Physical Therapy Middletown NY | Northern Medical Center

Regain Mobility and Strength

Recover Faster with Structural Therapies

Relieve or Prevent Physical Pain

Improve Function and Quality of Life

The Basics of Physical Therapy

Physical Therapy Expert in Middletown, NY

“What a discovery! Quality physical therapy near me!”

Our local physical therapy clinic features experienced providers, who have developed a unique array of techniques that help clients correct and optimize their physical health. Our staff includes an integrated team of seasoned western medical doctors, Chinese traditional medicine (TCM) doctors, and physical therapists. As such, our providers draw from a large variety of physical therapy schools. We are thus able to offer a unique approach, and can work with you to select physical therapy techniques that help you thrive.

Physiotherapist giving physical therapy of leg to senior patient in clinic

Understanding Physical Therapy

What Does Physical Therapy Middletown NY Treat?

Physical therapy can treat a wide range of concerns. At Northern Medical Center, we focus on sports injuries, geriatric issues, orthopedic injuries, and mobility issues.

Physical Therapy Treats Sports Injuries

Sports are always accompanied by more or less risk of injury. If you are suffering from pulled muscles, runner’s knee, you may wish to join our physical therapy. Our professional physical therapy team can help you bounce back from an accident, heal chronic overuse pain and tenderness, identify underlying alignment and movement issues, and learn about other existing vulnerabilities that put you at risk for developing recurring injuries in the future.

We teach patients to identify specific movements and daily activities to correct these structural issues in joints, tendons, connective tissue, blood supply, and more. Through working with our team, you will be able to identify certain movements and daily activities which may make conditions worse—as well as those that are healthy for improving strength and flexibility. After a course of treatment, patients will fully understand their condition, be able to prevent similar problems, and to treat the problems if they recur in the future. Many patients tell us they have “become my own doctor now!”

Physical Therapy Treats Lower Back and Neck Pain

We introduce you to the well-known McKenzie method therapy. McKenzie therapy is especially effective for treating lower back and neck pain—one of the most common complaints that patients voice—where other treatments fall short. The McKenzie approach diagnoses musculoskeletal alignment and repetitive misuse issues. Through a series of graded exercises, the McKenzie program readjusts these issues, alleviating pressure on the system.

Physical Therapy Treats Arthritis

Muscle mobilizing and manipulation has been in use in medicine since ancient times. It entails guiding the movement of joints and muscles in varying degrees, to help with patients’ healing when they find it difficult to move on their own. Through assisted manipulation, physical therapy progressively guides patients to greater amplitude and frequency of movement, allowing for the development of greater mobility and strength by carefully moving from passive movement to active resistance. Some manipulation may also involve applying a fast but low amplitude pressure near the end of one’s range of motion. This can produce the “crack” that is often observed in chiropractic treatments, as areas that were previously stiff become loosened.

Physical Therapy Helps Structural Realignment

All too often the issues you face in one part of the body can actually begin at another source. Poor posture, shifting weight in asymmetric ways on the body, and bad habits can all contribute to misalignment, which—over time—becomes difficult to notice and correct. For instance, proper alignment of the spine can help with so-called “referred pain”. While such pain seems localized to a certain place (for example, a hip), in fact the hidden source of pain may originate in nerve fibers in the back, which are broadcast to other areas. Fixing alignment issues can therefore go a long way to receiving inflammation, muscle tenderness, pains, numbness and other chronic symptoms.

Soft Tissue Massage, Deep Tissue Massage, Fascia Manipulation, & Active Release

Depending on clients’ needs, our experienced staff may also supplement treatment with soft and deep tissue massage as it benefits each unique case. Soft tissue massage is more superficial, but can help to encourage blood circulation and limber muscles, tissues, and tendons so that they are ready to be worked. Likewise, soft tissue massage assists with easing tension following a challenging workout. Soft tissue massage can promote relaxation, preventing injury related to tension, as well as release endorphins that naturally help to reduce pain. Meanwhile, deep tissue massage may be more effective at reducing adhesions—the “knots” that build up, due to small tears or scarring in our muscle fibers. When we injure ourselves, collagen attempts to fix the injury, however it is “sticky”, and tends to clump and pull on muscles or muscle lining, called fascia. Despite the pain they can cause, such issues may not be identifiable with diagnostic imaging tools such as X-ray or ultrasound, maying them difficult to diagnose and treat. Many chronic pain issues result from adhesions, and an effective therapist can help you to find and break them up so that your muscles and fascia can function smoothly again, with better range of motion. By breaking down adhesions, deep tissue massage is also very helpful to reduce inflammation, promote better blood flow, encouraging the body’s natural healing process. In some cases, it is also beneficial to realign your fascia, following stress or injury. You can think of fascia as a smooth casing, which is attached to the muscles. When this casing is out of alignment, it irritates the muscles and leads to discomfort and pain. An experienced provider is able to gently guide your fascia back into alignment. An additional soft-tissue technique that we are able to offer is called active release. In this form of therapy, we identify adhesions and apply pressure to help you break them up as you move the affected area. When properly executed, this technique is an effective way to restore natural range of motion.

Other TCM Services

Additional Tools

In addition to our comprehensive physical therapy techniques, we also work with the below list of effective technologies that can help fast-forward your progress.

Ultrasound - introduces heat, which helps decrease pain, increase flexibility, promote circulation, and catalyze healing
Electrical Stimulation - an especially helpful tool when decreased mobility and stiffness limits patients’ ability to perform physical therapy
Far-Infrared Therapies - promotes healing and regeneration in the human body

Laser therapy. Physical therapist treating patient's shoulder

Other TCM Services

Holistic Physical Therapy

cropped shot of cosmetologist putting needles on womans back during acupuncture therapy in spa salon

In addition to a western medical approach, we also have the capability to address injury using time-tested traditional healing methodologies, steeped in ancient natural wisdom from Chinese Traditional Medicine (TCM).

These techniques treat the body as an integrated system, and work by addressing overall imbalances in the body to reduce chronic health issues that make inflammation and injury more likely, pain more unbearable, and recovery more difficult.

TCM is able to influence the nervous, endocrine and immune systems, putting your body in a state that is ideal for breaking up hard-to-eliminate conditions that impede progress with physical therapy.
Holistic physical therapy includes the following methos:

Acupuncture
Acupressure Massage
Magnetic Therapy

Meet Our Physical Therapist

David ( Xiaoming Gao)

Experiences

David has been working as a physical therapist for 25 years.

He combines structural level of Mckenzie approach and energy level of Chinese manual therapy and modalities such as magnetic energy, ultrasound and infrared energy to help clients correct and optimize their physical health.

David also co-treat with Chinese traditional medicine doctors for conditions such as stroke, Parkinson’s disease and joints disorders.

Languages

English and Chinese ( Mandarin and Cantonese )

Chinese manual therapy (Tuina and Acupressure)

Studied and practiced Chinese manual therapy in Hengyang Chinese Medicine Hospital in Hunan, China 1991-1992.