I have 30 years of experience as a physical therapist.

I love what my work has become. I am a student of movement. I work in my home, with my hands, one on one. I listen, I learn, I teach, motivate and problem solve.

The first half of my career, I worked with teams of therapists in inpatient rehabilitation. I also worked in hospital settings in acute care and ICU. I didn’t realize it at the time, but what I loved about those settings was the focus on return to function and movement patterns vs. solely treatment of symptoms. Can this person get in and out of bed? Can they get up and down from a chair, can they walk safely around their home without falling? This focus on function seemed to be missing in outpatient orthopedic physical therapy.

Later, my interest in holistic movement led me to yoga practice, yoga teacher training, and teaching classes for 7 years. It was here I learned and fell in love with the felt experience of movement, adding in the emotional and spiritual aspects, in addition to the intellectual understanding of anatomy and physiology.

In 2010, I began working as a physical therapist in an outpatient orthopedic setting. Wanting to understand the body in more depth and have more treatment tools for this setting, I was fortunate to begin taking courses with the Institute of Physical Art (IPA).

Their focus on functional movement patterns and helping individuals reach their full potential inspired me and taught me a way of looking at orthopedic physical therapy through the lens of function, not unlike inpatient physical therapy and yoga.

After 9 years of taking, re-taking and lab assisting IPA classes, I spent a year studying and took their week long exam to become a Certified Functional Manual Therapist (CFMT). Only .1 % of physical therapists in the U.S. hold this designation, and I am currently one of 11 in WA state.

I have also been influenced in my practice through Feldenkrais based courses for physical therapists with Gordon Browne PT, and currently, courses in visceral mobilization through the Barral Institute.

Some of my favorite things include backpacking, skiing, sea kayaking, walks in the forest and human powered travel adventures. I have a regular yoga/movement practice and I am the mom of two wonderful young adult boys. When not being active, I enjoy reading, knitting and savoring a good cup of coffee.