Parkinson’s Disease
A progressive condition of movement — but one where the right treatment, chosen at the right stage, can return years of independence.
Treatment
Physical Therapy & Rehabilitation
The treatment that continues after everyone else has finished. Surgery and medication change what the body can do; rehabilitation decides how much of it you actually get back.
Why rehabilitation is not optional
In movement disorders, exercise is not general health advice — it is treatment. Structured, movement-disorder-specific rehabilitation improves gait, balance and confidence in ways medication alone does not, and it addresses precisely the symptoms that surgery tends not to help: postural instability, freezing, and the fear of falling that follows a first fall.
The pattern we see most often is avoidance. Movement becomes effortful, so the person moves less; moving less costs strength and balance; and the condition appears to progress faster than it is. Breaking that loop early is worth more than any single intervention we can offer later.
What we work on
- Gait — stride length, arm swing, turning, and strategies for freezing episodes
- Balance and fall prevention, including how to fall more safely and how to get up
- Amplitude training — deliberately large movements to counter the shrinking that defines bradykinesia
- Posture and flexibility, particularly the forward stoop and the pull of cervical dystonia
- Strength, so that transfers and stairs stay possible
- Speech and swallowing, with a speech therapist where voice has become quiet or unreliable
- Occupational therapy — adapted utensils, home layout, dressing and writing strategies
Before and after surgery
Patients who arrive for DBS or MRgFUS in reasonable physical condition recover faster and get more from the procedure. Where there is time before travel, we set a preparation programme that can be done at home.
After surgery, rehabilitation runs in parallel with device programming during the three to four week stay. This matters more than it sounds: when stimulation removes a tremor that has been present for a decade, the patient has to relearn tasks they had adapted around. The hand works; the habits have to catch up.
Continuing at home
You leave with a written programme, video of each exercise performed correctly, and a schedule. Progress is reviewed at the same remote follow-up points as the rest of your care, and the programme is adjusted rather than repeated indefinitely.
Where you have a physiotherapist at home, we write to them directly with the assessment and the plan.
Conditions treated
Frequently asked questions
Is it too late to start rehabilitation?
Almost never. The goals change with stage — from performance and endurance early on to safety, transfers and independence later — but there is a useful programme at every point.
How much exercise is enough?
Consistency matters more than intensity. A programme done most days for a modest period beats an ambitious plan abandoned in a fortnight — and we will set the programme accordingly.
Not sure where to start?
Send us your reports and a short note. A coordinator replies within one working day — no cost, no obligation.