Integrative Physical Therapy uses an body+mind approach to treating physical injury, persistent pain conditions, physical impairment, and other body problems:
Manual Therapy
Michelle has extensively studied Functional Manual Therapy (FMT) with the Institute of Physical Art and received her certification with this approach in 2014. FMT is a highly effective style of manual therapy that treats muscle, joint, fascial and nerve restrictions in order to restore movement, reduce pain and improve function.
Pain Neuroscience Education (aka learning about pain)
If you are in pain, has anybody ever explained to why you hurt? Having pain is part of having a body, and yet pain is widely misunderstood in our culture. Understanding pain is very important in when pain persists past how long it would take for tissues to heal (typically 6 weeks-1 year.) Michelle will take the time to explain why you hurt, and work with you to determine a client specific plan for how to reduce and manage pain while improving your ability to return to activities you enjoy.
Mindfulness and Yoga
Michelle is a buddhist practitioner and yoga instructor. While she doe not currently teach group yoga classes, yoga and mindfuness can be integrated into your treatment. Mindfulness and yoga are very useful for calming the nervous system, which is an important part of Michelles pain management approach
Body Mechanics Training
How we hold our bodies can impact the function of our stabilizing muscles (aka our "core"), contribute to pressure on the pelvic organs, and lead to overuse syndromes. Learning how to stand, sit, sleep, and otherwise move with good body mechanics is an essential component in pain management.
Therapeutic Exercise and Neuromuscular re-education
In addition to rehabilitative exercise, Michelle is trained in the exercise modality Proprioceptive Neruomuscular Re-education (PNF). This means facilitating the mind's ability to re-connect to muscles and movement patterns that have been lost due to pain, periods of immobility, disuse, or other life effects (such as pregnancy.)