With Becky Sheaffer-Egan, M.P.T.

At Wellness and Rehabilitation Medical Center Physical Therapy, we have an experienced, caring staff to assist our clients in the method of exercise that fits their individual needs.  Physical injuries like an auto accident or a slip-and-and-fall can be very painful, even traumatizing, and can restrict a person’s ability to get around. Chronic pain syndromes that develop over the years like headaches, low back pain and repetitive injuries are often a result of spiraling pain and restricted movement. The natural responses to rest and restricted movement beyond the initial acute recovery can actually result in more pain due to the lack of circulation. Prolonged, continued pain can cause the person to further restrict movement, also inhibiting healing. This spiraling of movement restriction and pain slows recovery times of all types of injuries, surgeries or diseases. Proper rehabilitating movement is necessary to turn around this spiral effect. Recent research has shown that recovery times are accelerated with therapeutic movement, and delayed without it. At our physiotherapy clinic we work with patients to unwind the spiral of pain and restricted movement.  We help develop techniques to avoid re-injury as well as protect injured areas while strengthening muscles that can function well.  This gives our clients alternatives to surgery and a lifetime of unrelenting chronic pain. We have a full-service gym with Pilates and cardiovascular equipment, weights, multiple modalities, and a 30-foot aquatic therapy pool.

Contents

Individualized Treatments

Manual Therapy

Body Mechanics Training

Pilates-Based Stabilization Exercises

Aquatic-based Physiotherapy

Modalities

Movement School

Taking it Home

Back and Neck Pain

Repetitive Motion Injuries

Headaches

Post Surgery Recovery

Post Accident Recovery

Physiotherapy Clinic benefits and policies

Biographies and Education of our therapists

Individualized Treatments

Probably our best asset at the Clinic is our focus on the individual. We see the individual as a whole person, and we focus on that whole person, with undivided attention, on an individual basis. We put individualized programs together for our patients, delivering the most current, applicable information, and providing soothing, rejuvenating, and balancing therapeutics with the whole person in mind. We pride ourselves on our ability to teach skills that will be useful for a lifetime of movement. This means that most of our sessions are one-on-one throughout the session with our therapists.  This means that we focus on the patient’s injury (and wellness) status, movement and conditioning every session, throughout the session. This means that we consider each patient to be the most important part of our practice!

Manual Therapy

At Wellness and Rehabilitation Medical Center Physical Therapy, we utilize a number of manual therapy techniques. We practice musculoskeletal alignment techniques including Myofascial Release, Craniosacral Therapy, biomechanical osteopathic alignment, Mechanical Link, Fascial Facilitation, Body Rolling, Baad Ragaz and Watsu Techniques for pain control and range of motion restoration. These techniques are not only for myokinematic and postural restoration, but create a strong foundation for the activities that our clients wish to pursue.

Body Mechanics Training

Body mechanics is the art of moving consistently in a well balanced, strong, and efficient manner. Sometimes this takes training. Most of us have not had much training in how to stand, walk, run or sit correctly. As a result many of us perform these activities with postures that actually cause dysfunction and pain. To correct these movement dysfunctions, our clinic staff will train (or retrain) our clients to use and concurrently relax the appropriate musculature to move with balance. The client will be given tools to facilitate and guide each movement in order to maximize its biomechanical efficiency. Musculoskeletal balance and alignment allows the client to move through space with more strength and stability with less expended energy. We focus on movement and posture into the body’s levers, where we are supposed to move, as well as develop the core muscles, which will remove stress from the weaker parts of the body. It is often the weaker/compensated muscles that have become injured or are often damaged because of inefficient (unnecessary) repetitive movement. After only a few sessions at the Clinic a person will take away tools that allow them to walk and sit taller, with less pain and more efficiency.

Pilates-Based Stabilization Exercises

Pilates is the newest rage in exercise because it facilitates movement from the core, strengthening and focusing on the transverse muscles of the abdomen and ribcage that support the spine and provide stability to the body. Most of us habitually overwork our back muscles and don’t allow the superior strength of the abdominals and especially the leg muscles to do their job.  This overstresses the muscles that habitually overcompensate in the spine and weaken the leg muscles by not effectively utilizing them. At the clinic we retrain the client to utilize the stronger, leg muscles, taking pressure off the overworked, often painful postural spinal muscles.

Pilates-Based Therapeutic exercise was developed by Joseph Pilates (1880-1967). During his lifetime, Mr. Pilates was an accomplished boxer, gymnast and circus performer, a man who overcame asthma and rheumatic fever to become an example of superb health and dexterity.  During the First World War, Mr. Pilates devised a series of exercises as a means to rehabilitate injured people and those bedridden with injuries from the war. Pilates used the bedsprings from the patient’s own beds to enable them to exercise.  He continued developing his innovative technique, and after traveling to the United States during the Second World War, Pilates began training dancers in the New York ballet. It was only after his death that his unique and successful exercise programs became available mainstream to dancers worldwide, health professionals, and the general public.

Eight basic principles create the Pilates foundation:

1. Concentration: to focus the mind on what the body is doing
2. Control: to manage movement, creating efficiency in motion
3. Core Stability: to enable the body to move from a stable base using strong core muscles deep within the midsection
4. Breathing: to initiate and organize the movement while establishing pace and inner strength
5. Postural Alignment: to avoid muscle or joint over-extension and increase efficiency
6. Flow and Precision: to process movement methodically and precisely
7. Stamina and Endurance: to provide long-term strength within the body and with movement
8. Relaxation: to allow healing and health optimization.

The depth of Pilates knowledge at the clinic is extensive. Rather than a weekend course, our therapists have taken extensive training in Pilates rehabilitation and conditioning. Pilates physiotherapy sessions engage a number of tools and equipment that allow the patient to quickly gain access to their core and lever muscles. In addition, we offer weekly Pilates workouts for $40 per 4 classes, which also will include individualized instruction while exercising. This comes to only $10 per workout, quite a deal for this depth of knowledge from these professionals!

Aquatic-Based Physiotherapy

Our indoor therapy pool provides a soothing non-weight bearing environment for early stage recovery injuries and multiple joint problems. We house a 30-foot long by 7-feet wide pool that is 4-feet deep throughout. The water temperature is kept at 92 degrees, known as the “therapeutic temperature”. The easy flow of water can be calming and relaxing, allowing injured and sensitive muscles and joints to relax and begin to move, which works to decrease pain and let healing processes begin. Because gravity is less in water, we feel lighter and less weight bears down on our muscles while moving. This decreased gravity and weight allows easier movement, so clients with restricted movement may learn to move without normal stressors bearing down on their joints.

Hydrotherapy as a subset of physical medicine has been used for thousands of years. Historical records show water therapy was used extensively among the Japanese, the Chinese, the Greeks, the Romans, the Incas, the Hindus and many other cultures of the world for the treatment of disease and injury.  In the 1920s, the modern version of therapeutic aquatic exercise was developed, and protocols for systematic exercises and progression were developed, with peer-review on the success of various movements. This has resulted in a time-tested, successful system of aquatic therapy protocols. Hydrotherapy is now considered as standard treatment for spinal surgery patients, people with neurological impairments, chronic pain and dysfunctional gait patterns to name a few.

The effects and uses of hydrotherapy include:

1. Relieving pain and muscle spasm
2. Maintaining or increasing joint range of movement
3. Strengthening and endurance training for weakened muscles
4. Re-educating paralyzed muscles or motor patterns
5. Improving circulation, decreasing inflammation
6. Encouraging functional activities
7. Maintaining and improving balance coordination and posture
8. Improved perceptual stimulation visually, aurally, and through skin receptors

Modalities

We employ a number of palliative modalities including Ultrasound, TENS, Interferential, Direct Current Electrical Stimulation, Biofeedback and, of course heat and cold therapies.

Ultrasound is a unit that emits frequencies that signal to muscles, tendons and ligaments to relax and feedback alternative signals to the central nervous system. Alternative signals can mean a reduction in pain and increased circulation and flexibility. Ultrasound is applied by our therapists directly onto the skin using a special treatment gel and has been shown to be a safe and effective therapeutic tool.

TENS, Interferential, Direct Current, and Biofeedback therapies are all applied with small electrodes attached to muscular insertion, belly or origins by the therapist, depending upon the response needed to facilitate or relax specified musculature. The therapist programs the machine to emit varying frequencies and amplitude, which translate into a particular signal to the muscle. This signal can result in a relaxing or stimulating response from the muscle, depending upon what the therapist feels is needed for the client’s

particular issue. Our electrical stimulation units can often be given to client’s to take home as a prescribed therapy.

Movement and Alignment

We focus on giving each patient a clear understanding of how their body works best with respect to structure and movement. Day-to-day movement training is stressed, and we give our patients tools they can use to increase efficiency and remove stress from their sitting, standing, walking or other task movements. These tools last a lifetime with patients, and can avoid future chronic pain or repetitive movement issues.

Often we find patients are athletes who are possibly undergoing recovery, but also may appreciate tools for improving performance. For these patients we have a special appreciation, and we will work individually and extensively with the structured movements used in their particular sport or performance activity to enable them to have the tools to improve their efficiency and possibly enhance their performance.

Special focus of the Clinic are our occupational athletes. We spend time with the patient to understand what kind of movement or activity is required from them on the job, and work with them to establish tools to increase efficiency and reduce load-bearing, with the intention to get them back to work quickly, when they are ready.

Taking it Home

Our central mission is to give each patient the tools to manage their lives after they leave the center in ways that allow for more movement and less pain. A life of pain and restricted movement is simply unacceptable to us. We want every patient to walk away with tools that will help them on a practical basis to avoid pain and increase flexibility and movement. These tools will include mental exercises, lifelong changes in how a person sits, runs, walks, and stands. Positive reinforcement is emphasized so that movement patterns are deep-set. Then there are always the athletes and people with physical occupations who rely upon us to help them either improve their performance or allow them to work without pain so that they can continue to make a living. We’ve been successful at doing this: improving athletic performance and getting people back to work!

A few of the types of injuries or chronic pain issues that we specialize in:

Back and Neck Pain

Some estimate low back pain at an incident rate of about 80% of our population. Back pain can be the result of injury, muscular weakness, poor coordination and/or posture, decreased flexibility, stress and tension, old injuries, or repetitive motion. Determination of the precise causes can often be difficult, even by doctors.

Treatment options can be even more confusing. With some doctors prescribing anything from surgery to manipulation, the patient can often be faced with a serious, dizzying array of options on treatment, with some treatments causing irreversible consequences.

Of all therapies, the therapy with the highest level of acceptance and success, in both peer-reviewed studies and among doctors is physical therapy, either as an adjunct to other therapies or by itself.

Techniques for back and neck pain that we utilize include:

• Myofascial Release, a releasing of muscular and connective tissue tightness, increasing circulation to injured areas and easing pain from tender points within muscular and joint tissue, may be utilized.
• Mobilization: a low force joint manipulation, used to restore mobility to stiff joints.
• Muscle Energy Technique, an Osteopathic technique that uses the patient’s own muscular effort to guide movement, might be employed.
• Aquatic Therapy, therapy in our 92-degree 40-foot long, 4 foot deep therapy pool to allow for movement with lessened stress, thus increasing flexibility and range of movement may be used.
• Pilates exercises to build the core, creating strength among the body’s levers.
• Body Mechanics or Myokinematic School, a teaching of the patient about the spine and how it works, and showing the patient how to sit, stand, walk and exercise with reduced pain would most certainly be employed.
• Muscle Stimulator Devices are employed to help reduce pain and increase healing to a particular area.

Repetitive Motion Injuries

Repetitive motion injuries include things like carpal tunnel syndrome and tennis or golf elbow. These injuries are often gradual, taking place over time as movement is repeated.

We will first analyze the movement then give the patient tools to prevent the repetition. These tools might include:

• Flexibility exercises to create more flexibility in the group of muscles concerned
• Strengthening exercises to create more strength in the opposing muscle group.
• Retraining movement to give the patient alternative movement positions to accomplish the same movement with less strain.
• Pilates training to stabilize core musculature and take stressors off of injured areas.
• Mobilization, Muscle Energy Technique, Myofascial Release, and Aquatic Therapy may also be applied to recondition the group of muscles or release impinged nerves.

Headaches

There are several types of headaches and they can have a number of different causes. This common ailment is often due to tension, often caused by the body’s reaction to stress and/or posture. Other headaches may be related to allergies, hormone imbalances, heavy metal toxicity, or long-standing cranial and neck dysfunction, which can combine with muscular/stress reactions.

We use a number of therapies that can be helpful for chronic headaches, including:

• Craniosacral Therapy, a gentle hands-on method of ensuring mobility of the cranial bones, which can be restricted, slowing the movement of cerebrospinal fluid, may be used.
• Myofascial Release, techniques to release muscular and connective tissue tightness, increasing circulation, may be used.
• Body Mechanics Training may be used to help find the right sitting, sleeping and other positions that minimize strain and tension.
• Biofeedback, or learning to retrain a muscle’s response to activity and stress, and taking control over tensed muscles may be employed.

Post Surgery Recovery

Many of our patients come to physical therapy as part of their recovery from a surgery. Often the surgeon will prescribe physical therapy to speed up the healing process, and to regain movement.

For these patients we often use:

• Aquatic Therapy, with its reduced-weight bearing stress, to encourage the patient to begin normal movement.
• Pilates-based exercises to strengthen the core muscles and regain flexibility. Our Band exercise program is often the key to speedy movement recovery and strength.
• Modalities to ease tensed muscles and increase flexibility.
• Myofascial or Manual techniques to align joints, increase flexibility, improve strength and decrease pain.

Post Accident Recovery

Our clients may come in or be referred after they have experienced a traumatic accident. This could be an auto accident, or a fall of some kind, etc. These types of injuries can be traumatic because they will not only create pain and restricted movement, but often can result in a fear of particular situations, especially situations that might remind them of the accident.

For these patients we carefully screen their injury so that we understand how it happened, and what forces were applied to the body to create the injury. We respectfully and carefully try to understand what the patient went through so that we can design an individual recovery program that guides the patient through to remove movement restriction, reduce pain, and hopefully, alleviate some of the trauma associated with the accident.

For these purposes we will apply a number of potential treatment methods:

• Aquatic Therapy is often utilized to regain initial movement, and ease tension.
• Myofascial Release is often applied to loosen up sore or restricted muscle groups.
• Osteopathic alignment is often undertaken in order to correct joints or vertebra that may have gotten a bit out of kilter.
• Joint Mobilization is utilized to help restore normal joint movement.
• Ultrasound may be applied to loosen connective tissue and increase circulation.
• Muscle Stimulator Devices are often employed to help reduce pain and increase healing to a particular area.

Some of the specific benefits and policies:

Ø      We are bilingual in Spanish and English

Ø      We typically structure appointments for a full 45 minutes per session

Ø      We listen to our patients

Ø      We develop individualized treatment plans

Ø      We monitor the progress with each patient

Ø      We apply the most sophisticated methods and stay up with the current research

Ø      We teach patients how to avoid re-injury and how to return to work safely

BECKY SHEAFFER-EGAN, M.P.T.

Becky graduated from U.C. Davis in Biological Sciences in1992.  She continued her studies, receiving her Master’s degree in Physical Therapy from Samuel Merritt College in Oakland, Ca in 1996, and became Polestar Certified in Pilates in 2002. 

Becky’s educational background in physical therapy is extensive with training in Maitland evaluation and treatment, Kaiser Residency’s 6 month intensive Advanced Manual Therapy Skills and Mentorship, McKenzie treatment methods, Michigan State Osteopathic Medicine Evaluation and Treatment methods, Watsu techniques, Muscle Energy, Ergonomic consulting and Craniosacral techniques.  Most recently, she has been studying Mechanical Link evaluation and treatment methods through the Upledger Institute.  These techniques address all planes of movement in peripheral and spinal joints, lines of force at cranial and sacral complexes, as well as long bones, dural restriction, visceral mobility and vascular restriction.

Manual therapeutic treatment benefits are enhanced and supported by the work that Becky has done with Pilates and Pilates Rehabilitation in our gym and our pool.  Pilates-based skills help clients of all levels, strengths, and function learn to move with more ease and less stress on each joint.  Becky’s philosophy on exercise is that it should enhance the way we perform our life tasks or pleasures and become part of our lifestyle.  This leads to a lifetime of fitness, and therefore, wellness.

Becky’s goals are to individualize each treatment session to empower our clients with the skills to feel their body move with a balance of strength, flexibility and fluidity while minimizing pain.  This comes not only from the physical body, but the mind and spirit as well.  A holistic balance allows efficiency in movement and minimizes joint stressors due to faulty movement patterns regardless of whether the activity is simple or an athletic sport at its highest level.

Becky’s joys in life include treating clients, running, backpacking, hiking, singing blues and jazz standards, swimming in mountain lakes, gardening, cooking and being a mother to her young son, Shea and a wife to her husband, Bobby.  She is thrilled to own a home in Santa Cruz County and loves giving back to her community as much as it has given to her.

You can reach Becky by email at becky@wellness-rehab.com or schedule an appointment  with her by phoning 831-768-9707.

REBECCA REID, C.M.T., P.T. AIDE

A California native, Rebecca became involved in sports, fitness and dance at an early age. She became a fitness instructor in 1971, was certified as a massage therapist in 1993 and received personal training certification from the American Council on Fitness in 2003. In 2004 she was awarded Pilates Mat Certification through the California Education Connection. Rebecca has been a Physical Therapy Aide since 2002 in both private clinic and hospital settings. Rebecca enjoys working one-on-one with her clients. She has good listening skills and focuses on helping her clients set and meet their goals, whether it be improving fitness, increasing general wellness, increasing flexibility or decreasing muscle tension.