When you start looking for a therapy or treatment you will come across many that claim to combat RSI. However, there is no single treatment that is suitable and/or effective for everyone. And indeed it is not yet clear which therapies are successful. That's why is there is a general call for more research to be carried out into the efficacy of the various treatments. People's experiences and results differ greatly; what seems to help one patient can have the opposite effect on another.

Here are a few general tips to help you choose a treatment method.

• Physiotherapy or a postural therapy such as Cesar or Mensendieck is generally a good place to start. These types of treatment are covered by most types of health insurance (ziekenfonds). The number of treatment you are eligible for depends on your health insurance fund. If you suffer severe RSI than a rehabilitation centre (revalidatiecentrum) is probably the best place to get this type of treatment.
• Depending on the results and how the symptoms develop you could, after a while, start additional methods, for example dealing with posture, exercise, relaxation or massage. Choose a therapy that suits you personally and which you really think will make an effective contribution to improvement.
• Sometimes it can be a good idea to have several therapies at the same time. Consider whether this is sensible, however, depending on your physical state. It can also be difficult to tell what has actually helped if you follow several therapies at once. You should also bear in mind that many insurers are not prepared to reimburse you for more than one treatment at a time. Discuss the possibilities with your therapist. You should also let your therapist know what therapies you are following elsewhere and discuss these with him or her.
• Too much shopping around for treatment can have two disadvantages. First, you need sufficient time to be able to judge whether a treatment is helping. And secondly, it requires a lot of energy, particularly in dealing with disappointment if it doesn't have the required result. And making economic use of the energy you have is an important condition for recovery.
• There is no point continuing a treatment if it isn't helping, if you don't like it or if it's making your symptoms worse. Stop and look elsewhere. The chapter on treatment methods contains an exhaustive list of possibilities.
• Finally, RSI has become big business over the last few years. Some companies and persons claim to have the only genuine proven solution to RSI. Although it's good that increasing attention is being paid to developing better equipment and aids, you cannot solve such a complex problem with one approach. You need to deal with each of the various different factors involved.