physical therapist with patient floor exercizes

Integrative Physical Therapy

What is integrative physical therapy?

Integrative physical therapy offers a whole person approach to rehabilitation, focusing on maximizing the body's self-healing abilities, regulating the stress response, exploring root dysfunctions, and paying close attention to the connections between the mind, body, and spirit through movement.

Core Values:

  • Spirit of collaboration between therapist, patient, and medical team
  • Importance of whole person care
  • Healing as a mechanism for social justice and empowerment
  • Power of the breath to facilitate deeper healing
  • Importance of regulating the stress response
  • Honoring the uniqueness and complexity of each patient
  • Evidence-informed care

Mission Statement:

Our mission is to inspire patients to find joy, strength, confidence, trust, compassion, and purpose in fostering a deep connection with their body for improved well-being throughout their lifetime.

How we achieve our mission and live our values:

  • Lifestyle coaching as a mechanism for wellness 
  • Active therapies – may include yoga, somatics, posture, and therapeutic movement 
  • Manual therapies – may include CranioSacral, myofascial, visceral, and joint mobilizations 
  • Breath training 
  • Mindfulness training 
  • Integrative team-based care and collaboration 

Frequently Asked Questions

We see all the same variety of conditions that a traditional physical therapist would see – from headaches, to back pain, to sprained ankles and athletic and traumatic injuries. Our holistic approach is a great option for those with multiple health problems, chronic and/ or widespread pain and hypersensitivity to touch.

Evaluations and follow-up visits are 60 minutes in length. Please dress in comfortable clothes that allow you to move freely. If you have a specific area of concern (knee, shoulder, etc.) please dress in clothing that would allow access to these areas.

Contact your health care provider for a referral to physical therapy at Integrative Health in the Clinic & Specialty Center in Minneapolis. Call 612-873-6963 to schedule an appointment.

We also work with more active integrative therapies to get you moving through a greater range of motion with more strength, less pain and with more relaxation and freedom in your body. 

Mindful movement and custom exercise programs are used and designed to retrain normal movement patterns and improve posture and range of motion while gaining strength, stability, balance, and breath capacity. These active therapies may include: 

  • Personalized wellness assessments 
  • Therapeutic yoga 
  • Posture training 
  • Breath training 
  • Movement/rest balancing 
  • Return to activities after injury or other setbacks  
  • Somatic motor control exercises and sensory integration 
  • Core strength / stabilization 
  • Neuro-dynamic exercises 
  • Meditation, mindfulness, and calming the nervous system 
  • Balance training 
  • Proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (PNF) 
  • Collaboration in care with other providers 

Our physical therapy is primarily done with hands-on manual techniques, including direct techniques for joints and soft tissues and also gentle light-touch techniques for the more delicate tissues like fascia, vessels, nerves, and organ systems.  No machines or modalities are used in our treatment sessions. Hands-on treatment techniques include:

  • CranioSacral therapy
  • Myofascial release
  • Muscle energy
  • Joint mobilization
  • Neural mobilization
  • Visceral techniques

CranioSacral therapy, neural mobilization, visceral techniques, and myofascial release

These are all light-touch manual techniques that work with the fascia or connective tissues within the body including the nerves, the spine, the cranium, the brain and the body’s viscera or organ systems.  These techniques help to free up restrictions that interfere with the body’s normal healing process leading to chronic pain.

Posture training, somatic motor control exercises, proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation and sensory integration

These techniques retrain healthy posture and movement patterns to allow the performance of daily activities in life with ease, relaxation, and less effort or pain. The ability to use the body with good posture and control is the best way to prevent injury.