Athletic therapists are specialists in assessing, treating, and rehabilitating patients with various orthopaedic conditions. This is done through a combination of manual treatment and rehabilitative exercise.

Before being certified by the Canadian Athletic Therapists Association, athletic therapists must complete a four year degree in Athletic and Exercise Therapy with a minimum of 1200 hours of field and clinical placement work completed. This degree is entirely focused on orthopedics, which is the study of the musculoskeletal system. This system consists of muscles, bones, joints, ligaments, and tendons.

After certification athletic therapists generally choose to work in one of two, or a combination of both, of the following realms - either in the field with sports teams and athletes, or in a clinical setting working with the general public.

So what is the difference between athletic therapy and physiotherapy? Unless you work in a hospital or other medical centre you likely don't know that physiotherapists work in respiratory, cancer, and cardiac wards, among others. The education and scope of practice of a physiotherapist is much broader than just orthopaedics and just like athletic therapists, physiotherapists choose which realm they work in, and many of them choose to treat orthopaedic conditions in private clinics around our communities just like athletic therapists do.

So what does this mean for you and how do you decide whether to book in at Total Health? Read on...