If you are suffering from an injury, have pain or discomfort in your body you should do the appropriate research to find “the right” treatment and physical therapist to cure your ailments.
In other words, lets say you have injured your shoulder/rotator cuff and all basic movement such as raising your arm above your head, putting your t-shirt on or shampooing your hair hurts. You have done your research and found that there are many options of treatments, such as message therapy, acupuncture, traditional physical therapy and alternative physical therapy. Keep in mind you could research forever and in a city like New York there is a world of options.
A friend can give advice and make recommendations for treatments, but only you can know what you feel and what works for your body. Allow your self the time to listen to your body and commit to one style of treatment, try to avoid going to various practitioners and receiving different sessions because both the practitioner and you, the patient, will lose the notion of which treatment really worked and which did not. At a certain point you will not have the ability to judge which treatment had the best effect on your body.
Once you found a practitioner/specialist that is helping, you should commit to the treatment for an extended period of time. It is not beneficial to jump from treatment to treatment or from modality to modality. You should have at least 10-20 appointments, in order to reap the benefits. The idea is for you, the patient, to walk away feeling really good.
You really need to give your shoulder the time to heal and be patient with yourself and the treatment. After a number of sessions you should see improvements in your shoulder and feel the benefits in your body. Remember to be kind to yourself and acknowledge that recovering from a shoulder injury is not easy and can be frustrating, but that with a dedicated alternative physical therapist working with you, you will get better and be happier.