Relive Physiotherapy
2026-09-09T22:51:10.186Z
Given the overwhelmingly positive reviews, I had expected a very different experience. Unfortunately, my experience was nowhere near what the existing ratings would suggest.Back in January, I attended several sessions through Bupa for ongoing chest/back pain. Everyone was friendly and pleasant, but over the course of the treatment I gradually lost confidence in the advice I was being given.At one point I explained that the location of the pain had changed slightly and was told this was a good sign and meant things were improving. This didn’t make much sense to me as I wasn’t actually feeling any better overall and, if anything, my symptoms were becoming progressively worse.I was given resistance-band exercises to do at home, but I repeatedly struggled to understand whether I was doing them correctly or what I was supposed to be feeling. During the appointments I had, I was watched doing a couple of repetitions with bands, which wasn’t explained very well, and wasn’t given any feedback or correction on my form despite explaining that I didn’t feel the exercises were helping. I also explained that they appeared to be aggravating my symptoms, but was still advised to continue with them at home.Towards the end of another appointment I mentioned that I’d read online about thoracic extensions and thread-the-needle potentially helping with this type of problem. I was essentially told that I could try them, without being shown how to perform them, while the appointment was being wrapped up. This was particularly frustrating because the reason I was attending physiotherapy was to receive proper assessment and guidance rather than having to find potential exercises myself online.Across the sessions, treatment largely seemed to consist of relatively light massage, with very little reassessment despite me repeatedly explaining that I wasn’t improving. By my fourth session I was actually in more pain and it was affecting my movement. It was only around this point that pursuing a scan through Bupa was discussed.I ultimately chose not to attend my final session. By that stage I didn’t feel that what I was saying about my symptoms was really being listened to, and I was becoming worse each time I returned rather than seeing any improvement. I therefore couldn’t see any benefit in continuing with the same approach.I completely understand that physiotherapy isn’t guaranteed to resolve every problem, and my criticism isn’t simply that the treatment didn’t work. My issue was the apparent lack of reassessment when it wasn’t working, limited guidance on whether I was performing the exercises correctly, and the lack of any meaningful change in approach when I reported that my symptoms were worsening.The staff were friendly throughout, but unfortunately I came away feeling that the treatment had been quite superficial and that my concerns weren’t being properly investigated. Based solely on the overall treatment I received and the outcome of the sessions I attended, I genuinely couldn’t justify giving more than one star. I wouldn’t return or recommend relive.
Given the overwhelmingly positive reviews, I had expected a very different experience. Unfortunately, my experience was nowhere near what the existing... More