Hello and Welcome!
Before booking, I would like to set expectations with complete transparency! I do not “fix” you; rather, you and I, working together as an extremely interactive and collaborative team, figure out how you can help yourself. In the spirit of “give a person a fish and they eat fish for a day, teach a person to fish and they eat fish for a lifetime”, I want to teach you how to fish — i.e. take care of your own body. In short, the focus of my practice is self-care via conceptual understanding and mindful exercises. Please expect some homework.
What to expect:
- A thorough analysis of your injury history. You’d be amazed how, for example, that left ankle sprain when you were a child might impact your right shoulder today!
- A full body analysis of available joint motions and preferences (e.g. your ribcage really likes to rotate right, but it never rotates left), as well as static holding patterns (i.e. posture). This assessment includes the 33 joints in each foot — a quarter of all the joints in your body are in your feet!!! The joints in your feet have a huge impact all the way up the chain to your knees, hips, pelvis, back, shoulders, neck, and jaw!!!
- Gait (AKA walking) analysis. I will analyze a video of you walking using an app which allows me to assess your patterns and preferences (e.g. your pelvis really likes to rotate right, but never left). Why gait? Gait is a universal repetitive human movement that involves every joint in your body in all three dimensions of movement (a mouthful of a sentence…you might want to re-read it!). Even a sedentary person takes 2000-3000 steps a day — imagine how many times an active person is repeating the gait cycle (from heel strike to heel strike). In other words, thousands of times per day you are reinforcing those movement biases/asymmetries. If a movement bias/asymmetry shows up in your gait, it almost definitely shows up in all your activities (e.g. picking up a baby, sports, gardening, etc.). This analysis will be integral to designing a corrective exercise program individual to your movement patterns (preferences, asymmetries, etc.)
- An education about joint biomechanics and anatomy. I am a firm believer, the more you understand about what is happening under the covers, the better you will be able to help yourself. Your homework will include an education on the biomechanics of the joints we are focusing on. Beyond enhanced self-care, this knowledge will empower you to be a more informed consumer of the healthcare system in general.
- An individualized home program reflecting your movement analysis. You will learn not just what to do, and how to do it, but most importantly, you will understand the “why” (see above item about education). I will design a program that realistically fits within the time constraints of your lifestyle. Please expect to commit to an absolute minimum of 10 minutes 4-5 times per week.
- A plan! I will recommend a course of action moving forward. On very rare occasions, clients experience enough improvement after the intake package, that follow-ups are not necessary. This is the exception, not the rule. In any case, working with me is very finite! Some people come in with a single issue, and some come in with what I fondly think of as a “laundry list” — e.g. my left shoulder, my right knee, my low back. In most cases, these conditions didn’t happen over night, and they usually do not resolve overnight (although sometimes we get lucky!): “Healing is a process, not an event.” Your home exercise program is taught in phases. The initial phase is creating a foundation upon which we build over time. Typically, in the first phase we start working on individual joint motions, working toward the ultimate phase of full body integration exercises. To learn more about your Home Exercise Program Phases->click here…
- Excellent communication of your Assessment Findings and Home Exercise Program. You will receive a recap email with links to videos of the exercises.