Hands on care.
Manual therapy to restore mobility where tissue and joints have stiffened. I'm certified in advanced manual therapy through Kaiser Hayward, and this is often what makes the corrective work possible in the first place.
Chronic Pain Management
You've been managing this for a while now.
Physical therapy in San Rafael for chronic pain, overuse injuries, and the stiffness that arrived and never left.
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Somewhere Along the Way, It Became Normal
The back that flares if you sit too long. The shoulder that's been off since a weekend two years ago. The hip that decides how far you'll walk today.
You've stretched. You've rested. You've been told imaging looks fine, or that imaging looks bad and this is just how it is now. Neither answer helped.
Pain that's lasted this long has changed how you move, and how you move is often what keeps the pain going. That loop is where most treatment fails, because it addresses the pain without addressing the pattern.
Finding What's Actually Driving It
The place that hurts and the place causing the hurt are frequently different addresses. Shoulder pain from a stiff mid back. Knee pain from a hip that stopped doing its share. Back pain from an ankle that lost range after an old sprain and quietly changed how you walk.
My evaluation is a whole system assessment for exactly this reason. I want to see how the chain works before I decide what to treat, because treating the loud part while the quiet part keeps causing it is how people end up in their fourth round of physical therapy.
What We Actually Do
Corrective movement.
Retraining the patterns that have been feeding the problem. Frequently the smallest changes here produce the biggest shifts.
Progressive strengthening.
Pain makes people cautious, caution makes people weak, and weakness makes pain more likely. We reverse that sequence deliberately and at a pace your body accepts.
Self management strategies.
What to do when it flares. How to load it safely. What's worth worrying about and what isn't. You should be able to handle a bad week without needing an appointment to get through it.
What This Addresses
- Chronic low back and neck pain
- Persistent shoulder, hip, and knee pain
- Overuse and repetitive strain injuries
- Arthritis related stiffness and pain
- Old injuries that never fully resolved
- Postural pain from desk work and long sitting
- Pain that's kept you from exercising, which has made everything else harder
Being Honest About Time
Chronic means the tissue and the nervous system have both adapted, and undoing that takes longer than a fresh injury. Most people feel meaningful change within the first several weeks, and lasting change comes from the strengthening phase that follows.
I'll give you a realistic picture after your evaluation. If I think you need imaging, a physician, or a different specialist, I'll tell you that instead of keeping you on my schedule.
Let's Find the Actual Cause
Sixty minutes to assess the whole system and tell you what's really going on.