Yes! While I offer physical therapy in the traditional sense (exercise, stretching, etc) I focus more on giving my patients independence in their health. I do this through educating my patients on the many aspects of their healthcare, from how to navigate our challenging healthcare system to ways they can manage their health to discussing other aspects of their health and providing advice on these concerns. Because of this, I think of myself as a health mentor with a background in physical therapy.

I have found that with this approach, many of my patients are able to find greater freedom in their health. They are better informed on how to take care of themselves, which helps reduce the number of appointments they need, leaving them with more time and money to enjoy life.

My experiences in multiple healthcare settings, both professionally and as a patient, have given me ample insight into today's healthcare system. It is challenging to navigate this, and having someone to coach us through this journey is vitally important to our success. Providing this guidance is a passion of mine.

Fascial Counterstrain (FCS) is the application of hands-on manual therapy to release contractions of your tissues, such as muscles, ligaments, and nerves. When there is tissue tension, this can cause pain and dysfunction. By releasing these tissues, the body can move more appropriately and release inflammation. This is a painless technique and has the ability to affect any system in the body, including lymphatics, visceral organs, bone, and more. Tissue tension release is achieved through gentle repositioning of the body that I will perform. Learn more about FCS here.

I frequently hear from my patients that they are frustrated with long wait times, limited coverage, short appointments, limited information from appointments that leads to confusion about their condition, limited improvement, a lack of tailoring treatment to their needs, and generally feeling let down by their healthcare providers and insurance companies. 

This stems from many things. One of those is reimbursement policies from insurance companies. Different kinds of physical therapy treatment are reimbursed differently. An example is that neuro rehab is reimbursed more than therapeutic exercise. For each subsequent “unit” of time spent with a patient, the physical therapist is also reimbursed less. They literally lose money after 22 minutes for doing the same treatment. This leads to overlapping patients and shorter treatment times so that the clinic can still make enough money to pay the bills. Oftentimes, clinics will employ physical therapy techs to carry out much of the labor to save on costs, setting patients up on exercise machines while being “supervised” by the physical therapist across the gym. It’s all technically legal, but it’s a far cry from ethical.

Private physical therapy practices also are reimbursed significantly less than hospital-based practices, making it an even greater challenge to stay afloat. This is why more hospital-based clinics have longer treatment times and don’t use physical therapy techs, they don’t have to. 

Insurance companies will delay reimbursement, often for months, driving the private clinic into bankruptcy. Churning through patients is one way to help stave this off.

Another reason is insurance limits coverage for treatment to the point that physical therapists cannot address the injury/problem in its entirety. Meaning, a patient may reach 75% of their previous functionality and then insurance stops covering their therapy. The patient can have shoulder pain, but their problem can be originating from their low back scoliosis, and so insurance won’t cover treatment that isn’t focused on the shoulder. Basically, a patient is only allowed to be sick so much before insurance will stop covering their healthcare.

To fight these limitations, large clinics and hospital-based clinics hire staff solely to pursue payment and coverage from insurance. Small clinics cannot afford this, leading to loss of money, a loss of coverage, and burnout. Physical therapists will often take unpaid time to fight for their patients, making phone calls during their lunch for peer-to-peer reviews with insurance to explain why the patient needs treatment coverage despite the reasons already being in the note. Insurance will often only look at one or two data points to determine if the patient is still in need of coverage, ignoring the lengthy write-up the physical therapist has constructed to explain their patient’s condition as a whole. 

Another reason is that our education, while lengthy and detailed, also focuses primarily on orthopedics more than anything else. This leads to a limited understanding of other conditions and requires the physical therapist to take on extensive education after graduation to ensure they know how to treat their patient. This can be expensive, and therefore prohibitive, leading to few physical therapists who can address other conditions (think pelvic floor health or fascial work as examples).

In short, I have chosen to provide physical therapy out of network in order to stay aligned with my values and ethics for patient care. This allows me to address a person’s needs as they arise rather than being isolated to one part of the body at a time. Paying privately also allows me to treat for longer periods of time per session and allows me to treat a person for as many sessions as they need to heal. Treating someone for longer sessions provides more time to address all aspects of care, and reduces the number of appointments needed to achieve the patient’s goals. I am sorry. I wish it were different.

• Treating the whole body and not just one part

• Access to a high sought-after and highly trained fascial release practitioner

• Access to a physical therapist that acknowledges all aspects of health and maintains the space to do so

• Shorter wait times to be scheduled for treatment

• E-mails and phone calls with the physical therapist, not an assistant or front desk person

• All appointments are with your physical therapist

• Longer treatment times

• No limits to number or frequency of appointments

• Simple, transparent pricing and help with submitting your superbill to insurance

I look at physical therapy as a team effort. I will do everything in my power to help someone heal, but I cannot do it alone. If the patient is unable to fully participate (within reason), I will not be able to continue working with them as we will struggle to see results. If you want to dive deep into your health and are willing to be responsible for your health, we can achieve great results. 

At this time, I do not accept insurance or Medicare. I am however happy to provide a superbill so that you may request reimbursement from your insurance provider. Medicare rules state that those who are medicare beneficiaries cannot pay “out of pocket” for physical therapy. However, there are circumstances that allow a person with Medicare to pay privately. Please email for more details.

Payment is due at the time of service for all appointments. 

Please note that I do provide super bills (detailed invoices) so that you may request reimbursement from your insurance provider directly. This process is quick and simple, and often has a greater success rate of reimbursement than when requested from a practitioner. 

 For those with a Health Savings Account (HSA) or a Flexible Spending Account (FSA) you may also use this as a form of payment if physical therapy is determined to be necessary by your doctor. 

Another option is working with Friends of Friends. This is a medical support fund on South Whidbey with the intention of helping those with uncovered medical expenses. For more information, please visit their website here.

You do not need a referral to see a physical therapist in the state of Washington as we are a “direct access” state. If you plan to submit for reimbursement to your insurance company, you may be required to have a referral to receive reimbursement. You may also have a limited number of visits for physical therapy per year. Be sure to check with your insurance provider on what your benefits cover. 

I only work with orthopedic pediatrics, specifically middle school and highschool athletics as well as all dance students.

My athletic experience and specialties are cross country/long distance track, swimming, and rock climbing. I have also worked closely with cyclists and volley ball athletes. 

Yes, I am a member of the Whidbey Island Holistic Health Association (WIHHA)