Headache/Neck

It is common for neck or back muscles and soft tissues (fascia) to tighten after injury. The tightening can restrict circulation, contribute to pain, and decrease joint movement. Our physical therapists provide hands-on mobilization techniques to manipulate soft tissues to improve freedom of movement and ease discomfort.

Your doctor may order pre-surgical rehabilitation before your spine surgery to help get you in the best shape possible to ensure optimal results following your procedure. Our therapists will teach you strengthening and flexibility exercises that are specifically for your neck or spine condition.

Following surgery, a combination of treatments, such as therapeutic modalities and exercises, will help you increase strength, endurance, motion, balance, and coordination. We will work on the skills that are necessary to help you perform your activities of daily living independently.

Core stability training is essential to recovering functional ability after spine surgery or experiencing a head, neck, or back injury. Our physical therapists will work with you on mat exercises and progress to standing exercises to target the muscles of the pelvis, spine, and shoulders to help provide a solid infrastructure for body movements and balance.

Sports medicine can aid the recovery process after a head, neck, or back injury by using soothing therapeutic modalities and gentle movement to ease discomfort. As you heal, exercise can help build the strength and endurance needed to get you back in play for your particular sport.

For the non-injured athlete, sports medicine can help optimize strength, agility, and performance. We will teach you ways to warm-up and warm-down to help prevent injury.

After targeting the source of your back or neck problem with hands-on treatment, the next step in the therapeutic process is exercise. Exercise therapy can help improve flexibility, strength, endurance, coordination, balance, and posture. Exercise therapy helps the body function at a higher level of efficiency and can help reduce pain.

Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV) is a common cause of vertigo following head injury or whiplash. BPPV occurs when the delicate balance-related structures in the inner ear are injured and send mixed nerve signals. A variety of neurological disorders can disrupt the complex balance system as well.

Our therapists have advanced expertise to provide vestibular retraining that consists of a combination of body positioning, specific exercises, and eye gaze patterns to help improve balance and reduce vertigo.

Degenerative spine conditions and injury are a common cause of "mechanical" back pain. Pain occurs when the spinal structures put pressure on the spinal nerves. Traction uses hands-on therapy or cervical and lumbar decompression equipment to stretch tight muscles and widen the space between the bones in the spine to relieve nerve pressure and reduce pain.

Injuries, neurological conditions, and spine conditions can cause the back and neck muscles to develop painful spasms. As an adjunct to hands-on treatment or exercise, our physical therapists use modalities to enhance the therapeutic treatment effect.

Electrical stimulation, infrared, ultrasound, heat therapy, cold therapy, and vibration are examples of modalities that our physical therapists may incorporate into an individualized treatment plan. A modality or combination of modalities can help muscles relax, reduce inflammation, ease pain, and facilitate movement or range of motion.

Massage therapy is used to help stimulate and improve circulation, relieve pain and stiffness, and improve flexibility and range of motion during the treatment of head,neck, back. Our professional therapeutic massages is tissue specific and may be preceded or followed by other types of therapy for enhanced results.

Following injury or a surgical procedure, neck and back braces are used to position the spine while it heals, prevent further injury, and help decrease pain. Neck braces are commonly used after whiplash injuries. Customized back braces are used to provide support and prevent injury following back surgery. Your therapist may recommend back supports to wear on the job or even during pregnancy.

Manual Therapy is defined by the Guide to Physical Therapy practice as "the skilled passive movement to a joint and/or related soft tissues at varying speeds and amplitudes." Our therapists have experience with soft tissue mobilization as well as joint manipulation/mobilization in order to restore range of motion and function and assist in decreasing pain and limitations. Some of our therapists have undergone rigorous training to become Manual Therapy Certified (MTC) in order to enhance their knowledge and clinical skills to better treat patients and return them to their prior level of function.