My sexual encounter with a physiotherapist.

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Yesterday morning at quarter to ten, I had my first physio. appointment. It went a bit like this:

I was sitting in the little room in my jeans, tank-top and sweater, freezing to death when the physiotherapist came in and introduced himself. His name was Randall.

He asked me a few questions regarding where the pain is, and how I’d classify the pain, etc. No big deal. Then he asked me to stand up so he could have me do a few stretches.

I bent to the sides and to the back as instructed when he cut in and said, “Wow! Are you ever flexible!” and asked that I take off my sweater. I assumed it was so he could see my back better, and complied.

As soon as the sweater was on the chair, he asked me to face him and touch my toes. This is when I thought, “WTF? There is NO way I am going to stand here perky nipped and bend over so you can look down my shirt!” So, I turned to the side. His response, “Well, I guess we can do it that way.”

A few minutes later he asked me to, on my hands and knees, get on the table. Once up there he instructed me to arch my back, then sag it (sticking my butt in the air). The second time he asked me to arch, he moved around behind me and asked that I let my back, again, sink into the opposite. With this, he said, “You have got a great sag!”

The next thing he asked me to do was lie on my back. Once I had, he started stretching my legs up and pushing them torwards my face. I was wondering what relevance this had to what I was there for, when he said it had none. He just “wanted to see”.

Once done my contortion performance he got me to lay on my side. With his hand on my back feeling the movement of my vertebrates, he moved my legs up and down, ever so slightly rubbing them across his manliness.

I have to go back in two weeks.

2

Meg! Don’t you hate it when the MD is cute? I had to change opticians once!

3

Mega, how old are you??? You know what, I don’t even care, there is now way that you ought to go back to that pervert!! Can you imagine what he’d try NEXT time, if you did come back?? However you got this guy’s name, I’d make sure they knew what happened, and I’m not sure where you live as to what the laws are there. But, this is no different than being fondled by a dentist when you’re under gas. This is just * wrong * and he needs to be reported to whatever agency would cover it. Whether it’s the AMA or just to the police.

If this really happened, I hope you take it seriously, you’re NOT the first and you won’t be the last, until he is stopped. He won’t stop himself. Please call someone about it, and you may need some help later to talk about it too. You are his patient, NOT his date.

4

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!
!!!AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!
!!!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAGHHHGGGG!!!

AAAHHHRRRRRRGGGGHHHHHHH!!!
AAGHGHGHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHAGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!
!!!

THATS WRONG!!!

5

I’ll just say this. You do not have to go back in two weeks.

6

I wouldn’t go back, and I really hope you don’t either. Trust your instinct on this.

7

No need to worry, I am certainly not going back to the same office, if I go back at all.

Anti Pro - I’m nineteen, and this is all true.

Rilchian - Believe me, there was NOTHING cute about this guy.

8

Roo, I apologize. In fact, I wonder if my post can be removed.

I was just skimming the board…I don’t know how I got the impression that he was cute. I take it back.

But I did have to change opticians, due to self-consciousness.

No, that is awful. Report him. Now.

9

???
What? No sense of adventure? Are you married or spoken for? If not, just think of the fun you could have with him!! Sew a few wild oats! Cripes, if I went for therapy and had a cute female therapist coming on to me, I’d accept! Just use protection!

Of course, if married or spoken for, then that places everything into another light.

(Some of my favorite memories are of some exciting, unexpected sexual encounters.)

10

Mega,

That is very disturbing and highly unprofessional.

How you were referred to this physical therapist? I’m assuming it was by a doctor. I would immediately go back to the doctor or whoever referred you to the therapist and report it to him or her. Get a referral to a different therapist and make sure that this guy isn’t referred again.

Does this guy work alone or is he part of a practice? I would report him to his employer.

I’m assuming that this guy is licensed. I would report him to the board that licenses physical therapists. (In the U.S. they would be state registered, but I don’t know how they are registered in Canada. Maybe you can check you province’s website under professional or medical licensing.)

In all cases, I would have my complaint in writing. Your description in this thread can be used with just a few modifications. I would replace the term “manliness” with something more clinical like “genitals”, and edit your sentence “This is when I thought ‘WTF . . . .’” to something like “I was concerned about my breasts being exposed from under my tank top when I bent over, so . . . .” I would also include the exact time, location and date (and the creep’s full name, if you have it). You may also want to review it to see if you can add any other relevant details.

Simply the act of handing (or faxing or e-mailing) a written description to the person to whom you are complaining will make your report much more credible and effective. It will also make clear how exactly he was unprofessional he was.

Assuming your physical therapy was prescribed for some condition, I would urge you to continue it. However, I would NOT continue to see any therapist that you feel uncomfortable with.

Good luck.

Bill

(And Sentinel, the most polite thing I can possibly say is your post is reprehensible and shows an appalling lack of judgment and consideration.)

11

First of all she said he wasn’t cute and second of all it was unwanted. I don’t think a “sense of adventure” is what she needed. This was blatant sexual harrassment and the doctor should be reported to whoever these kinds of things gets reported too. If that post was meant as a joke it wasnt really funny.

12

Not really. My old roommate wasn’t a physiotherapist; he was like a masseur/aromotherapist/general goofball type. He used to offer free buttock massages to his friends - male and female. The thing is, he tried to give the impression that he was strictly heterosexual. There’s nothing wrong with a male, straight or gay, giving another guy a massage, but this guy was a complete lecher and tried to seduce pretty much every female he massaged. It worked a couple of times. Okay, at least once.

Anyway, I too, had thought that this sexual encounter was of the positive kind, just based on my reading of the thread name. Reading the OP I found out I was wrong, but for the first coupla paragraphs I thought, “Hey, Mega the Roo doesn’t even sound like she likes this guy! When’s the romancin gonna start?” I got better.

13

I’ve been to a few physical therepists, and the bending the leg to your chin thing is to test your hip flexibility test, for whatever it’s worth.

Meg, if he’s making you feel uncomfortable, CHANGE DOCTORS. For no other reason than you have got to trust your physio 100%. Whether or not you make a formal complaint is up to you, but you will NOT get better unless you trust your caregiver. And he sounds like a creep.

14

mega,

Just let me know if you want me and a few of the guys here to come over and kick his ass :smiley:

Seriously: if the tests he let you do are in no way related to the problems you are having (they might be relevant, you didn’t tell us what you were in for), change physios AND file a complaint. That might stop him from doing it again.

15

What they are trying to point out to you mega is that often shrinks [yes, Ive seen a lot] are way more nuts than the patients’. You can get really bleeped up by them, especially like the one you have. It’s obvious that he was trying to seduce you & you should have got out as soon as he asked you to take off your sweater. Live & learn.

16

mega,
change physios, explain what happened to the new physio without mentioning the old physio and see what he says.

His comments were wrong, and what you describe seems really creepy…

17

Mega,

It’s irrelevant if the movements were related to your injury or not, his comments were out if line and the way you felt was valid. He should be reported, you should charge him. Just imagine what he might be like if a cute 13 or 14 year old comes in for physio, someone who may not be as level-headed as you? Kick his ass!

18

Handy et al:

I hate to be a stickler, but I have to point out that a physiotherapist (PT) is NOT a “shrink” (typically used to describe a Psychiatrist or Psychologist) nor are they M.D.s or doctors of any sort. Physiotherapists may have a bachelor’s degree or perhaps a master’s.

Manipulation of body parts is stock and trade for the PT, so the various stretches that were described in the OP don’t seem out of line in that context. Randall’s verbal responses do indeed sound odd, and any rubbing of a patient’s body parts over a PT’s “manliness” is strictly taboo. If that’s what happened, a written complaint featuring Randall’s behavior should be filed with the state licensing board immediately.

Eissclam.

19

Mega, if you’re uncomfortable with any healthcare provider, you should change to a different one. I don’t doubt you for a second that this really happened or that you were put in an uncomfortable situation. If you feel like you were being sexually harrassed, you should, by all means, report it to the physio’s licensing board.
That said, my husband is a physio and, just by what you’ve written here, it doesn’t sound like anything he did was out of the ordinary. A lot of times, people don’t realize that the pain in their arm may be caused by something going on in their neck, or that a certain problem in the back could show symptoms in the legs. My husband has to touch a lot of people in a lot of different places and, trust me, he’s not getting any thrills from it. He’s had to massage women’s chests, do deep tissue massages on elderly men’s butts, and a million other things that were in no way sexual but were purely for therapy purposes.
If his expressions, words, and other indicators that we can’t interpret on a message board were showing you that he really was being a lecher, go report him immediately. If you were uncomfortable just because you didn’t understand exactly why he was having you do certain exercises, you may want to think about it. Either way, if you were uncomfortable, switch physios.

20

Is it just me, or does C3’s name resemble a rear view of a naked person sitting down and bending over to touch his or her toes?