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Authored by:
- AdventHealth University
Physical therapy professionals (also known as PTs) are integral to the health care field — helping patients recover and return to their daily lives sooner. With so many types of physical therapy careers available, it’s important to know where they differ and overlap to find the path that’s right for you.
Physical therapists are wholistic healers and critical problem-solvers. Patients might come in with a variety of issues that may at first seem disconnected, but the physical therapist’s job is to find commonalities between symptoms and look for underlying causes. They will then design and guide patients through care plans that involve physical movement and restoring function to ease the pain and address the real reasons behind the symptoms.
How do you know whether becoming a physical therapist is right for you? Read on to learn more about this ever-evolving field.
What Is Physical Therapy?
Physical therapy is a rehabilitative and preventative health care science focused on the treatment of disease and injury. Physical therapy professionals are experts in safe and effective movement and can prescribe exercise, hands-on care, and patient education to help their clients heal and live more comfortably.
Patients might see a physical therapist for issues such as:
- Chronic pain
- Lack of full movement or ability
- Sports injuries and injury prevention
- Chronic illnesses, including arthritis and diabetes
- Learning to use an artificial limb
- Physical rehabilitation after an accident, stroke, or surgery
Rather than use drugs or surgery to treat patients and clients, physical therapists will evaluate their patient’s condition and then implement a plan of care that usually involves techniques such as:
- Manual therapy
- Stretching
- Massage
- Therapeutic exercise
- Heat or cold therapy
- Physical rehabilitation using specialized equipment
- Recommending and teaching at-home exercises and stretches to continue the healing process
Types of Physical Therapy Treatments
We’ve talked about whether a career in physical therapy is right for you. Now, you might be wondering, “What types of physical therapy are there?”
If you are interested in specializing in a certain type of physical therapy treatment, you must first earn a Doctor of Physical Therapy degree and then complete a clinical residency or specialist certification.
While non-specialized doctors can practice elements of these types of physical therapy without completing a residency or certification program, PTs who have completed specialist programs are considered experts in the field.
Below, we’ll cover some of the most popular types of physical therapy and the skills necessary to practice them.
Pediatric Physical Therapy
Pediatric physical therapy is perfect for PTs who enjoy working with children and want to help them be as active and pain-free as possible. To specialize in pediatric PT, you’ll study the growth and mobility requirements of infants, toddlers, adolescent children, and teenagers.
Evaluating and treating children is vastly different from working with adults. An average pediatric physical therapy session looks and feels more like play. You’ll play games and monitor movements like running, balancing, and hopping.
Parents usually seek out PTs for children who don’t seem to be hitting the usual physical milestones for their age, such as crawling, walking, or handling objects. Other issues that a physical therapy professional might address include:
- Genetic conditions
- Congenital disabilities
- Severe injuries
- Head trauma
- Limb disabilities
Neurological Physical Therapy
The body’s movement is intricately connected to the brain. Unfortunately, this means that neurological conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease, strokes, cerebral palsy, and Parkinson’s can greatly restrict mobility and daily functioning. Injuries to and illnesses in the spinal cord can also lead to neurological disorders.
An average neurological physical therapy session involves intense movement and physical exercise. You need to be an especially compassionate and patient PT to work with clients suffering from neurological conditions, as the recovery process can be more frustrating for patients and may take longer than recovering from some physical injuries.
Physical therapy professionals specializing in neurological disorders use several methods to evaluate and treat patients, including:
- Gait/walking training
- Balance training
- Endurance training
- Therapeutic activities like rolling and sitting
- Vestibular therapy to help control eye and head movement
Geriatric Physical Therapy
As people continue to live longer, they are staying more active later in life than previous generations. This means they may experience more injuries and traumas that can impact their daily lives. Possible conditions include:
- Heart attacks
- Strokes
- Mobility-related injuries
- Osteoporosis
- Arthritis
- Chronic health disorders
When you practice geriatric physical therapy, you’ll typically work with patients who are 65 or older and are struggling with conditions negatively impacting their independence and mobility. As with neurological physical therapy, types of physical therapy treatments for geriatric patients usually involve specific exercises and physical rehabilitation stretches that address injuries or weakened muscles and joints.
Orthopedic Physical Therapy
Like generalist physical therapists, orthopedic PTs work to relieve chronic and temporary pain and help their patients recover faster. But orthopedic PTs can also focus on the musculoskeletal system — including ligaments, tendons, muscles, and bones — to work with patients recovering from orthopedic surgery.
As an orthopedic physical therapist, you will usually work with patients using more active types of physical therapy treatments to improve physical rehabilitation — such as strength training, joint mobilization, muscle stimulation, and deep tissue massage.
You might also use ultrasound and biofeedback to improve body functions. Because of the increased risks of accidents and overuse injuries associated with strength training machines and treadmills, you will provide active guidance as patients use equipment such as weights and treadmills to work on strengthening muscles and joints.
Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Physical Therapy
If you are interested in specializing in heart and lung health, a career as a cardiopulmonary PT would be ideal for you. Cardiovascular and pulmonary physical therapy (also known as cardiopulmonary physical therapy) helps patients improve their lungs and heart through effective breathing techniques and exercises under strictly monitored conditions.
Patients might seek out a doctor of physical therapy who specializes in cardiopulmonary treatments if they suffer or are recovering from:
- Asthma
- Emphysema
- Chronic bronchitis
- Heart failure or heart attacks
- Heart disease
- Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
You might also work with athletes who want to increase their endurance and improve their athletic abilities. As with orthopedic physical therapy treatment, you must be trained in specialized equipment and closely monitor patients as they use treadmills and lift weights.
The different types of physical therapy treatments you could administer include:
- Graded cardiovascular exercise while monitoring cardiac and pulmonary function
- Graded resistance exercises
- Breathing exercises
- Airway clearance techniques
- Soft tissue and joint mobilization exercises
Launch Your Physical Therapy Career at AdventHealth University
The first step to pursuing one of these types of physical therapy practice is to earn a Doctor of Physical Therapy degree that will let you build a strong foundation in the advanced skills needed to explore one or more of the subfields that interest you.
The Doctor of Physical Therapy program at AdventHealth University provides students with a faith-based approach to practicing to help patients regain their mobility and live healthier lives.
You’ll take rigorous classes taught by physical therapy faculty mentors who have decades of experience as practitioners, researchers, and educators. They specialize in subfields such as neurological disorders, orthopedic wellness, pediatrics, kinesiology, and athletic-related injuries, among many other areas. No matter which of the above types of physical therapy you are interested in practicing, our faculty can help you build the knowledge and skills to become an expert.
