Specialized Therapy Techniques

This treatment. uses soft, silicone bulbs to create and release suction over an area of your skin. It helps improve the flow of blood and lymph fluid. It can help prevent scar tissue formation, and treat lymphedema (fluid build-up) and muscle pain.

In some situations, your knee, ankle, leg or foot can't bear your entire body weight when you walk or exercise. This can happen with some running injuries, for example. This high-tech treadmill can reduce the force on your lower body by up to 80%. This means you can walk or run safely, with little or no pain. The pressure can gradually be decreased as you get stronger. This helps improve your strength and endurance and get you back to running on your own.

If you severely injure your arm or leg, it can lift only a small amount of weight. The same is true if, after surgery, you lose muscle in one of your arms or legs. But you can still get the same muscle- and strength-building effects you would from training with heavier weights. How? By exercising with lighter weights, while wearing a medical device resembling a blood pressure cuff. The cuff allows blood to flow freely into your limb, but limits flow out, keeping more blood in the area.

Painful, irritable knots called trigger points can form in your muscles or fascia (a sort of surrounding netting). This technique uses needles like those used for acupuncture, but that's where the similarity ends. Inserting a needle into the painful area or trigger point can help to "release" the tightened tissue. Dry needling may help when other treatments haven't provided enough relief. It can also help with headaches, and persistent tightness, spasms, or soreness in your muscles, tendons or ligaments.

Scar tissue and soft tissue restrictions that form in your muscles and tendons after injury (both traumatic and non-traumatic events) can cause pain, restrict movement and decrease blood flow. They can also interfere with normal communication between nerves. The technique involves using tools specially shaped to fit the body to gently stretch and irritate scar tissue. The body responds by sending chemical messengers to the area involved in healing. This can help break down the scar tissue so that it returns to a state closer to normal. Graston Technique is one type of IASTM that uses specially created instruments to address fascial restrictions, as well as muscle and tendon dysfunction.

In this treatment, strips of cotton tape with a special sticky backing are placed on the skin/body to address pain, soreness and other soft tissue dysfunctions. We do this in a way that the tape doesn't limit movement. We use kinesio taping for a variety of purposes. These include but are not limited to, addressing sports injuries, pain from arthritic joints, decreasing swelling and promoting healthy blood flow.

Lee Silverman Voice Treatment (LSVT) BIG is an evidence-backed physical therapy treatment designed to help people living with Parkinson's disease and similar neurological diagnoses. (The program was developed for its namesake: Lee Silverman.) It uses a specialized exercise program focusing on increased magnitude of movement to improve specific symptoms people with Parkinson's experience. It includes "gross motor" movements like impaired balance, walking difficulties or transfers from a surface such as a couch. It also includes "fine motor" movements for precise tasks like dressing, handwriting and button management. People with Parkinson's also tend to make body movements smaller than normal. LSVT BIG™ helps reset a person's ability to accurately judge the size of their own body movements. Want to find out if LSVT BIG is a good fit for you? Book an evaluation with one of our LSVT BIG-trained physical and/or occupational therapists.

LSVT LOUD is an intensive speech therapy program specifically developed for people with Parkinson's disease. People with Parkinson's have trouble telling how loudly they're speaking, and so often speak too softly to be heard clearly. LSVT LOUD™ helps you better judge the volume of your voice, so you speak more normally. It involves practicing exercises to improve loudness, as well as other speech issues, like slurring due to muscle weakness. LSVT LOUD™ also helps people with Parkinson-like disorders, like progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP). Some studies suggest it also benefits adults with multiple sclerosis-related speech impairments. Want to find out if LSVT LOUD is a good fit for you? Book an evaluation with one of our LSVT LOUD trained speech therapists.

PROMPT is a specialized form of speech therapy. (Its full name is Prompts for Restructuring Oral Muscle Phonetic Targets.) Our therapist helps you recognize by feeling how the jaw, lip, cheek and tongue muscles move when making specific sounds. The approach treats what are known as motor-speech disorders. This means someone is having trouble planning and making the movements necessary for effortful and clear speech. PROMPT can also help non-verbal children and adults who have had strokes or brain injury or brain illness who have difficulty producing speech from motor-speech conditions called apraxia of speech and/or dysarthria. This means someone is having trouble planning and making the movements necessary for clear speech. PROMPT can also help non-verbal children and people who have difficulty making certain speech sounds. Want to find out if PROMPT is a good fit for you or your child? Book an evaluation with one of our PROMPT-trained speech therapists.

This tool can help you improve your walking or running stride. A member of our sports physical therapy team records a video of you in action. Then, we use specialized apps to analyze your movements in slow motion. This helps pinpoint any abnormal movements. We then conduct an exam to determine the underlying cause: for instance, poor coordination or decreased mobility. We can then design a personalized exercise program targeting your specific issues.