New Life Physical Therapists are experts in musculoskeletal care, including pain/injury associated with bones, muscles, ligaments, tendons, nerves, and more importantly how your body moves with all of those structures. We treat conditions of the musculoskeletal system related to injury, accidents, surgery, disease, work, sport, and aging. At New Life Physical Therapy, we do not just treat symptoms but rather get to the underlying cause of symptoms and look at different contributing factors including specific task or environmental in addition to the individual whom we are treating.
Manual therapy includes hands-on treatments that include mobilization and manipulation, soft tissue mobilization (or massage), muscle energy techniques, myofascial release/mobilization, and various other hands-on techniques. For many conditions, studies show that a combined skilled physical therapy program including manual therapy and exercise result in best outcomes.
All New Life Physical Therapists are trained in and perform manual therapy as part of a comprehensive physical therapy plan of care. Our Physical Therapists have advanced certification and education from manual therapy schools including the North American Institute of Orthopedic Manual Therapy (NAIOMT), McKenzie, Maitland, Mulligan, Evidence in Motion, and many others.
What is it? Dry needling is a highly effective form of physical therapy for the treatment of a multitude of musculoskeletal and neuromuscular conditions. It is not appropriate for all conditions or pathologies and the use of the technique will be at the discretion of your physical therapist.
How does it work? Dry needling is NOT acupuncture (traditional Chinese medicine); it is based on neuro-anatomy and modern scientific study of the musculoskeletal and neuromuscular systems. A very fine filament needle is inserted through the skin and into the deeper tissues that are considered trigger points to your pain. Dry needling works by causing a microlesion within the pathological tissue thus breaking up shortened tissues, inhibiting a reflex arc from the nervous system to the tissue, normalizing the inflammatory response, and centrally mediating the pain. This mechanical and neuromuscular effect provides an environment that enhances the body’s ability to heal which ultimately reduces pain.
What conditions can be treated? Conditions include, but are not limited to neck, back, shoulder arm pain (tennis elbow, carpal tunnel, golfer’s elbow), headache to include secondary effects of migraine and tension-type headaches, jaw pain, buttock pain and leg pain (sciatica, hamstring strains, calf tightness/spasms, etc).
Who at New Life can perform Dry Needling Services? All New Life Physical Therapists are certified to provide dry needling services to patients. Our therapists are trained through Kineticore, Myopain, and the Integrative Dry Needling Institute.
Developed and taught by the Gray Institute®, applied functional science looks at the combination of physical, biological, and behavioral sciences that allows for purposeful movement. It looks at principles of why we move, strategies of how we move, and what techniques are necessary for movement. It is then applied in a very individual aspect related to a specific individual’s needs, wants, and goals.
For more information: https://www.grayinstitute.com/about-us
Chronic pain is often defined as pain that has been present for greater than 3 months. Sometimes this pain is left over for unknown reason from an injury that should otherwise be healed. Other times there is not a clear reason why this pain exists. It can be present in one or widespread across many different body regions.
The experts at New Life Physical Therapy can offer a non-pharmaceutical, active approach to chronic pain consistent with current evidence and research. Your chronic pain treatment will include extensive education on chronic pain and techniques to best get your body moving at tolerable levels.
Pelvic floor rehabilitation is physical therapy for treatment of pelvic floor dysfunction for both men and women including stress and urge incontinence (leaking urine), pain with urination or bowel movements, painful intercourse, chronic pelvic pain, pregnancy related low back or pelvic pain, colorectal pain, constipation and fecal incontinence. Treatment for pelvic floor dysfunction includes a physical therapy evaluation for the spine, lower extremities and pelvic floor muscles and may include manual therapy (hands on techniques to help stiff joints and restricted soft tissues move again), education on pelvic floor strengthening or relaxation, functional training and strengthening of the pelvic, core and lower extremity muscles as needed, constipation management, use of modalities including biofeedback and use of bowel or bladder diaries as needed.
Kris Hellenbrand is our pelvic floor rehabilitation provider at New Life. She has advanced education from the Herman and Wallace Pelvic Rehabilitation Institute.
In conjunction with New Life 4 Work onsite industrial services, the Physical Therapists at New Life are experts in treating work related injuries in the clinic and work collaboratively with your physician, workers compensation case managers and nurses, and employers to ensure best outcomes, job-specific rehabilitation goals, and return to work recommendations.
Additionally, we host work conditioning programs as well.
We treat basic vertigo such as benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV) and a variety of general balance issues related to aging, generalized weakness, loss of proprioception, etc. Please contact us today to discuss if we treat your specific type of vertigo or balance problem.
Visceral Manipulation (VM) was developed by French Osteopath, Jean-Pierre Barral. “Viscera” relates to the internal organs of the body, such as the liver, kidneys and intestines. 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. There are many reasons for an organ to lose its mobility: physical traumas, surgeries, sedentary lifestyle, infections, pollution, bad diet, poor posture and pregnancy/delivery. When an organ is no longer freely mobile but is fixed to another structure, the body is forced to compensate. This disharmony creates fixed, abnormal points of tension and the chronic irritation gives way to functional and structural problems throughout the body musculoskeletal, vascular, nervous, urinary, respiratory and digestive, to name a few.
Kris Hellenbrand is our visceral manipulation provider at New Life. She has advanced education from the Barral Institute.
