TREATMENT

Treat → In-clinic, Hands-on Intervention

The time in the clinic is used to recalibrate your movement system to help you move with more ease and comfort. Response to a treatment is evaluated to determine the effectiveness of each intervention

  • STEP 1= Test: Assess baseline movement

  • STEP 2= Treat: Implement intervention techniques (below)

  • STEP 3= Retest: Assess change

With information gained from this process, I can recommend home exercises that will help you maintain progress made in the clinic and provide direction for subsequent treatments.

Intervention Techniques

Intramuscular Stimulation (IMS)

Nerves are the electrical input in our systems that tell muscles (and other entities) to work in our bodies. The location where the nerve inserts into the muscle is called the neuromuscular junction. When there is too much electrical input from nerve-to-muscle, the muscle develops abnormal tension also commonly referred to as a “knot” or a trigger point, at the neuromuscular junction. Intramuscular stimulation involves the insertion of a fine, acupuncture-like needle into the knot to restore normal function of the muscle and its associated nerve. IMS gives you pain relief: it subdues the overactive nerve system and reestablished normal muscle tension.

Manual therapy= Any Hands-on Intervention

  • Joint Mobilizations

When one bone intersects another in the body (for instance, contact between the tibia on femur at the knee joint), there is a gliding motion, that takes place within the joint. Joint mobilizations involve stabilizing one bone while passively gliding the adjacent bone within the joint, manually addressing sources of restriction either in or around the joint. Manually gliding one joint surface on another releases tension around the joint and promotes increased range of motion. The result is a freeing of pain-provoking chemical biproducts, which decreases the pain.

  • Joint Manipulations

    Uses the same concepts of joint mobilizations but with a higher velocity thrust of a joint beyond its current available limit for the purpose of restoring motion and function of a chronically stiff joint. We will only use this technique with a joint that is stiff but not painful. It is common to hear a pop or crack as CO2 that has been compressed within the restricted joint is released from the fluid to gaseous state as more “room” within the joint becomes available.

Soft tissue mobilizations

A broad term used to summarize of manual therapy techniques that uses hands-on and instrument-assisted approaches on skin, muscles, ligaments, tendons and fascia to release restrictions and optimize function.

  • Myofascial release:

    • Active

    • Passive

    • Instrument assisted

  • Muscle energy technique

  • Nerve glides- Nerves infiltrate every part of our body.

  • Deep transverse frictions

  • Scar massage

  • Lymphatic drainage

Cupping

Rooted in ancient Eastern medicine principles, fire cupping has been adopted by Western medicine for the purpose of increasing circulation and drawing-in healing factors into a specific area. In addition, the suction created by the cooling of the air inside the cupping creates a vacuum that separates layers of tissue, decreasing any adhesions that may have formed as a result of inflammation.

Teach → Movement Awareness, Advice, Education

Your body can get into movement patterns that feel normal to you but can be detrimental to movement recovery. I will invite you into your rehabilitation process by arming you with information. What you do outside of the clinic is as important, if not more important, than what we are doing during your treatment sessions. Because I can’t go home with you, I will communicate key bits of knowledge to enable you to be mindful of your movement between treatments.

Train → Home Exercise Program

The purpose of the home-exercise portions is to maintain the movement gains made in the clinic during the “Treat” portion of the intervention so that we can continue to build on that progress. The exercise choice is informed by your response to an intervention technique as determined by the test/retest. Practicing improved movement through repetitive guided activity is essential to making progress in recovery and maintaining the gains made in the clinic between appointments.

The benefits of exercise may not be as obvious or immediate as the in-clinic intervention. For these reasons it can be hard to stay motivated. However, it is super important to invest in this portion of your program. Your recovery timeline depends on it!

“We are what we repeatedly do.
Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a habit”
— Aristotle