From visit one
Pain
Find out what it actually is.
Positional and eye movement testing sorts out which kind of dizziness you have, and if it is BPPV, repositioning treatment starts in that very first visit.
What We Treat
Dizziness and vertigo treatment in Hillsborough.
The ceiling turning over when you roll onto your right side. The wooziness that finds you halfway down the cereal aisle. Vestibular rehab is one of Dr. Harris’s named specialties, and it starts with a cause-first evaluation, not wait and see.
Sound Familiar?
Does this sound like you?
- Rolling over in bed and watching the ceiling spin for twenty seconds
- Tipping your head back at the sink and having to grab the counter
- A grocery aisle full of patterns that makes the floor feel like it moved
- Reaching for the hallway wall at night without ever deciding to
- Turning quickly to answer someone and feeling half a second behind the room
- Turning down the ladder, the highway, the trip, because you can’t promise your head will cooperate
Two or more? Keep reading.
Why It Happens
Dizzy is a symptom. It has a source.
Dizziness isn’t one problem, which is exactly why it gets shrugged at so often. It’s usually one of a few very different things: loose crystals in the canals of your inner ear, which is BPPV, the kind that spins hard for under a minute when you roll over or look up. An inner ear that lost sensitivity on one side and never got recalibrated. A stiff, irritable upper neck, which makes you feel unsteady rather than spinning. Or a balance system that quietly stopped being challenged, so your eyes and your feet have been covering for it.
Those need completely different treatment, and telling them apart is the whole job of the first visit. A cause-first evaluation tests your eye movements, your positional responses, your neck and your balance instead of guessing. Medication that dulls the dizziness can get you through the worst days, but it doesn’t recalibrate anything, and leaning on it too long tends to slow the process down. Vestibular rehabilitation is a named specialty here, and it starts with knowing which of those you actually have.
The Honest Truth
Avoiding it is what keeps it going.
If you keep waiting
- You stop moving your head freely, and the system that recalibrates on input gets less of it
- The world shrinks: no ladder, no highway, no trip you already paid for
- Every grab at the banister chips away at the balance you were counting on
If you start this week
- Positional testing in visit one tells you whether this is BPPV or something else
- If it is BPPV, repositioning treatment can start in that same visit
- You get a plan with an endpoint: a real one, not an open tab of visits
Nobody regrets starting too early. Every week, someone in our clinic says they regret waiting.
How We Fix It
The same four phases. Built for your balance.
You’ve been managing it. Getting up slower, holding the rail, not mentioning it to anyone because you don’t want a conversation about whether you should still be driving. Every plan has an endpoint. Here’s what the four phases look like for dizziness and vertigo.
Once the pain settles
Prime
Retrain the system.
Gaze stabilization and graded habituation teach your brain to handle head movement again without the room lagging behind it.
Once motion returns
Perform
Make your balance trustworthy.
Balance and strength get rebuilt in the conditions that actually catch you out: uneven ground, low light, busy visual scenes, turning while you walk.
Before you are cleared
Prevent
Get your world back to full size.
Driving, stairs, the trail and the trip get tested before you go all-in, and you leave knowing exactly what to do if an episode ever returns: that’s the endpoint, not just another appointment.
Dr. Christian Harris takes the time to explain the mechanics behind the discomfort or pain I'm experiencing. This is very reassuring to me; knowing the source of my issues. He's a thoughtful practitioner. Couple this with the guided exercises he provides, I always feel better after a session with him.
Shared by Dany G. · Harris Physical Therapy patient
Before: symptoms nobody had explained the mechanics of
After: knowing the source, and feeling better after every session
Explained, then treated
Google review
Questions, Answered
What people ask before booking for dizziness.
Positional testing tells us. BPPV has a signature: a hard spin that begins a beat after your head moves, settles within about a minute, and produces very specific eye movements when you are placed in the position that triggers it. Dizziness from an inner ear that lost sensitivity, from a stiff neck, or from a balance system that stopped being challenged all look different under testing. That is why the first visit is testing before treatment. BPPV is treated by repositioning. The others are not, and guessing wastes months.
No referral. North Carolina has direct access, so you can be evaluated here without one. Two honest caveats: dizziness that arrives with new hearing loss, a severe headache, double vision, numbness or weakness belongs with a physician first, not a physical therapist, and if what we find on testing points somewhere medical, you will hear that plainly rather than be booked for another six weeks. For the far more common causes, the testing and the treatment both start here.
Briefly, sometimes, and on purpose. Repositioning treatment for BPPV can stir symptoms up while it is doing its job, and habituation exercises are built to provoke a mild version of what bothers you so your brain adapts to it. That is not the same as making things worse. The dose is set for you and adjusted as you go, one-on-one with a Doctor of Physical Therapy: a full 60 minutes at your evaluation, 45 focused minutes at every visit after.
Book Your Visit
Ready when you are.
Request a time and a real person calls you back. Not a phone tree, not ‘someone will reach out.’ Dr. Harris himself, with a plan.
- Hours Mon & Wed 7am–4pm · Tue & Thu 10am–6pm · Fri & Sat 7am–12pm · Sun closed
- (336) 214-5308 Prefer to talk now? Call us.
- Free 20-minute discovery call
5.0 · 72 Google reviews
Dr. Harris calls you back himself
Step 1 of 5
Request sent.
That’s the hard part done. We’ll call during business hours to lock in your time.
Visit Us
Care this good, this close.
Harris Physical Therapy and Wellness
- 360 Executive Ct Ste 101, Hillsborough, NC 27278
- (336) 214-5308
- Fax: (984) 316-4920
- admin@harrisphysicaltherapyandwellness.com
- Mon & Wed 7am–4pm · Tue & Thu 10am–6pm · Fri & Sat 7am–12pm · Sun closed