Marina A.
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I am very grateful to Brandi Kirk for giving me my life back. When exercising with some heavier weights, I inadvertently lost my grip on one of the weights and ended up rotating my pelvis to the point where I couldn’t walk normally. Before learning about Brandi, I went to see other physical therapists who tried to help me, but my pelvis would just rotate back out of alignment. Someone insisted I go see Brandi because she is highly skilled in the additional knowledge of other incredible therapies. Sure enough, at my first appointment with her, Brandi found the root cause of my problem. Over some time as she gently worked on me, she successfully got my pelvis into proper alignment, and I am able to walk again without pain! Even though I paid out-of-pocket, it was well worth it for Brandi to realign my pelvis correctly and to even fix other related issues. In fact, I found that my cost for in-network physical therapy was actually more in the long run because it had more sessions, which were not even helping my issue. Furthermore, my sessions with Brandi were 1-on-1 in a private room for 1 hour in a peaceful atmosphere. Brandi is a very talented gem of a physical therapist, and patients in her new location are extremely fortunate to have her treat them.
Marina A.
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I am very grateful to Brandi Kirk for giving me my life back. When exercising with some heavier weights, I inadvertently lost my grip on one of the weights and ended up rotating my pelvis to the point where I couldn’t walk normally. Before learning about Brandi, I went to see other physical therapists who tried to help me, but my pelvis would just rotate back out of alignment. Someone insisted I go see Brandi because she is highly skilled in the additional knowledge of other incredible therapies. Sure enough, at my first appointment with her, Brandi found the root cause of my problem. Over some time as she gently worked on me, she successfully got my pelvis into proper alignment, and I am able to walk again without pain! Even though I paid out-of-pocket, it was well worth it for Brandi to realign my pelvis correctly and to even fix other related issues. In fact, I found that my cost for in-network physical therapy was actually more in the long run because it had more sessions, which were not even helping my issue. Furthermore, my sessions with Brandi were 1-on-1 in a private room for 1 hour in a peaceful atmosphere. Brandi is a very talented gem of a physical therapist, and patients in her new location are extremely fortunate to have her treat them.
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What's different about us
Interconnectedness of the Body
The body is connected from the head to the feet and any restriction in the body can affect any part of the body, since it’s all connected. It’s like getting a snag in your sweater that affects the entire sweater. Where you hurt or where you are experiencing your symptoms is rarely the location of the root cause of your symptoms. Therefore, treating your symptomatic area may give you temporary relief, but the symptoms come back since the cause of the symptoms has not been addressed. If we treat the cause of your symptoms, then long term relief can be attained. Brandi utilizes evaluative techniques called General and Local Listening that allows her hand to feel restrictions in the body and to identify the main restriction. The more specific to the anatomy involved that she can be, the better the treatment results. It's your body, not the therapist, that decides what gets treated and in what order it gets treated.
Container and Contents Theory
So how do we use these two concepts?
First Example
A former patient of mine came to therapy with the complaint of decreased motion and pain of her right shoulder. She had finished 2 rounds of traditional physical therapy from two different facilities before she came to me. The previous therapy had consisted of stretching, strengthening, joint mobs and postural education with all the treatment focusing on the right shoulder complex. She did improve some, but she was still experiencing pain and she did not have full motion at her evaluation with me. Through General and Local Listening, I could feel restrictions around her abdominal mesh (this was surgically implanted years ago for an umbilical hernia) that were negatively affecting her right shoulder. It felt like her right shoulder was getting pulled down into the mesh. After a few sessions of treating the restrictions along the abdominal mesh site, her right shoulder stopped hurting and she gained back its motion. I did not treat her right shoulder.
Second Example
A patient came to me complaining of low back pain. She had seen numerous practitioners for this pain for the last 5 years. All her treatments before she saw me focused entirely on her back. They included spinal manipulation, myofascial release, stretching, strengthening, core stabilization, dural releases and pelvic alignment with postural education. All these treatments are amazing, but they weren’t specific enough to what her body needed. Through General and Local Listening, I could feel restrictions from her abdominal and pelvic scars that she developed from numerous past surgeries negatively affecting her back. After a few sessions of treating these restrictions her back pain began to resolve and her activity level increased. I did not treat her back.
"Your body knows how to heal itself; it just needs a little assistance. Your body knows more than you do, and it knows more than I do about what it needs. You just need someone who has been trained to communicate with your body. It’s like needing a translator. Your body doesn’t want to hurt or to be in dysfunction. Give your body a chance to tell its story and to be heard. I would be honored to assist you in your healing journey."
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- Brandi Kirk, PT, PRPC, CVTP
Picture your musculoskeletal system as a container and your insides, including organs, blood vessels and nerves as the contents. Most people seek treatment because of symptoms in the container. The container’s job is to protect the contents at all costs. It’s the contents that keep us alive. Therefore, there is a high probability that the root of your musculoskeletal complaint is found in the contents. So, if the contents (organs, blood vessels, nerves) are not addressed in treatment, your symptoms may return. If the contents are addressed, then the container no longer has to protect the dysfunctional area and your symptoms subside.