How do I find a good physical therapist for back and neck pain?

There are a wide variety of disciplines and skill sets in Physical Therapy, especially in spine care. You will need to find a Physical Therapist that will devote time to comprehenisvely assess your pain as there are a multitude of factors that can cause your back and neck pain. Ideally, a good Physical Therapist will be able to combine high-level manual therapy techniques to improve soft-tissue or joint restrictions and pain, and integrate proper exercise and movement pattern training to re-educate the patient to return back to their functional / recreational goals.

One good website to find a qualified Physical Therapist is www.aaompt.org. Look under "Find-a-Fellow". AAOMPT is the American Academy of Orthopaedic Manual Physical Therapists. Fellows of this Academy are typically considered higher level trained therapists, that on the most part should be able to properly treat your dysfunction.

Look at the website and "Find-a-Fellow" that is close to you georgraphic location.

Good question! Back and neck pain are typically difficult to treat for most practitioners. There are many approaches practitioners use to attempt to fix back and neck pain. I think the inherent problem here is that, as a layperson, you will not understand the language or concepts therapists use when teaching you about their approach. So, everyone will sound like they have the right answer. And everyone does have the right answer--if your particular root problems match that practitioner's skill set.

Each practitioner will have an approach that seems to work for their set of patients. Some will believe manual therapy, where your joints may be adjusted, is the answer. While others fix their patients through specific exercises such as Somatics, Pilates, or Feldenkrais. Still others may use acupuncture.

Given this scenario, I think the best way to approach your pain is to ask your friends or colleagues who they've used to help their pain. After all, chances are you know several people who have or had pain. You can weed out people who need to return again and again to their practitioner as this usually means their symptoms are being treated rather than the root cause.

Once you have a list of a few people, schedule a phone interview and ask them questions about how they plan to work with you. Will you see them only? How many sessions do they anticipate? What kind of modalities will they be using if any? Will you be able to do the things you love to do? How do they plan to help you become independent and pain free as soon as possible? You will get a feel for the person you'd most like to work with. Then begin. If you don't see results after a couple sessions, be sure to communicate this with your therapist. Give them a chance to adjust your treatment. If your pain still isn't improving after 4 or 5 sessions then it may be time to move on to another practitioner.