Hi there,

It is common practice to expose the area you are working on. In certain situations I feel too uncomfortable as a male therapist to have woman be in the position you mention and I try to work through a pair of shorts... to be fair, it's not as effective and I am not providing the best treatment I can.

You must remember of course that you have the right to stop therapy at any time if you are uncomfortable. Your best bet is to very casually say your last therapist let you keep your shorts on and that you've asked around and you know that what your therapist is doing is normal practice but it makes you uncomfortable and you find it hard to relax and you believe that it is affecting the therapy because of that... Which I'm sure isn't true, if you are uncomfortable and tensing while they are doing piriformis release or something like that then their therapy will not be as effective as it should.

Any half decent physio will understand and will respect your wishes. Don't be surprised if the physio says they need to do it to give you the best treatement they can... but it's your body and it's still your call.

I can only speak for the rights of a patient in NZ, now I'm sure they are the same in the UK, but google rights of patients in the UK and I'm sure you'll find something that will give you the courage to speak up.

Good luck with your discussion,
Pudding.