Fostering Health PT

My core beliefs include that every person has existing potential to heal and that the body is always striving to move toward health, accelerated by better knowledge of the way it works, the right conditions and activities, and a belief that things can improve. As a life long learner and eternal optimist, I believe that we can move you forward in your healing process by working together. I started in this profession as a massage therapist in 2006, inspired by the bodywork of visceral and cranial therapy I stumbled upon when I was studying to be a botanist. I was so impressed by the power of these techniques that I changed my career path after my Masters in Botany in 2003 and went back to school for massage. In 2011, I pursued further learning and tools by returning to school for physical therapy with the same goal of deepening my knowledge. During school, I was so fortunate to cross paths with the Institute of Physical Art and I studied their paradigm for five years intensively after school and am honored to continue to learn from this community and my mentors. In 2019, I earned my CFMT (Certified Functional Manual Therapist), which included a rigorous testing program to deepen my understanding of a holistic way of seeing the healing process. This paradigm acknowledges the importance of release of restrictions in the body, the interconnectedness of many different parts of the body and different types of tissues, and the power of using the body's developmental patterns to return core activation and coordination (PNF), as well as to train the body to perform tasks in the most efficient way possible. This method, along with osteopathic techniques learned from the Barral Institute to release restrictions in the viscera, vascular and neural tissues that I have been studying since 2008, allows me to help you find the sources of your challenges and see a path forward for us to return you to your full potential. Let’s broaden our vision of therapy together! Most of us think of going to PT to either: get massage or to do exercise to get stronger. In fact, there are so many ways to look at healing, tools in our tool box and rocks to look under for answers. Here's a list of possible barriers you could be experiencing that we could tackle together: tissue restrictions, including tissues like nerves, arteries, viscera (the organs), and fascia poor muscle activation &timing (things aren’t firing in the the right order in your body) inflammation and its effect on the body activities you are doing that are aggravating your system fear of pain (this is a big one if you’ve had your pain for a long time) central sensitization (a fancy word for a physiological response to chronic pain) fear of movement fear of falling balance challenges belief that you don’t have the potential to heal past experiences, beliefs and emotions that affect your body physically autonomic nervous system activation (stuck in flight, fight or freeze) poor activity tolerance (feeling easily fatigued or excessively tired) poor strength or endurance the WAY you are doing your daily activities is causing you pain posture issues and their effect on your strength and coordination sleep challenges (trouble getting to sleep, staying asleep or poor quality sleep) stress and its effect on sleep, inflammation, and pain resistance to being active or a love of activities that are sedentary to the point that you don’t move regularly Looking forward to helping you achieve your vision of health and well-being. I would be honored to work with you on your goals!