Two licenses, one overlap, and a building that holds only one of them
People compare a chiropractor with a physical therapist because both offices talk about movement, both hand you exercises, and both see backs, necks, knees, and shoulders. The comparison is fair. The conclusion is not that the jobs are aliases. They are separate licensed professions with different core training. Some patients appropriately see both, sometimes in the same month, for different pieces of the same problem. This page is the education version of that sentence.
Richter Family Chiropractic is a chiropractic office. It publishes a physiotherapy page and a chiropractic care page. Physiotherapy offered inside this practice is care delivered in a chiropractic clinic. It is not a claim that the office holds a physical therapy clinic license, and it is not a claim that the doctors are physical therapists. If you need a practitioner whose license letters are PT, that is a different appointment, with a different board. Saying so up front is more useful than a soft blend of the two titles.
The frame marked for photography is an empty exercise bay. No patient is in it. Equipment without a person is the right picture until a real shoot exists, and it matches the point: the room is not the license.
What the federal handbook says each profession studies
The Bureau of Labor Statistics describes chiropractors (opens in a new tab) as clinicians who enter practice with a Doctor of Chiropractic degree. That program is about four years and follows at least three years of undergraduate study. A state license comes after the degree. The handbook's pay figure is a wage for the worker. It is not a visit price, and it is not quoted here.
The same agency describes physical therapists (opens in a new tab) as clinicians who need a doctoral degree to enter the field and a state license to practice. The degree in current training is a Doctor of Physical Therapy. Older clinicians may hold an earlier degree that was the standard when they trained. The handbook, not a clinic advertisement, is the right place for that national picture. Again, the wage column is not your bill.
Those two paragraphs are the cleanest public comparison available without inventing curricula. Both roads are doctoral and licensed. They are not the same curriculum. Chiropractic education centers on spinal and extremity joint assessment and on the adjustment, and it includes diagnosis sufficient to know when not to adjust. Physical therapy education centers on restoring movement and function through exercise, manual therapy, and measured return to activity. Each program teaches pieces of the other profession's daily work. The center of gravity is different. A weekend course does not turn one license into the other.
Who licenses the work in California
National handbooks do not issue California licenses. Two boards do.
The California Board of Chiropractic Examiners (opens in a new tab) licenses chiropractors. Dr. Matthew Richter and Dr. William Choi practice under that license. Dr. Richter completed the chiropractic degree at Los Angeles College of Chiropractic in 1997 and has been in practice more than 29 years. He is certified in Class IV laser and in spinal decompression, and he previously taught as resident faculty at Concordia University Irvine. Dr. Choi completed the chiropractic degree at Southern California University of Health Sciences after a kinesiology degree at San Diego State, and he practices Diversified technique. Those are chiropractic credentials. They are not physical therapy licenses, and this page does not add another title to either doctor.
The Physical Therapy Board of California (opens in a new tab) licenses physical therapists and physical therapist assistants. This office does not point to a PTBC license for its physiotherapy services. If a page, an ad, or a conversation ever implies otherwise, ask the blunt question: which license will be in the room. A straight answer protects you. A fuzzy answer is a reason to pause.
What "both" looks like when it is actually appropriate
Seeing both professions is not disloyal to either one. A person recovering from a knee surgery may need a physical therapist to progress the protocol the surgeon wrote, and may also want a chiropractor to look at the back and hip that started hurting because the gait changed. A runner with heel pain may do loaded calf work with one clinician and have the joints above the foot examined by another. The mistake is stacking visits with no one reading the other's notes, so you do the same bridge exercise in two buildings and never talk about the joint that will not move.
If you already have a physical therapist, say so at the exam. Bring the home program. A good plan will not casually throw that program out. If you do not have one, and the findings call for rehabilitation that this office provides as physiotherapy, the doctor should say what will happen in the building and what would be better under a PT license. The knee guide is one place that kind of boundary shows up in a specific joint. It is not a promise that every knee stays out of an operating room.
How an exam here decides, without borrowing the other title
The first appointment is an examination by a chiropractor. History, a hands-on exam, and X-rays if they are indicated. The second appointment is the report: what was found, whether this office can help, and what the care would be. That order is written up on your first visit. An adjustment on day one happens only when the doctor judges it appropriate. Exercise, decompression, laser, or shockwave are later decisions, not a bundle you buy to skip the exam.
Physiotherapy in this setting means the movement and soft-tissue work the chiropractic practice offers under its own license. It can sit beside an adjustment when the exam says the tissues need load, not only a joint change. It does not convert the visit into a physical therapy claim for insurance purposes. Plans often pay those two licenses under different benefits. Ask the desk which benefit, if any, it has actually verified. The safety page covers warning signs that should send you to an emergency department before either profession gets a routine appointment.
Frequency is also not copied from a stock physical-therapy protocol. There is no universal calendar. How often someone is seen is set after the exam and rewritten when findings change, which is the whole argument of how often you should go. A phrase like three times a week for a fixed season is not this office's published plan, and it should not be borrowed from a neighbor's post-operative sheet either.
Questions worth asking each office
Use the same list in both buildings. You will hear different answers, and that is the point.
Who will put hands on me, and which license does that person hold. What is the goal for the next two weeks, in a function I can notice, such as walking to the car or sleeping through the night. What am I supposed to do at home, and what should I stop doing. How will we know this is not working. Who else should be on the team, including a physical therapist, a physician, or no one further.
Write the answers in the notes app before you leave the parking lot. If one office speaks about the other with contempt, treat that as a quality problem. Bodies are allowed to need more than one kind of training. Professionals are allowed to stay inside the license they actually have.
Search pages sometimes blend this comparison with a local physical-therapy hunt. The hunt can be reasonable. It is a different search from the question of what this chiropractic office is staffed and licensed to do. Start from the license, then decide whether you want one of these appointments, both, or a physician visit first because the symptoms are outside either scope.
Questions people ask
Is a chiropractor the same kind of license as a physical therapist?
No. Both paths are doctoral and state-licensed, and both may use exercise. Chiropractic training centers on joint assessment and adjustment, with diagnosis enough to know when not to adjust. Physical therapy training centers on restoring movement and function, often while progressing a medical or surgical plan. Each school teaches pieces of the other daily work. That overlap does not merge the licenses. If a clinic blends the job titles, ask which license will be in the room. The letters after the name are the comparison.
Does this clinic hold a physical therapy license?
It does not claim one. Physiotherapy here is a service inside a chiropractic practice, next to chiropractic care, not a statement that the doctors are physical therapists. Dr. Richter and Dr. Choi are chiropractors under the chiropractic board. The Physical Therapy Board of California licenses a different profession. Similar exercise instruction does not make the visits interchangeable on an insurance form. If you specifically need a PT in the room, book that license on purpose instead of hoping the word physiotherapy covers it.
Is it reasonable to see both?
Often, yes, when the jobs do not duplicate. Someone protecting a post-surgical knee protocol with a physical therapist may still want a chiropractor to examine a back or hip that flared because walking changed. Bring each office the home program from the other so you are not repeating the same drill while the stiff joint is ignored. Hostility between the two offices is a reason to be cautious. Needing two kinds of training is ordinary. Tell each clinician who else is involved.
Do health plans pay both professions the same way?
Usually they do not. Visit limits, referrals, and copays often sit on different benefits. This office can report what it has verified for its own services. It cannot promise how a physical therapy clinic will be paid, and that clinic cannot promise this one. Ask each desk which benefit was actually checked. Medicare's chiropractic benefit is a narrow rule about spinal manipulation. It is not a physical therapy benefit. One card in your wallet can treat the two appointments as unrelated lines.
Which profession has the longer education?
The federal handbook describes both as a doctoral degree plus a state license, so the rumor that one is a weekend course is wrong. Chiropractic programs run about four years after at least three undergraduate years. Physical therapists need a doctoral degree to enter practice now, and some clinicians hold the earlier degree that was standard when they graduated. Those facts do not pick a winner for your knee or your neck. Match the license to the problem, then judge the exam you actually received.
Sources
- Chiropractors — U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook
- Physical Therapists — U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook
- California Board of Chiropractic Examiners — State of California
- Physical Therapy Board of California — State of California
General education from Richter Family Chiropractic, not a personal diagnosis or a promise of results. Individual results vary. Chest pain, trouble breathing, sudden weakness, or loss of bowel or bladder control needs emergency care, not this page.
Waiting on the clinic
- Medical sign-off. Dr. Matthew Richter, DC still needs to review and sign this page. Until that date is recorded, treat the page as a draft for clinical review, not as signed medical advice.
- Doctor's own words. A short recorded statement from Dr. Richter or Dr. Choi belongs here. Do not publish a quote until one of them says it on the record.
- Clinic photo still needed. The marked frame is waiting on a real photograph from the office. No stand-in patient or treatment photo will be generated.
Canonical URL: https://guide.richterfamilychiro.com/chiropractor-vs-physical-therapist. This page does not redirect.