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As complementary medicine becomes more mainstream and less of a fringe medical option, the number of practitioners for you to choose from also increases. There are now about tens of thousands of “alternative” practitioners in the United States, with some of the highest concentration of weirdos right here in west Los Angeles. As a potential patient, how do you choose the practitioner that’s right for you?
Here at Rapid Relief, we believe that your relationship with your practitioner is every bit as important to the healing process as your practitioner’s skill with his or her modality of choice. You may go to several different physical therapists who employ the same techniques, perhaps even use the same modalities, but with one you experience a much greater improvement than with others. Why is this? Our experience in practice tells us that, beyond technique or modality selection or even placebo effect, a patient’s ability to feel comforted, heard, and understood by his or her practitioner–good rapport–is essential to a positive outcome. We pride ourselves on taking the time necessary to hear you out, to really connect, person-to-person, and tailor our treatment to your individual needs.
Philosophically, we’re a little bit different from other clinics you may have been to, for physical therapy or otherwise. We expect you to take an active role in your treatment, to be curious, and to do some homework. We expect results, and quickly. If we don’t get them, we’ll be happy to refer you to someone whom we believe is better equipped to do so. In that vein, we also believe that no healing approach is superior to any other; each is appropriate for a given situation and to a different degree. We are happy to work with you and your other practitioners to find the right mix of treatment options to meet your specific needs. We work extensively with other physical therapists, medical doctors, chiropractors, massage therapists, cranio-sacral workers, and others who may complement what we do.
Most of those currently practicing medicine were trained in what we like to call “mainstream clinical medicine,” the standards developed by the current governing bodies of western medicine. While we were trained and tested in these methods as well, we are primarily informed by styles of practice learned through our mentors and the experiential education we receive from them. We see medicine as an art as much as a science; as a sociological experience as much as a scientific one. As such, the concept of a medical “practice” is quite a literal interpretation of what we do: Every interaction, every view of a given condition, is a unique opportunity not only for you to learn about the wisdom of medical practices, but for us to learn about your uniqueness in the context of your reasons for seeing us. Because to us, a medical practice is every bit as much a meditation on being human as it is a chance for healing and change.
(For more on our beliefs, click here.)