Manual Therapy is an active hands-on approach to intervention and healing used by many innovative physical therapists in the orthopedic arena.
Manual therapists use the techniques described below to evaluate and treat musculoskeletal injuries.
Counterstrain is a treatment to change muscle firing rates through positioning and contact to return balance to the reflex system. A variety of massage techniques focus on tendons, muscle, ligaments and fascia in order to decrease muscle tension, increase circulation and mobility, so appropriate parasympathetic responses follow. Specific stretch and manipulation of fascia focuses on loosening and repositioning connective tissure to increase muscle group function in order to allow greater freedom of movement. This is a technique to improve nerve mobility with respect to the surrounding connective tissue. Scarring after traumatic insult can adher the fascial sheath surrounding a nerve to that nerve thus limiting full motion and function.