By: Michelle Alles
‘The Physio’ opened in January 2014 and over 2 years later is a sought after state-of-the-art centre, with physiotherapist Theruni Wijewardene and her team consisting of four other physiotherapists, a fitness instructor, a GP and an amazingly supportive husband who works tirelessly behind the scenes as her business partner. As we seat ourselves in Theruni’s office, the first thing I notice is that she sits on a silver gym ball instead of a chair and I ask her why. The Australian qualified expert replies with a smile that she’s a very active person and since she moves around the clinic so much, she doesn’t sit still for long periods of time, so this suffices.
Theruni has lived in Australia most of her life and was interested in sports from an early age. Since she also had a fascination with the science behind sports and the effects of it on the human body, physiotherapy seemed like a logical move toward her career choice, which lead her to read for a Bachelor of Science Degree in Sports Science and a Master’s in Physiotherapy. She returned to Sri Lanka six years ago and she started off her career in physiotherapy at Nawaloka and then decided to venture on her own. It’s been 2 ½ years since she opened the practice located at 30/63A, Longdon Place, Colombo 7 and Theruni helps patients with physical difficulties resulting from sports, injury, disability, strokes or ageing. She tells us that back and neck pains are quite common, as are knee and shoulder injuries. We agree that the main cause of this is definitely due to being seated at a desk in front of a computer for long periods of time. The ergonomics of most of the offices in the country are not optimal and Occupational Health and Safety measures are also overlooked, unlike in most of the other countries.
During the school sports meet season, Theruni also sees quite a few young athletes with injuries caused by sports. She notes that rugby players in particular come in with the most amount of injuries. “That is mostly because it is a sport where a lot of contact is involved, but every sport has its hazards in some way. My job is to help people with disabilities or injuries to overcome such physical barriers and improve their movement and function using exercises, manual therapy and electrotherapy in addition to giving advice and making them more aware of their condition and the basic measures that can be taken to prevent a recurrence of their pain.” Theruni explains that the treatment and methods at ‘The Physio’ place heavy emphasis on manual therapy which includes exercise, mobilisation techniques and other modalities to improve functions.
Moving on to the next phase of their practice, Theruni informs us that they will be introducing a Wellness Studio along with a gym which will help athletes work out under supervision when they are ready to get back to physical activity after an injury. Expecting most of her clients to be sports men/women, I ask the question and I learn that they range from 5 year olds with neck pain, 10 year old tennis players to the elderly. “Pain can be caused by many factors such as sports or incorrect posture while working, falling, how much stress one has at home or work, etc. there are many causative reasons. At the Wellness Centre, we are including a Pilates studio for clients because after an injury, it’s important to ease oneself back into their workout. We also will be providing our clients with relaxation technique options,” she informed us. “It’s all about making people understand what causes their pain, holistically addressing the issues. We see a lot of pain that’s related to stress and our next step is to help clients figure out what is the cause behind it and help them correct it; it’s giving people ways to understand how their mind affects their body. Lack of exercise is also a large reason; also different factors contribute to pain and no two cases are the same,” she stated.
At ‘The Physio’, what they are passionate about is educating their clients/patients as to what causes their pain, how to address the root cause and manage it and the best way to prevent the pain recurring. “We take a lot of time with our patients, get their history and background and do the assessments thoroughly. There are times we can’t cure pain 100%, but we can help them manage it in the future and prevent the use of pain killers – if we can’t handle the case with physiotherapy, we refer onwards to a physician,” Theruni said.
A mum to really cute and active 3 year old daughter, Theruni credits her husband as the driving force behind her success. “It really truly is Ishara’s support that allows me to work so freely because I know he has everything else covered (and I mean everything!) From Ahaana’s schedule to the dinner menu, to ensuring that all the staff are looked after, to making sure there’s enough toilet paper in the clinic! He really is amazing and it was his vision and his confidence in me that gave me the courage to open the practice in the first place. Every bit of success ‘The Physio’ has had in the last 2 ½ years, I can attribute directly to him.” Theruni concluded.