One of the most frequent questions I get asked; how long will it take? How many sessions until there’s less pain, until there’s more movement, or until I can go back to activity?

So… let’s talk about the path to recovery.

How long have you had the problem?

If your injury is acute, sub-acute or chronic, this will affect the length of recovery. As a rule of thumb, the longer you have suffered from an injury, the longer it will take to remove the burden of pain and lack of movement.

As a rough guide, an acute injury (within the last month) would take approximately 4-6 weekly sessions, though you are likely to feel improvements each time. A chronic injury that has been a problem for many years is likely to need weekly sessions over the course of a 2-4 months. With chronic injuries, there is usually something causing the pain to be prolonged whether this be postural issues, gait problems or incorrect technique. I will closely examine these factors and carry out multiple assessments with you to ensure not only do we get rid of the pain, we stop it coming back.

What exactly is the problem?

Some injuries are more complex than others and there can be multiple directions of rehabilitation needed. Some of us have a single injury, others may have multiple layers of injury alongside living with conditions than can alter the way in which treatment is given.

People also differ on their perception of the problem. For example, everyone’s’ pain threshold is different and something that may be a slight niggle to some, may be a complete road bump in someone else’s day to day activities.

What are your goals, and are these time bound?

If you are someone who has goals to walk up the stairs unaided, compared to someone who wishes to be able to run a marathon in 8 weeks – treatment time is likely to differ. If you have time bound goals, it may be in your favour to have sessions twice weekly to increase manual therapy treatment time.

To answer the question…

Essentially, it’s not black and white to answer the question “How many sessions will I need?”. However, on your first visit, we will discuss a personalised rehabilitation and treatment plan that’s unique to you and has your goals in mind.

When they are “better”, many clients like to continue with sessions whether that be fortnightly or monthly, as routine maintenance for injury prevention.