When I went to physical therapy it consisted of them just teaching me stretches, all of which I could just find online. Is this the normal experience?
The best ones I've seen were both athletes who succumbed to back injuries. But there must be good PTs who learned by the book too... I hope.
There was a study in the UK where 90% of back pain goes away in 1 year, so they advised against any surgery. Of course this was in the UK so they couldn't get surgery within a year.