Manual Therapy Plus

“Manual therapy” covers a range of specialized techniques used to assess and treat movement dysfunction in the body. It includes a detailed biomechanical assessment of the muscles, joints, fascia and nerves as well manually applied movement techniques such as joint mobilization/manipulation, myofascial release, soft tissue mobilization and neural mobilization to treat excessive and restricted movement.

The International Federation of Orthopaedic Manipulative Physical Therapists (IFOMPT) defines manual therapy techniques as:

“Skilled hand movements intended to produce any or all of the following effects: improve tissue extensibility; increase range of motion of the joint complex; mobilize or manipulate soft tissues and joints; induce relaxation; change muscle function; modulate pain; and reduce soft tissue swelling, inflammation or movement restriction.”

The therapists at Synergy have all taken post-graduate courses in orthopeadic manual therapy and are recognized by the Canadian Physiotherapy Association and the International Federation of Orthopaedic Manipulative Therapists.

Special foot release technique – Compression Vector Release (created by Dr LJ Lee)

In addition to this, they have all been trained by Clinic Director, Physiotherapist Dr. LJ Lee, in specialized & powerful hands-on techniques to assess and treat all parts of the body in methods not taught in the traditional system.

Dr. LJ Lee teaches these techniques to physiotherapists around the world through her teaching company (www.ljlee.ca), and the Synergy Team has extra mentoring and training directly with LJ. Thus, you’ll find at Synergy that the therapists use different techniques than you may experienced before – not only for the thoracic spine and ribcage (Thoracic Ring Approach™), but for the neck, shoulders, low back and pelvis, hips, knees and ankles/feet – ie. the whole body!

One of the many differences in how we do manual therapy at Synergy relates to how we integrate manual therapy with movement in both assessment & treatment. In the ConnectTherapy™ & Thoracic Ring Approach™ models, Physiotherapist Dr. LJ Lee has integrated hands-on manual therapy techniques with movement to facilitate faster changes and train the nervous system to use the new options gained.The combination of hands-on release and movement is a powerful way to stimulate & train new movement pathways. Thus, you’ll find that your Synergy Physio will have you doing movements while they perform hands-on releases for your muscles, fascia and nerves, called “dynamic release and train”. LJ started developing this method very early in her career based on the gap she saw between passive manual techniques and active functional movement programs.

So “Manual Therapy Plus” means that we use our hands-on techniques in a variety of contexts, and we will get you to move while we release and train in an integrated way.