What was this potentially "woo" physical therapy treatment I received?

June 28, 2017 12:16 PM

A few years ago, I was having bad back pain and was referred by my doctor to a physical therapist. After a few months of treatment with no real improvement, the therapist suggested I see one of his coworkers and said her treatment was "a little woo" but asked if I might be open to that. I'm generally a "hey, why not?" sort of person so I booked an appointment with the coworker for my next visit (this was at the same regular physical therapy clinic and was still covered by my insurance).

The second therapist did some sort of treatment where she sort of felt around on my scalp/head to identify problem areas and then did some type of adjustment with my ribs (on the front, not on my back). I don't remember more specifics, unfortunately! But, just the one session of this dramatically improved the back pain and I didn't end up needing to go back.

I have since moved, switched jobs/insurance, etc. and don't remember the name of the physical therapist, but the back pain has returned. I'm wondering if this treatment sounds familiar to anyone so I could look into seeing if there's someone in my new city who does it. I probably should just ask my doctor but I feel sheepish considering the original physical therapist definitely acted like it was a non-standard thing! :) Any ideas?

posted by rainbowbrite to Health & Fitness (4 answers total)

Sounds like craniosacral therapy to me.
posted by rabbitrabbit at 12:23 PM on June 28, 2017 [4 favorites]

Was going to suggest it was some type of an osteopath (because that's what it sounds like) and craniosacral therapy is an offshoot of osteopathy. Call some osteopaths!
posted by jbenben at 12:28 PM on June 28, 2017

Could be craniosacral, which I suppose does sound woo, but does seem to be effective. BUT I go to a regular PT, and she has a doctorate, so you know, someone who has studied a lot, and she does something sort of similar. She basically just looks at and touches me and then gently pushes things and heypresto I feel better. Like, she's touched my neck and jaw and then pushed on my ribs and I can feel things relaxing and I can move better. So it could just be a really well-trained PT who knows a lot of modalities (I've done a lot of PT, and only one other person has been this good). Do you remember the practice, if not the actual provider? I bet if you called they could give you more info.
posted by john_snow at 12:47 PM on June 28, 2017 [1 favorite]

This is probably not it, but could it have been Koren Specific Technique?
posted by you must supply a verb at 6:17 PM on June 28, 2017