aspects of their lives.
OT achieves this via the therapeutic use of everyday activities, or occupations; occupations that have been shown to improve physical, mental, emotional, and developmental issues.
Medical literature categories OT into three parts:
What is speech therapy? Speech therapy (ST) is a field of healthcare that aims to treat speech and language problems with the aim of helping patients communicate better by overcoming hurdles that can arise as a result of speech impediments.
There are six main types of speech therapy, these include:
What is behavioral therapy? Behavioral therapy (BT) encompasses several different therapies and treatments designed to help patients overcome mental health disorders. It aims to treat these problems by training the patient’s reactions to stimuli.
It is based on the idea that all behaviors are learned and therefore can be changed. It attempts to identify and alter potentially self-destructive and/or unhealthy behaviors.
There are several types of behavioral therapies, these are typically categories into the following:
By utilizing one or more of these behavioral therapy techniques, physicians commonly treat depression, anxiety, panic disorders, anger management issues, intermittent explosive disorder, eating disorders, PTSD, ADHD, OCD, bipolar disorder, phobias, self-harming behavior and substance abuse disorders.
What is music and drama therapy? Music therapy is a types of holistic treatment that utilizes the creative and educational benefits of these arts in a therapeutic manner.
Music therapy, aims to help students learn to read, write and play music, by utilizing a more fun approach, instead of the typical strict academic lessons.
Whilst this holistic technique might seem too spiritual in concept and not necessarily grounded in reality, it truly does not fall into this category as music therapy has much medical literature surrounding the topic. And the verdict is unanimous; research shows that listening to music stimulates one side of the brain, whilst performing music triggers both sides whilst results in more then double the benefit.
What is drama therapy? Similarly to music therapy, drama therapy is a holistic treatment that teaches children better social skills via the therapeutic use of drama techniques such as acting and role-playing.
Drama aims to achieve a similar result but does so by tailoring the therapeutic use of role-play, storytelling, enacting and dialogue delivery. These exercises common in drama practice and have been shown to teach skills that can easily be transferred into real-life, everyday use.
What is social skills group therapy? Social skills group is a type of therapy that aims to teach children with autism polite interaction techniques. It can be likened to drama therapy as it’s often carried out in small groups of 6-8 patients with similar disabilities, and involves games and exercises that replicate real life, whilst relieving the pressure of having to do so in public.
In this way participants can learn more comfortably from their peers, with professional guidance from medical carers, who can steer the sessions in the right direction to achieve the most optimal results.
Despite the numerous categories of therapies, and the many subsects of treatments and procedures that fall into each, the basic steps often remain similar. This overview can give patients a slightly better understanding of what to expect, even prior to being diagnosed and prescribed a treatment plan.
Assessment and Evaluation: Each treatment will start out with an assessment and evaluation to check the patient’s current abilities in order to diagnose the problem and determine what therapy treatments should be recommended.
Goal Setting: Next the doctor will set targets and benchmarks for the treatments. This will plot out important milestones along a timeline, and include an estimated completion date.
Tracking Improvement: This stage allows the doctors/specialist to evaluate recovery process by comparing progress to the timeline goals.
Rehabilitation: Eventually treatment will shift focus to restoring mobility/range of motion, nursing injured parts of the body back to full functionality, and managing pain.
Caregiver Training: It’s quite common for some injuries and ailments to require additional care following the initially recovery stage. For this reason many medical centers provide patient caregivers with the skills and knowledge to support patient progress.
Settings: One major factor to ensuring therapy treatments work effectively is to first choosing the most suitable programs for your requirements. Here there are a few things to consider such as location, whether one-on-one, or group sessions are preferred. Either way, as long as the place has a good reputation for their knowledge, personal training and coaching abilities, gaining the experience from other experts in the industry is often the most effective way of progressing.
Physical therapy refers to many different procedures including exercise, hot and cold therapy, manual therapy, laser therapy, soft tissue massage, neuromuscular re-education, ultrasound to name a few.
PT can be utilized to treat Neurological, Geriatric, Vestibular, Orthopedic, Cardiovascular and pulmonary problems. In general, PT treatments are suitable for patients of any ages however Pediatric physical therapists ensure only the most suitable procedures are carried out on children.
When carried out by certified professionals can pose much less risk of adverse side effects than many medications. With that in mind, PT is commonly prescribed together with course/s of medication/s to improve efficacy and reduce recovery period.
If you’d like to find out more about what Physical Therapy can do for you, follow the link, and get in-touch with our experts today.
Occupational therapy aims to treat problems with physical and mental, developmental, as well as emotional ailments. It does so by employing the therapeutic use of activities or occupations, in order to familiarize the patient with common everyday occurrences and social interactions.
It is often prescribed as a treatment for children under the age of 18, who are displaying signs of cognitive delay, memory problems, a short attention span, low muscle tone and/or difficulty performing everyday tasks such as sitting down independently, washing and bathing, walking, running, and attending social, work and/or other social gatherings and events.
Occupational therapy is prescribed to patients’ who need to develop emotional stability, as well as the skills required to ensure daily living and holding down a job, becomes second nature instead of the daunting challenge it can appear to many individuals with developmental issues.
Speech therapy is typically carried out in patients early years, however, some speech problems can develop in later years, and since the way we learn changes as the brain develops, this may necessitate a different approach to speech therapy strategies based on age, type and severity of the problem.
Speech therapies are categories into six main types, each designed to treat problems with language, articulation & pronunciation, fluency, oral motor function, auditory verbal ability (help those with hearing loss understand the sounds, speech and visual/auditory cues they can still see and hear).
By utilizing one or more of these different techniques, speech therapy can help improve language and speaking proficiency for late talkers, children with Apraxia, those who have a stutter and/or aphasia, as well as those who have difficulty swallowing.
Behavioral therapy aims to treat mental health disorders, without the need for strong medications. By using a number of techniques behavioral therapies can treat addiction and substance use, depression & anxiety, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, eating disorders, insomnia, anti social behavior and borderline personality disorder. In addition BT has also been shown to treat chronic pain, fatigue, and general stress.
BT like most holistic treatments, removes the need of taking medication regularly, and in turn reducing, or completely eliminating the risk of side effects all together. It can, and is regularly, advised for people of all ages. However, it’s especially effective for children experiencing associated health problems between the ages of 2-5.
Music therapy is an alternative technique that, until recently had been lacking in medical research. However, thanks to developments in medical science, the field is proving more and more to posses effective benefits when it comes to improving congnitive function, overall mental well-being, and even PTSD.
With no side effects, or risk of adverse reaction, music therapy is safe and suitable for patients of any age.
You can think of music therapy as exercise for the mind. For example, studies have shown music can greatly improve the mood of those suffering with depression by aiding the release of dopamine, known for its pleasure inducing properties, and oxytocin, known as the love/trust neurotransmitter. Both can help us bond and socialize; major factors when it comes to treating mood disorders like depression.
Whilst listening to music activates the right side of the brain, physically playing music triggers both sides of the brain which provides exponential benefits by exercising and rebuilding these pathways in the brain that allow us to experience pleasure.
In a similar way music therapy can help improve overall mood and mental well-being, so too can drama therapy. Whilst music therapy helps to treat depression by training the brain of the individual, drama comparable effect can be put into practice with others, giving a more realistic take on sessions that can translate directly into everyday chores and activities.
Drama therapy provides real life context in which participants can express their feelings and emotions without fear of receiving an awkward response, or feeling that their actions are incorrect for the situation.
Just like music therapy, and unlike medication, drama therapy has zero risk of side effects, it’s also suitable for participants of any age. In addition, most patients genuinely enjoy drama sessions. They’re a great way to meet new friends whilst under the supervision of specialists who’re trained to help patients get the most out of sessions. Not to mention it’s fun and exciting for both young and old, and we all know you often get the best out of the things you enjoy the most.
Social Skills groups therapy is designed to help children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) by teaching them how to make friends, and how to act appropriately in social situations; two simple social tasts that can pose a huge challenge for a number of children with the developmental disorder.
Similarly to drama therapy, social skills groups aim to provide a comfortable, real world- learning environment for the participants. Where acting out roles in drama therapy might be daunting to some, learning how to act and respond to these social cues, surrounded by people faced with the same challenges, may offer a much more effective approach when attending social skills groups over drama therapy.
Typically geared to the younger generations with autism, social skills groups are most commonly prescribed for children between the ages 5-16.
Social Skills groups help children build healthy relationships with others by helping them better understand social rules such as manners, emotional regulation, and conflict resolution. This is typically achieved via the use of games, role-playing, light-hearted competition, singing, tapping rhythms and whole host of other fun activities.
Many children who are afflicted with a rare disease or a disease that has yet to be identified, require 24-hour support and care. Parents dedicate themselves, and there is no better person to do it. However, that means they must sacrifice their jobs and goals. We are there to guide parents through this commendable effort.
