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Physical Therapists identify and treat mechanical problems as opposed to medical problems. We are trained to test and evaluate our patients for their physical loss of function in their activities of daily living. (Posture, sitting, standing gait, and sports motions.) Testing is based around practical evaluations of the physical system but does involve the usual exam protocols, such as inspection, palpation, orthopedic and neurological testing (cursory compared to testing by an MD), and unique to physical therapy, functional assessments (sitting, standing, gait analysis). Our primary goal is to improve the individual’s function and independence. Implicit in improving function is reduction or elimination of pain.
Movement reeducation - Having determined the direction of susceptibility creating the chronic pain, a program is devised to reorganize movement patterns, such that movement is less degenerative and more harmonious with gravity and the environment.

Manual therapy is a specialty within physical therapy which uses more hands-on methods of addressing muscle, tendon, soft tissue and joint problems. Many of the things a manual therapist senses or measures with her hands are not visible through imaging.
Why do we need manual therapy? Many types of chronic spine and joint pain are due to joints that lack normal motion, or have become rigid or fixed in an abnormal position. This can cause chronic inflammation in the soft tissues and thus chronic pain. By restoring mobility, manual therapy can bring rapid pain relief for non-resolving conditions like foot pain, post-fracture and casting soreness, chronic neck or spine pain, sacroiliac joint pain, ligament strains and spine muscle strains.

A I matured as a physical therapist I began to suspect that as the primary profession responsible for physical rehabilitation we were not adequately trained in the skill of joint manipulation. I would be shocked when a patient or friend went off to some mysterious clinic to have their spine “adjusted” (“You went where? They did what?”) so that they could come back to PT for their rehab. Finally, I decided I wanted that skill. After receiving my Doctor of Chiropractic, I came face to face with the controversies surrounding chiropractors and their “adjustments”.

Two misconceptions about adjustments: 1) That the bone is “out of place”. Actually, the bone is in place but stuck, locked or jammed into one corner of its normal play. 2) You have to “keep getting corrected”. Frequent visits “forever” are not necessary – rather exercise, in particular the therapeutically focused exercises prescribed by physical therapists, are the key to stabilization.

I have now spent 16 years learning how to blend my two professions. I remain committed to my fundamental orientation as a physical therapist: finding the simplest and most functional way to establish pain-free independence for the patient. Chiropractic has turned out to be a powerful instrument for achieving that goal.

There is a lot of research demonstrating the efficacy of chiropractic. Here is just one recent example.

T.W. Meade, a British medical doctor, compared chiropractic manipulation and hospital outpatient treatment for low-back pain, consisting of corset wearing and standard physical therapy. The study concluded:

“For patients with low-back pain in whom manipulation is not contraindicated, chiropractic almost certainly confers worthwhile, long-term benefit in comparison to hospital outpatient management.”

A follow-up study published in the August 5, 1995 edition of BMJ provided even more convincing data. Chiropractic patients not only reported less pain than physical therapy patients at six weeks, but three years later the chiropractic patients reported a 29% greater improvement.

The most dramatic improvements were associated with pain reduction, but many of the improvements concerned function and quality of life. For example: sitting for more than a short period of time, sleeping, personal care, lifting, walking, standing, sex life, social life, and ability to travel showed marked improvement.

• Privately owned Physical Therapy Clinic.

• Opened a Private Practice in a rental space at Spinal Institute.

• Opened a Private Practice.

• Orthopedic and Neurological physical therapy rehabilitation.
• Contact: Ron Holmes (505) 758-8761

• Independent travel and study in Japan looking into oriental medicine as a possible sub-specialty.

• Home health care physical therapy.
• This dept no longer exists. Contact: VNS PT Dept (608) 242-1516.

• Home health care physical therapy.
• Contact: Tim Sawyer (408) 237-7365

• Home health care physical therapy.
• Contact: Kokila Patel (608) 242-1516.

• Various part-time jobs in out-patient PT clinics such as Health South while going to school in chiropractic.
• Continuing education in many areas of Orthopedics Rehabilitation and manual therapy, including Osteopathic Myofascial techniques. Over forty courses in the past 20 years.
• Spanish and English fluently, as well as minimal French.
• To provide a high quality Physical Therapy Rehabilitation Clinic. This practice is offering the community a unique service that does not exist today in most clinics. It offers a threefold specialty in Physical Therapy, Manual Therapy and Myofascial techniques. The owner is trained in all three and hopes to inspire all future employees to specialize in these regions so as to provide the community with a highly specialized hands-on “Manual Therapy Clinic”.