What is Hydrotherapy?

Hydrotherapy involves immersion in water to stimulate a healing response in the body. It works through reducing the load on your joints and can serve as a strengthening method when exercises are prescribed by your MVP physiotherapist or exercise physiologist.

It is recognised as a low-impact and safe form of conservative treatment as it reduces the risk of falling in those who have limited mobility.

Who is it for?

Hydrotherapy is a suitable treatment modality for:

• Those in early stages of rehabilitation who are struggling to weight bear

• Those who have difficulty standing and doing conventional exercises on dry ground

• Those in post-operative stages with spinal, upper limb and lower limb conditions

There are some people who are unable to participate in hydrotherapy, including (but not limited to):

• Those with infections & open wounds

• Those with urinary incontinence

• Those with uncontrolled blood pressure

Please discuss with your physiotherapist or exercise physiologist whether hydrotherapy would be a suitable treatment for your condition.

How will hydrotherapy benefit you?

Reduce Pain

Being in water will reduce the weight load placed on your joints, which in many people will reduce the stresses that cause musculoskeletal pain. As well as experiencing this relief, this enables you to perform the necessary rehabilitation exercises to help you move and feel better long term.

Exercise Safely

The stabilising nature of exercising in water ensures that you can perform your exercises and practice sound movement patterns in a safe environment without stumbling or falling.

Improve Movement Patterns

When your body experiences pain, your movement patterns may adjust as a defense mechanism to protect yourself from the pain or from causing further aggravation.

Often these adjustments, such as a limp, can happen without you being fully aware of it. While in most cases, this is a good and natural part of the healing process, to make a full recovery, you will need to gradually adjust to a healthier movement pattern.

Due to the weight-reducing and stabilising effects of being in water, hydrotherapy allows you to resume better movement patterns during your recovery by reducing the strain that a healthy movement pattern may place on an injured joint.

Strengthen Muscles

Water pressure provides resistance while you move, allowing you to perform rehabilitation exercises that will strengthen your muscles surrounding your injured joints. This provides additional support and stability, reducing pain and reducing your risk of recurrence.

Where do you do hydrotherapy?

Here at MVP, we use Rackley Swimming Centres (either two doors down from our clinic in Hope Island at 12 Halcyon Way or Rugby Lane, Helensvale) for our hydrotherapy sessions.

The address for our Hope Island location is 8 Halcyon Way.

Can you use your health insurance?

If you have private health insurance, all you have to do is simply swipe your membership card each time you come in and, depending on your coverage, you may be eligible for partial coverage for the session. Rackleys also charges a small fee that you will have to pay to use their facility.

Where to from here?

The best thing to do now is to make an appointment with one of our physiotherapists, who will be able to assess, diagnose and commence treatment for your condition. 

You can then discuss with them whether hydrotherapy would be a suitable treatment modality for you, and they will be able to book you in with one of our physiotherapists or accredited exercise physiologists for a hydrotherapy session.