New physio clinic opens in Bridgwater

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This article was published 23/04/2021 (1860 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

When the option to expand a North Kildonan physiotherapy clinic to a site closer to his home came up, Carlos Ruiz jumped at the chance.

And jumping is something he does carefully, given the type of therapy he does for injured clients.

“I grew up in Fort Richmond, and always had a desire to open a clinic in the south end,” Ruiz said, adding he now lives in Riverview. “A few months before COVID picked up, we started looking around for a second location and took the opportunity to get into the Waverley West neighbourhood.”

Ruiz and co-owners Myles Willis and Chris Loewen recently opened Complete Physiotherapy at 1-395 Centre Street in Bridgwater. The staff includes another physiotherapist, Peter Sidhu, and a massage therapist.

The new clinic has nine treatment rooms, three private rooms and a gym, where the physiotherapists take their clients through activity-based therapeutic motions.

Ruiz said he takes a patient-centred approach and continues to further his education to provide the most current, evidence-based treatment.

“Strength is so important for so many activities, from sports to sitting at your desk in your home office,” he said. “When I meet with someone, I explain why their injury happened, and then focus on therapy that will help them feel better.”

His treatment plans consist of manual therapy and active exercise-based programs to empower his patients to take control of their own rehabilitation and encourage a more active lifestyle.

“You need to change your habits for a long-term solution,” Ruiz said. “The information I give to you has to be digestible, so I use non-medical terms. We also book enough time for the treatment and to allow people to get their questions answered.”

Social media and the internet contain a lot of information about how to recover from an injury, some of it correct, and some largely off-base, he said. “The advantage of seeing a physiotherapist is that we tailor our therapy to what you need for your injury,” he said.

Along with treating conditions like concussions, vestibular syndrome, strains and other injuries, the clinic also offers personal training for people who want to improve their strength and flexibility. “We have many patients who don’t like going to a gym,” he said. “We also do re-conditioning work for people recovering from things like car accidents.”

As spring progresses, Ruiz said the new clinic will start seeing more injuries related to people being outdoors. “We’ll see things like shin splints as people take up running. We’ll also see a lot more workplace injuries, such as construction injuries.”

The pandemic is literally a pain in the neck for many of his patients, too. “People are sitting at a table at their home office, on the couch with a TV tray or at the dining room table. This is furniture not meant to be used as office furniture,” Ruiz said. “We’re treating people who have headaches and back and neck pain from sitting all day, hunched over their computer.”

For more on Complete Therapy in Bridgwater, see completephysiotherapy.ca/home