Happy 2025 from Move for Health Physical Therapy! This Blog is the first of the year from my new physical therapy practice and this new website.
I feel priviliged to have served our Charlottesville, VA community by providing personalized physical therapy care over the past 35 years. My wife, Kelly talked me into taking a 2-month sabattical at the end of 2024, which has now become a 4-month journey. It's given me time to reflect, assess and plan for how I'd like to care for my patients - and how to achieve the best possible personal and professional life balance moving forward.
As a Doctor of Physical Therapy, I know how important it is to learn to move well. I have spent the majority of my career helping patients who are limited by pain, poor movement and difficulty with balance – resulting in their inability to function and live their best lives. Often with debilitating affect on their lives, families and their healthspan. This perspective drives my passion to find the best physical therapy practice model to support my patients and our community during the latter part of my career.
Move For Health Physical Therapy will begin patient care at The Center at Belvedere in Charlottersville on March 4. My out of network services will enable me to give you the best best possible one on one care without restrictions imposed by insurance companies. In-clinic, telehealth and virtual group classes are customized for you - to help you achieve your best healthspan. Community health talks are also available for your group or organization.
Your evaluation and plan of care at Move For Health Physical Therapy is progressive and unique. It will include a one hour one on one evaluation with me. I will thoroughly discuss your history and symptoms with you, followed by a comprehensive whole body movement assessment to determine the root cause of your pain. As the area of pain is often caused by compensations or over-use due to other interconnected areas of your body that are not moving or stabilizing well. Your plan care will address your current symptoms as well as the interconnected areas so that you can move well without pain. You'll receive a detailed home program with focus on therapeutic exercise and functional training along with preventative self-care. I'll provide focused hands-on care including manual therapy and trigger point dry needling. This approach allows the frequency of your follow-up physical therapy visits to be minimized. It's an empowerment model in which I partnerswith you to support your recovery each andn every step of the way.
I'll be here to help you to improve your body awareness – including patterns of breathing, stress management, posture, movement, balance and core stability. You will learn to move well and pain-free while developing strength, endurance and improved habits for movement. Move for Health Physical Therapy will provide you with a unique "5-point checklist" - a practical application of healthy whole-body movement to your daily activities. This includes standing, walking, reaching, lifting, pushing, pulling, carrying, sitting and even for achieving better sleep. Move For Health Physical Therapy incorporates evidence informed intervention to help you prevent falls, improve your strength, decrease your pain and improve your healthspan – allowing you to live your best life as you age and function at your highest possible activity level.
For those of you who have experienced physical therapy care with me, you'll not be surprised to know that I'll include information about your anatomy and physiology – your muscular, nervous and integumentary systems as well as your cardiovascular and pulmonary function. You’ll learn how all of these elements combine to create healthy human movement – and how you can improve your movement, balance and posture to live your best life. I'm committed to help you with your personal health – coordinating with your physician and with fitness and wellness activities in our community (see the Community Health Links at moveforhealth.com for more information).
It’s hard to believe that our Move for Health Physical Therapy core stability weekly group classes will enter their 12th year this year! Members continue to have a great experience with a strong social connection with individualized instruction concurrently - with many of you participating from the beginning. Thank you for continuing commitment to healthy movement, balance, strength and function. It's been a great pleasure for me to support you to pursue your healthspan goals.
On behalf of Move For Health Physical Therapy, I welcome your feedback and questions. Here’s to a happy and promising remainder of 2025, with Move For Health Physical Therapy - clinic, telehealth & group classes as well as community health talks - to support you, your family and friends. For scheduling, please visit MoveForHealth.com. As always, I really appreciate your feedback and support of our Move For Health Physical Therapy message!
Yours in Health,
Dr. Darcy
