We believe that educating our patients on the condition, treatment, and how it is affected by daily activities is one of the most important treatment techniques we use.
Manual Physical Therapy is a specialized form of physical therapy delivered with the hands as opposed to a device or machine. In manual therapy, practitioners use their hands to put pressure on muscle tissue and manipulate joints in an attempt to decrease back pain caused by muscle spasm, muscle tension, and joint dysfunction.
ASTYM treatment is a soft tissue therapy treatment that regenerates healthy soft tissues (muscles, tendons, etc.), and removes unwanted scar tissue that may be causing pain or movement restrictions.
Visceral Manipulation is a gentle manual therapy that aids your body's ability to release restrictions and unhealthy compensations that cause pain and dysfunction. Visceral Manipulation, or VM, does not focus solely on the site of pain or dysfunction but evaluates the entire body to find the source of the problem. The VM therapist feels for altered or decreased motion within the viscera, as well as restrictive patterns throughout the body, and then applies VM techniques. VM therapy re-establishes the body's ability to adapt and restore itself to health.
The Mulligan Technique uses hands on joint mobilization with movement to improve pain-free motion.
Core stabilization includes strengthening the musculature of the abdomen, pelvis, and back to support the joints, discs, nerves, and ligaments of the spine. It is important to have adequate strength and control of these muscles for normal spinal mobility. Surgeries, injuries, and lack of activity can lead to decreased core strength.
People who suffer from back pain benefit significantly from core stabilization for pain relief and increased activity tolerance. Your physical therapist will make sure you can safely and effectively strengthen the appropriate muscles to improve your pain and/or function
Gait Analysis:
Walking is one of our most important daily activities, and how you walk can either help identify where your problem is coming from or contribute to your symptoms. We assess how you walk to determine where your problems are and the areas that need to be addressed.
Most clients don’t realize they can learn to walk better with training or never thought about how they move, but thinking of how you move and learning from that can be a very beneficial part of treatment. This may include how your foot hits the ground, the type of footwear that is right for you, the position of your knees, the direction of movement of your hips, and where and how you generate power to propel yourself into the world.
Biomechanics Training:
Biomechanics is studying how someone moves, and training movement patterns can significantly reduce pain, but also make movement much easier. This includes everything from getting up out of a chair, to squatting, lifting, walking up and down stairs, or recreational activities.
Learning how to move correctly can be one of the most beneficial things you can get out of physical therapy because it allows you to prevent injury and makes what you are doing more enjoyable. We break down movement patterns and train you in the specific areas to make movement better overall.
Trigger points are tight or spasmed bands of muscle, usually tender to the touch, which can be found in any muscle in the body. Trigger points refer both to pain in a localized area and to other parts of the body, common patterns of which have been well-documented. This can also cause restricted movement of the muscle and joints, which can impair function.
Trigger Point Therapy & Release increases blood flow to the specific areas to help restore mobility and function of the muscle and relieve pain.
Just like muscles, our joints can stiffen, making our movements limited and often painful. This can occur in only one part of a joint or over an entire joint.
Our physical therapists have extensive training in joint mobilizations, which are techniques used to stretch a joint in a particular and comfortable way. This is a major step in treatment.
Once the joint motion is restored, strength and correct movement patterns become the focus in your recovery.
Our therapists use taping to support injury healing, and correct movements and mechanics, as well as retraining, and to improve pain. We utilize both Kinesio tape, an elastic adhesive tape that alleviates discomfort and facilitates lymphatic drainage by microscopically lifting the skin, and leukotape, a rayon-backed rehabilitation tape with high tensile strength, depending on need.
Our therapists utilize other modalities such as ultrasound, electrical stimulation, and traction on a very limited basis during treatment sessions to optimize the use of your physical therapy visit.
Chronic pain and autoimmune conditions can significantly impact your ability to move and live your life. Learning how to better manage your symptoms, correcting your mechanics to allow you to move more easily, and getting stronger can improve your pain and improve your quality of life. This can include Fibromyalgia, Systemic Arthritis such as RA, Psoriatic Arthritis, Lupus, Muscular sclerosis, and chronic back or neck pain