Aquatic Therapy

Pain can at times be so significant that it impairs your ability to tolerate the movement and strengthening that you need to do in order to reduce your pain. It is a vicious cycle, but one that aquatic therapy can get you out of.

Aquatic therapy is essentially physical therapy in the water, which has many therapeutic qualities difficult or impossible to replicate on land. The buoyancy water supplies allows us to provide earlier intervention for faster symptom relief. It unloads your joints, making activities that are unbearable on land, such as walking or lifting up your arm, considerably more tolerable. Buoyancy also acts to resist your movements, assisting in strengthening your muscles. Due to the viscosity of water, increasing the speed of a movement increases the resistance to that movement. The hydrostatic pressure of water exerts a circumferential force around the surface of your body to decrease swelling. Finally, the warmth of the pool can increase circulation and therefore promote faster healing.

Our therapists will use equipment to aid in your buoyancy such as paddle boards, water “weights,” pool noodles, and more. Additionally, often times our therapists find the pool to be an excellent environment in which to perform various manual techniques to further reduce your symptoms.

Aquatic therapy may be a beneficial intervention for the following conditions:

• arthritis

• total joint replacement or other Orthopedic surgery

• balance dysfunction

• neurological conditions

• chronic pain such as Fibromyalgia

At Healing Motion, we have invested a lot of effort into maintaining a great relationship with the Clemens Community Pool, a local facility less than a mile away from our Philomath clinic. We reserve appointments regularly and yes, we can still bill your insurance for physical therapy services provided in the pool.

Before scheduling aquatic therapy sessions, it is important that you are first evaluated by a physical therapist on land to ensure that you are a good candidate. Open wounds, fever, infection, and uncontrolled bladder or bowel are examples of conditions that would preclude you from participating in our aquatic program.

To find out more about the Clemens Community Pool, click here.