Do you treat anything else, besides the pelvis? Yes, we do!
We have been asked if we treat conditions other than the pelvis, TM joint, neck and back and the answer is YES!
Our team of doctors of physical therapy are fully trained and experienced orthopedic physical therapists. This means that, yes, we have helped people rehabilitate from every common orthopedic injury. Our team also has experience and education specific to pediatric physical therapy, post-surgical rehabilitation, neurological physical therapy, including spinal cord injury, MS, Parkinsons and stroke recovery. If you are interested in learning more about how we may be able to help you,
contact us at (616) 516-4334 or
complete this online inquiry.
Prior to becoming a pelvic health specialist Dr. Maureen O’Keefe worked in orthopedics and rehabilitation treating all joints and conditions, including neurologic conditions, chronic pain, chronic back pain, knee and hip surgeries and more.
We use our treatment techniques to also treat conditions outside of your pelvis. Here are some examples:
Temporomandibular joint dysfunction: TMJ syndrome. It turns out that a lot of people with pelvic problems also have TM joint issues. Our team of physical therapists specialize in providing expert care for TM joint disorders. We have specific training for jaw conditions, which includes hands-on manual therapy methods directed inside the mouth as well as to the face, head and neck.
Our team treats you with methods that truly alleviate myofascial pain that is in your jaw, skull and neck. We will collaborate with your dentist, as well. The TM joint is a complex system and regaining normal jaw movement can be achieved through the help of high quality skilled PT. If you have TM joint clicking, popping or shifting, difficulty fully opening your jaw, inability to fully close your jaw, tenderness, facial pain or ear aches or neck pain, we can evaluate you and develop a treatment program to improve your jaw. If you are interested in learning more,
contact us here. You can expect manual therapy, myofascial mobilization, gentle joint mobilization and trigger point release to your thoracic spine, neck, face, skull and TM joint. Together we are working to resolve trigger points, gently mobilize your joints, optimize fascial lines from the spine to the head, neck and jaw, and to relax/release your jaw so it can fluidly move. You will be given exercises to complete at home to restore your jaw health and function. You also will be provided information on protective behaviors for your jaw and how to avoid aggravating your condition. And, if you also have a pelvic health condition, you may notice treating your TM joint helps ease some of the pelvic problems going on. These things can be related in ways we might not expect!
Hip labral tears, hip problems, hip arthritis: The hip is part of the pelvis, so technically this is still a pelvic condition, and we want to be clear that we have advanced training and offer treatment techniques to address your hip problems. If you are limping around, having trouble with stairs, are unable to run anymore and are tired of your hip pain, our team of pelvic and hip specialist doctors of physical therapy can evaluate and treat you to address your hip problems. Hip arthritis can throw off your pelvic floor, low back, knees, balance, gait quality and pelvic strength. We can help you address these issues. And, yes, even if you have a hip labral tear that was seen on MRI, physical therapy can help. In fact, research shows that a lot of people have hip labral tears on MRI, but they don’t all have pain. Please avoid jumping into surgery based on an MRI finding, physical therapy is strongly recommended as a first place to start. We don’t treat MRI findings, we treat what we see and find in your body through our evaluation and testing measures, which are comprehensive and not isolated to your hip.
Contact us here to learn more.
Neck pain: Our team’s extensive training in advanced neck and back treatment allows us to offer you gentle, effective techniques to alleviate your neck pain. We have treated many people with cervical radiculopathy, neck arthritis, neck stiffness and tension headaches. Commonly after an appointment for a person with neck pain, we hear that they feel so much better. Our appointments are upto 55 minutes in length, which allows us to provide you a comprehensive and therapeutic manual therapy approach that includes trigger point release, gentle joint mobilization and fascial mobilization combined with therapeutic exercises and postural correction. We’ve written an article about neck pain and headaches, you can
access it here.
Cervicogenic headaches: These headaches can be awful! They are caused by your neck and often have a hallmark characteristic of pain extending from your neck or base of your skull and up into the back or top of your head. Our doctors of physcial therapy know how to help alleviate these headaches. To schedule an evaluation,
contact us here. In your evaluation we often find neck stiffness, muscle guarding in the head and neck, weakness in some of the deep neck muscles and non-optimal daily habits related to posture and head/neck alignment. Our myofascial massage methods restore fascial lines of pull, joint mobility, muscle tension and trigger points. We address posture and activity habits that contribute to your headaches. You can expect a strong amount of hands-on manual therapy advanced techniques combined with exercises that focus on joint mobility, fascial lines of pull, strengthening of the deep, intrinsic neck muscles and the upper back muscles. You will be given home exercises to complete to augment what we do in our appointments.
Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS): We believe Ehlers-Danlos syndrome is underdiagnosed and poorly treated. Commonly, our patients have not received effective care that teaches them how to protect their joints while also addressing their muscle imbalances and myofascial pain. Dr. Maureen O’Keefe, DPT, our founder, has a particular interest in serving individuals who have EDS and partnering with you to optimize your function and reduce pain. To learn more about our treatment for EDS,
contact us here. Ehlers-Danlos syndromes involve connective tissue disorders that vary and may result in hypermobility of joints, skin hyperextensibility and fragile tissues. At present there are 13 subtypes of EDS and your signs and symptoms are matched to your subtype and each type has a distinct problem weakening the connective tissue, leading to structural problems within the body. In some cases, especially with joint hypermobility, an individual will experience chronic, debilitating musculoskeletal pain. Other individuals have scoliosis due to the kyphoscoliosis type of Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. We will sit down with you during your evaluation to get a comprehensive understanding of all of your signs and symptoms and to learn what your goals are so we can develop a treatment plan centered on you, your goals and your needs. While the research does not provide clear evidence for one best way forward to treat an individual with EDS who has chronic pain, we do know the underlying science of helping chronic pain and protecting joints. By partnering with you, creating a safe, patient centered treatment plan, we aim to help you feel better and reach your goals. Individuals with EDS can experience chronic pain. Our advanced training in treating myofascial pain syndromes, joint problems, connective tissue laxity and trigger points are utilized to help you achieve your goals. Our team is specifically trained in pain neuroscience education and rehabilitation methods that ease pain, rather than activating your pain centers. In particular, for people with Ehler-Danlos Syndromes, we must be very careful to protect your joints and avoid worsening your connective tissue loads. Manual therapy techniques we offer can help change the input that is going from your body to your brain; therefore, we do use these hands-on techniques in a gentle way, respecting that you have underlying vascular and connective tissue abnormalities. We have to be careful and progress gently with individuals with EDS. Our training in dry needling can be of particular help with individuals who have Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome because it helps alleviate trigger points. We also use therapeutic pain neuroscience education in our approach to individuals with EDS and anyone we treat with chronic pain. We will partner with you to determine what is the best approach, what gives you relief of your pain and to teach you how to move in ways that are optimal for your safety and wellbeing.
Frozen Shoulder (adhesive capsulitis): Frozen shoulder is one of our specialties. A hallmark of this condition is trigger points in the shoulder girdle and/or neck and back. Our team of doctors of physical therapy each has extensive experience treating all shoulder conditions such as shoulder impingement, rotator cuff tear, post-operative recovery, humerous fractures, labral tears of the shoulder and adhesive capsulitis (frozen shoulder). For individuals who have frozen shoulder, we provide private, one-on-one 55′ appointments with your doctor of physical therapy. During each appointment you can expect to receive expert hands-on care including myofascial manual therapy, joint mobilization and trigger point release; we direct this to your shoulder, shoulder blade, rib cage, thoracic spine, neck and arm. We used exercise to include strengthening, stretching and gentle range of motion. Our patients find that they receive a higher level of care and more time with their physical therapist in our setting.
Contact us here to learn more.
Balance deficits: Our doctors of physical therapy have a specific love of neurologic rehabilitation and fall prevention. In fact, addressing balance is a key part of our postpartum recovery program. It is natural that we use our expertise to help individuals enhance their balance through the lifetime. As women go through menopause, maintaining the integrity of their balance system is very important to avoid fractures, given the bone loss that occurs when estrogen levels naturally lower. If this is speaking to you,
contact us to learn more. We provide you private, 55 minute appointments with your doctor of physcial therapy in a safe setting. We often use our whole body vibration machines, which are proven to help improve balance, during our balance programs.
If you are:
Having trouble keeping your balance when reaching overhead?
Not confident when walking on uneven grass or at the beach?
Feel like you are too wobbly in your yoga poses?
Wanting to avoid falling and/or worried about bone health as you age,
then contact us to learn more about our balance enhancement program. We have exercises and techniques to help you feel much more confident on your feet in a variety of settings.
The pelvis is a strong stabilizer of your body during all activities. Our team of doctors of physical therapy use our training in core strength, pelvic power, hip and spine function and the vestibular and proprioceptive systems to design a treatment program for you. This program will challenge the multiple aspects of your balance system to improve your body’s coordination and response to dynamic positional changes and to enhance your stability.
Breathing enhancement manual therapy & exercises: Our breathing rehabilitation may be one of the most popular features we offer. We include breathwork in most patient’s care because we consistently find that the diaphragm capacity is deficient. If you have experienced a coronavirus illness and now find that your breathing is impaired, we can help you improve your breathing mechanics. Do you feel tension in your midback, pain in your neck or difficulty effectively engaging deep breaths? We offer specific breath-focused appointments to individuals who want to improve their breathing, posture, back or neck pain, headaches, stress or lung capacity. If you are interested in breath-focused rehabilitation,
contact us here. We will work together to improve your ability to:
- Take deep breaths
- Effectively use your primary breathing muscles and reduce non-optimal breathing techniques or habits
- Move your ribs to allow for full expansion of your lungs
- Coordinate your breathing and deep core muscles with the rest of your system during functional movements and activities
You can expect a combination of very specific manual therapy methods to address your lymphatic system; joint mobility between your thoracic spine, ribs and sternum; diaphragm engagement; visceral mobilization, connective tissue mobilization and trigger point release. You will perform exercises designed to facilitate effective and deeper inhalation and slow, relaxed, complete exhalation by working through various postures, activities and movements. We also will work to improve the non-optimal recruitment of accessory breathing muscles, including those that contribute to neck pain and tension, so that your diaphragm serves as your primary muscle of respiration. You may also benefit from biofeedback heartrate variability coherence training to facilitate balance within the autonomic nervous system.
Don’t see your condition or concern on this list and wonder if our doctors of physcial therapy can help you? We are here to answer your questions. Please reach out to us at (616) 516-4334 and we can determine if we might be able to help you. We know the strengths of our training, experience, techniques and programming and if your condition will not benefit from what we offer, we will let you know this.
