About Us
Philosophy
My business, Integrated Therapeutic Flow, is the integration of manual therapy, functional exercise, and yoga for the treatment of neurologic and orthopedic traumas, pain, cranial, TMJ, spinal, pelvis, and extremity dysfunction. I have over 30 years of experience and tend to see those patients that have "tried many treatments but haven't resolved their issue" and are willing to experience my unique treatment because "nothing else has worked." My expertise is in utilizing integrative manual therapy, which consists of gentle, subtle hands-on
techniques that assist/encourage the patient's body to use its own corrective mechanisms to make a change. Taking many years of continuing education has allowed me to be up-to-date and progressive with the latest manual therapy techniques, which address all body systems. My in-depth knowledge of anatomy and highly trained manual and intuitive skills allow me to palpate subtle rhythms and mobility of very shallow to deep tissues in the body, including the systems of fascia, organs, nerves, blood vessels, lymph, muscles, joints, bones and more. The manual therapy techniques, in addition to functional exercise and yoga, help me to localize and treat the body systems and tissue areas contributing to the patients dysfunctions and symptoms, ultimately bringing optimal results to the patient as a whole.
Manual therapy work is profound and has been around for over 50 years, yet is unrecognized by mainstream western medicine because it has not yet been thoroughly proven through evidence-based research. Integrative manual therapy tends to be considered an alternative form of health care because it leans more towards eastern medicine philosophy, as does yoga. It is my goal to increase public awareness about how manual therapy, functional exercise, and yoga can address physical dysfunctions and help to restore the flow of people's lives.
Christine Powell, PT, MEd, RYT
Understanding The Manual Approach
Over the course of a person's lifetime most health problems, whether acute or chronic, are the result of a history of traumas. Physical injuries, illnesses and emotional/mental trauma result in micro-traumas in the membrane layers of the patients body tissues, leaving scar tissue, compression or fixations. These traumas 
create 3-D blockages and tension patterns, which overload the fluid systems of the body. Cumulative blockages and tension patterns prevent various aspects of the body from self-healing, resulting in dysfunctions. Trauma-induced patients attempt to move in familiar body patterns but are limited by tissue restrictions, so they use other body parts and tissues (or compensate) to create the movement lost. "When the body has used up its ability to compensate, the patient has symptoms" (Quoted by JP. Barral and F. Lowen). In addition, our environmentally challenged world can overwhelm the body's fluid (immune and circulatory) systems, so the body cannot release the toxins that build up in the areas of blockage, resulting in excessive fluid retention, lack of mobility and symptoms.
Integrated manual therapy treatment can provide relief from symptoms, compensations, dysfunctions by opening up the blockages, releasing tension patterns, balancing the various body systems, and restoring inherent rhythms, movement patterns, body awareness, tissue flow, and optimizing the patient's ability for self healing. The overall treatment is very efficient and effective with getting to the source of the problem. However, some patients can be working through a lifetime web of body restrictions and treatment progression can be a longer process rather than a "quick fix." The patient that is willing to 'be open' to experience or re-experience his/her present/past traumatic process through this treatment can become a flowing, whole being, have optimal health, and personally evolve or transform into the person that they know and want to be.