Physical therapy or physiotherapy is a branch of rehabilitative medicine aimed at helping patients maintain, recover or improve their physical abilities.
Physical therapy also means the treatment of any pain, disease, or injury by physical means
Physical therapists or physiotherapists work with patients whose movements may be undermined by aging, disease, environmental factors, or sporting hazards.
Physical therapy is:
1. The treatment of pain, disease, or injury by physical means.
2. The profession concerned with promotion of health, with prevention of physical disabilities, with evaluation and rehabilitation of persons disabled by pain, disease, or injury, and with treatment by physical therapeutic measures as opposed to medical, surgical, or radiologic measures.
A physical therapist seeks to identify and maximize quality of life and movement potential through prevention, intervention (treatment), promotion, habilitation, and rehabilitation.
Habilitation means making somebody fit or capable of doing something.
Rehabilitation means making somebody fit or capable of doing something they can no longer do properly or at all, but used to be able to – i.e. restoring an ability or abilities.
Promotion means the process of enabling people to increase control over and improve their health.