Pilates Rehabilitation is a term I see being offered as a service on many Pilates websites. As a rehabilitation professional I would interpret this as meaning that a particular studio sees clients with problems such as sports injuries, low back pain and possibly even with post-operative problems such as following knee surgery.
However on closer inspection the majority of studios offering Pilates rehabilitation, clinical or remedial Pilates do not appear to have staff that are qualified to work in this field. In fact it is obvious that this specialist field is outside their scope of practice.
Pilates training in the U.K is not regulated and few practitioners are qualified to work within a rehabilitation or remedial setting.
Rehabilitation Pilates Specialists - The Practice
Physiotherapist’s train for a minimum of 3 years and following graduation carry out up to two years of additional training in areas such as orthpaedics, musculoskeletal and neurological physiotherapy before specializing in an area such as neuromusculoskeletal physiotherapy. At this stage many also have specialist experience up to Masters level.
At The Practice clinical or remedial pilates is carried out by or under the supervision of physiotherapists who have all trained in clinical/remedial pilates. All our physiotherapists have post graduate qualifications in areas including musculoskeletal physiotherapy, chronic pain management and sports medicine.
The Practice is a multidisciplinary clinic and the physiotherapists and Pilates practitioners work as a team with the express goal of returning the client to optimum function in the sports, work or home environment.
If you are injured your first port of call should be to seek out a specialist such as a physiotherapist for assessment. They may well at some stage recommend Pilates rehabilitation as an aid to returning you to full fitness and may even liaise with a Pilates studio with regards to your programme.