Most people are not nervous about physiotherapy itself. They are nervous about being asked to do something that hurts, in a room with someone they have never met, without knowing whether they are allowed to stop.
You are allowed to stop. That is the short answer and it is worth having before anything else. A first physiotherapy appointment is mostly talking. Expect 20 to 40 minutes of questions before anyone asks you to move, and expect the whole visit to run 45 minutes to an hour. Nobody is going to push you into a movement you have not agreed to.
What happens at your first physiotherapy appointment?
You arrive, you fill in forms and you wait a few minutes. The forms ask for your health card, your contact details and how the appointment is being paid for. If you are covered through a motor vehicle claim or a workplace claim, bring the claim number, the adjuster or case manager name and any approval letter you have received. Clinics deal with this constantly. Handing over a claim number is normal and does not change how you are treated.
A physiotherapist collects you from the waiting area and takes you to a treatment room or a curtained bay. The first thing that happens is a conversation, not an examination.
How long does a physiotherapy appointment take?
A first assessment usually runs 45 minutes to an hour. Follow-up appointments are shorter, commonly 30 to 45 minutes, and often involve a mix of hands-on treatment and exercises you work through in the clinic.
If you are worried about how long you can sit, stand or stay focused, say so when you book. Clinics can schedule you at a quieter time or build in breaks. This is an ordinary request.
What will the physiotherapist ask you?
More than you expect, and in more detail than anyone has asked you so far. The questions usually cover:
- What happened, in your own words, including the position your body was in
- When the pain started, which is often not the same day as the injury
- Where it hurts, and whether it travels anywhere else
- What the pain feels like, sharp, aching, burning, tingling, heavy
- What makes it worse and what makes it better
- How you are sleeping
- What you can no longer do that you could do before
- Past injuries to the same area, previous surgeries, other health conditions and medications
That last group of questions unsettles people. Mentioning a shoulder problem from six years ago can feel like handing over ammunition. It is the opposite. A physiotherapist who knows your history can tell what is new, and a record that acknowledges an old injury from the start is stronger than one that appears to have hidden it.
The question that trips people up is the one about function. "Better" and "worse" tell a clinician very little. "I could carry my daughter up the stairs before and now I cannot manage the laundry basket" tells them a great deal, and it is the kind of sentence that ends up quoted in a report.
What does the physical assessment involve?
After the questions, the physiotherapist looks at how you move. Expect some combination of these.
Observation. Watching how you stand, sit, walk and turn. This starts before you notice it, often while you are still talking.
Range of motion. Being asked to move a joint as far as it comfortably goes, sometimes with the therapist moving the limb for you. They are measuring where the movement stops and why.
Strength testing. Pushing or pulling against the therapist's hand while they resist.
Palpation. Pressing on muscles and joints to find what is tender. This is the part most likely to produce a sharp response, and the part where people tend to stay quiet when they should not.
Functional tests. Squatting, reaching overhead, climbing a step, gripping something.
You may be asked to remove outer clothing so the therapist can see the area. You can ask for a gown, a sheet, a private room or a therapist of a particular gender, and you can ask for the door to stay closed. You do not need a reason for any of these requests.
Are you allowed to say it hurts?
Yes, and staying quiet is a common mistake people make in that room.
Many of us were raised to be good patients, which we understood to mean tolerating things without complaint. In an injury assessment that instinct works against you twice. The therapist loses the information they need in order to treat you properly, and the note that goes into your file records a range of motion you achieved by gritting your teeth rather than the one you can actually use tomorrow.
Say it while it is happening rather than afterwards. Useful phrases: "that is a seven out of ten," "stop there," "that one is sharp, the other one was dull," "I can do that once, I could not do it ten times."
You can also stop entirely. You can ask what a test is for before you agree to it. You can say you would like to try again next week instead. None of this makes you difficult and none of it counts against your claim.
You will be asked to remember all of this.
At the next appointment, and again at the one after, and eventually by someone deciding your file from paper. The two guides are where you keep it, so the answer is written down rather than reconstructed. $49 for both.
Can you bring someone with you to a physiotherapy appointment?
Yes. You are entitled to bring a partner, a friend, a family member or an interpreter, and you do not have to ask permission in advance, though the clinic will appreciate knowing.
Bring someone if you are in a lot of pain, if English or French is not your first language, if you struggle to remember conversations afterwards or if you find medical appointments intimidating. A second person hears what you miss, which matters when you are being given exercises and instructions while your body hurts.
What happens at the end of the appointment?
The physiotherapist explains what they think is going on, proposes a plan and usually gives you exercises to do at home. Ask them to write the exercises down or send them, and ask how often, how many and what you should feel while doing them. Ask what you should not do.
You will be told roughly how many sessions they expect and how often to come. If your treatment is being funded through an insurance or compensation claim, the clinic normally submits a treatment plan for approval and you may wait for a decision before continuing.
Before you leave, ask two questions that people rarely think of on the day. What should I do if something gets worse between now and my next appointment? Can I get a copy of the assessment report?
What is different when your physiotherapy is paid by a claim?
Everything above is the same whether you are paying privately or through an insurer. Three things are not, and they rarely get explained because most guidance on physiotherapy is written for people deciding whether to book.
Your treatment is approved in blocks rather than continuing until you are better. The clinic submits a plan, the insurer or the board approves a set amount, and when that runs out somebody has to ask for more. Ask at your first visit what your limit is and how much of it assessments and reporting will use, because the answer surprises people.
Your clinical notes double as an insurance document. What you report and what gets measured are recorded separately, and funding decisions lean on the measured half. What you say out loud is the only route your daily life has into that file.
Your attendance is recorded. A missed session with no reason attached reads as either recovery or non-compliance, and both can reduce benefits. If you cannot make one, phone the clinic, give the reason and ask that the reason be noted rather than only the absence.
Two companion articles go deeper: how many physio sessions you actually get after a car accident and what a physiotherapist writes in their report.
What should you write down after a physiotherapy appointment?
Sit in the car or on the bus for five minutes before you drive off. This is the moment when the detail is sharpest and the moment it starts to disappear.
Record six things:
- The date, the clinic and the name of the therapist you saw
- What they tested and what they found, in your own words
- Anything they said about your recovery, timelines or restrictions
- Which movements hurt, where and how much out of ten
- The exercises you were given, how many and how often
- What you were told to do next, and by when
Do this after every appointment, not only the first. Six months from now, an adjuster, a case manager, a lawyer or a specialist will ask you to describe a recovery you lived through one day at a time. Memory turns twenty appointments into a blur. A page per visit turns them back into evidence.
This is the whole reason Hurt Square exists. The Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation Tracker, Free Starter Edition gives you a structured page for your next session so nothing depends on what you happen to remember afterwards. The Comprehensive Edition carries you through a full course of treatment.
Read next
- How many physio sessions do you get after a car accident
- What a physiotherapist writes in their report
- How to document injuries after a car accident
Last verified August 2026. This article is general information for people in Canada and is not medical or legal advice.
