Why does Vestibular Therapy make me Dizzy?

By Cheryl Wylie, MSc (PT)

So I'm seeing you for my dizziness, and your solution is to make me dizzy??? Head scratcher, I know, but...yes!

In vestibular therapy, we need to challenge our system in small ways to promote change. I like to use the analogy of learning to run.

If you currently don't run, and try to run 10km, you're going to feel like sh*t. So instead we train! We start at 2km, and it still hurts a little bit but it is manageable. Soon 2km will begin to feel easy, and when that happens we push and go a little further, until we can do a full 10km!

Vestibular therapy is the same as training. Right now, trying to live your every day life is like trying to run 10km. It makes you dizzy and it sucks so instead you stay on the couch. In therapy we show you how to "run 2km" for your vestibular system! You will feel dizzy at each challenge, the same way running would feel hard every time you went a little further.

But with small steps, you will make gains and get back to feeling like yourself again. And that is going to feel SO GOOD!