Hand Therapy
What is Hand Therapy?
Hand Therapy is a specialized area within the field of Occupational Therapy focused on treating the upper body, from fingertips to shoulder region (aka the upper extremity).
Occupational Therapy (OT) emphasizes "Occupation", which involves activities that give meaning and purpose in your daily life. Tasks you need to do to get through your day, and activities you want to do to enjoy your day.
Certified Hand Therapists (CHT) have additional and advanced training and certification in treatment of the upper extremity.
If you are impaired by injury, illness, surgery, or general progression of chronic or autoimmune conditions, you may experience a decline in function and all the symptoms that come with it. This can be frustrating, fatiguing, painful and downright inconvenient!
My mission is to help you decrease your symptoms, increase your movement and strength, in order to improve your function. Setting goals to regain your ability to participate and thrive in your daily life. Getting you back on your path to hand/arm health and function!
As an OT/CHT, my preferred focus is on treatment of elbow to fingertip, working into the shoulder/neck area as needed.
I consider myself a manual-focused therapist. I am certified in Dry Needling for the Upper extremity and have training in Myofascial Release.
Common Symptoms treated:
Pain or tightness in your joints, muscles causing you to have to pause and think about how to move and get things done during your day
Weakness in hands and arms making it difficult to hold/grip every day items, such as reaching for your coffee cup or opening/closing a door
Sensation changes, tingling or numbness, or that "feeling” in your finger tips you can’t quite explain… annoying, not quite pain, but very frustrating
Waking up in the night with pain, tingling, numbness, and unable to find the right position to sleep, ugh!
Headaches/neck aches that seem to cause issues in your hands too… how is that even a thing?
You have having trouble with daily tasks, or things you enjoy doing, such as walking your dogs?
Common Diagnoses treated:
Arthritis, osteoarthritis or rheumatoid, what’s the difference?
Carpal tunnel, pain, tingling, numbness in thumb and fingers, feels like you need to shake it out
Cubital tunnel aka “I hit my funny bone and it won’t stop”, and its even going down into the pinky finger
lateral /medial epicondylosis aka Tennis elbow or golfers elbow, and you don’t even play?!?
Wrist or hand fractures from a fall or stumble, oops, ouch!
These are just some common symptoms and injuries people experience and that I treated…
What do you have going on?
Are you getting the relief and answers you need?
Is it something we can work on together?
Treatments that may be used
Manual therapy techniques to loosen you up, realign your tissues, decrease pain and tightness. This may include: soft tissue mobilization, instrument assisted soft tissue mobilization, myofascial release, dry needling, scar mobilization
Therapeutic activity to mimic or simulate activities you are having difficulty with at home, to retrain for specific tasks you need to /want to be able to do
Therapeutic exercise to get you moving better, get you stronger to tackle your everyday tasks as well as any fun hobbies or leisure activities you have been missing lately!
Neuro re-education to wake up or calm an a problem area, to retrain and relearn how best to move and get through the patterns of your day
Modalities to get your tissue and your psyche ready for the work ahead. Learn about options that you can use at home, you already have versus options you may be able to purchase to invest in your health and wellness moving forward
Home program to set you up for options to do on your own at home, at your speed and in your own time. Giving you information, teaching you what you can do for yourself to help you now and in case of any future issues, to empower you to take charge of your own health and path to your ideal wellness
Book a free 20 min chat
Contact me
If you have questions about services offered, or if you would like to book a Free 20 minute chat!
Let’s see if GF Health & Wellness would be a good fit for you, to find and follow your path to your best health and best self!
Fill out the form below, or email, text to connect!
hiya@GFhealthandwellness.com (515) 337-2568
