Manual therapy compromises a wide array of hands on therapy ranging from traditional chiropractic adjusting to light myofascial release.

I utilize a progression of force model with my patients.  This concept is strongly promoted through McKenzie MDT to start with lower force therapy and progress stepwise to attain a therapeutic effect while minimizing change of exacerbation or soreness after treatment.  Some patients are not comfortable with traditional chiropractic adjusting, so utilizing lower force joint mobilization and traction allows for progress, especially with patients who have complicated problems and have had previous bad experience with manual therapy.

For soft tissue injuries

Instrument – I use either plastic or metal tools to work through the injured area, can be more helpful for very sensitive pain conditions where a light glide is better than deeper pressure.

Hands On/Manual – I use my hands to work through the area.  I can get deeper into the muscle when needed for a therapeutic effect.

With Movement – sometimes we have to combine the soft tissue release with exercise and load to get a full treatment effect, we will perform instrument or hands on release while loading the injured or restricted area.

If you have had these treatments before and they didnt last or work, there are several reasons that you did nto get full benefit.  Each presentation requires an individual load and pressure to heal, the previous therapy may have been too much or too little to stimulate tissue healing.

Many times we have to immediately combine taping or rehabilitation to sort of “capture” the results of hands on treatment.  If your previous treatment was only passive treatments such as adjusting, massage or traction, adding the active aspects of rehabilitation can help lock in the improvements of manual therapy.