Hey there!  I'm Brandon an integrative physical therapist in Grand Rapids, MI.  If you're like most people that are visiting this webpage then you are curious about what integrative physical therapy is and if it can help you.  Integrative physical therapy is different from what people usually think of when they think of physical therapy because it includes not only the usual PT stuff but also incorporates other ideas that are usually left out.  Medicine is integrative if it includes both what science can explain and what science is unable to explain just yet.  Integrative PT can take a lot of different forms but I will share a bit about my specific brand.

​

Early in my career, I took an interest in osteopathic manual manipulation and traditional Chinese medicine.  My patients who weren't getting better with the stretching, strengthening and postural re-education of standard physical therapy were noticing significant changes if we took an approach more focused on their nervous system.  At the time that meant osteopathic manual manipulation and acupressure.  I would see pain and anxiety go down and strength and energy go up.  Over time I began to conclude that people felt a lot better when they were in a state of parasympathetic (rest and digest) up-regulation and sympathetic (fight or flight) down-regulation.  Basically, if someone is anxious and stressed they hurt more and if they are relaxed they feel better.

​

So, I stopped focusing so much on the muscles and bones and focused more on helping people get out of their fight or flight patterns and teaching them how to stay out of those patterns.  What I've found is that musculoskeletal dysfunctions will either no longer be present or be much easier to treat when a person is no longer in a fight or flight pattern.  Tricky pains like fibromyalgia/central and peripheral sensitization, RSD/CRPS, amplified pain syndrome all respond very well to a delicate and integrative approach.

​

My most basic explanation is that bones do what the muscles say and the muscles do what the nerves say; so we are going to work on the patterns in your nervous system.  How those patterns got there can be complicated so it's important to not be limited by using only what science can explain.  For me that means using all of our senses and concepts from a diverse group of teachings including osteopathy, naturopathy, allopathy and traditional healing concepts from the Americas and Asia.  I present these concepts in a palatable way explained through scientific principles as I understand them while we wait for science to catch up to what humans have known for millennia.​

​

If you have more questions, please reach out via the contact page.  Good luck on your journey!