Your first visit will include a very thorough evaluation to uncover to the root cause of your symptoms. You will decide on a treatment plan together including follow up visits and tools or exercises that you can immediately implement at home. Dr. Sharon’s unique approach to whole body health means that you will likely receive a combination of pelvic, visceral/abdominal, craniosacral, and orthopedic assessments and treatments.
As you improve, you may choose to gradually decrease your visits as needed. At this point, many patients begin wellness visits. These visits are a great opportunity to maintain the gains you made during therapy and also function as preventative care. Just like getting a massage every once in a while, many people find that they just feel better with regular wellness visits.
Still have more questions about your first appointment? Click the button below for more information.
We are committed to providing the highest quality of care to our patients, so we have elected to be an out of network physical therapy clinic. Because we do not contract with any insurance company, you are able to spend 100% of your time with your physical therapist who will be focused only on you and not splitting time between patients or administrative work.
The good news is that many insurances still have out of network coverage. While you will still be required to pay the full amount for your treatment at the time of service, we can provide you with a “superbill”. You can submit the bill to your insurance for a percentage of reimbursement, which could lower the cost you see below.
Initial Evaluation:
$375 for 75 minutes
$525 for 120 minutes
Follow Up:
$240 for 60 minutes
$460 for 120 minutes
The pelvic floor is a group of muscles that create a bowl (or floor) at the base of your pelvis. They help to support your pelvic organs, stabilize your pelvis and core, provide sexual function, as well as containing and releasing our gas, urine, and stool.
Pelvic floor therapy is only offered by physical therapists who have undergone extra training to be able to internally and externally evaluate and treat the muscles of your pelvic floor.
Often the pelvic floor influences and is impacted by surrounding structures such as your pelvic and digestive organs, your hips, back, and legs. It can even be affected by far away structures like your neck and shoulders! The pelvic floor is also directly controlled by the nervous system which is why stress and anxiety can make symptoms worse.
At Kintsu, Dr. Sharon will evaluate and treat your pelvic floor as well as the rest of your body to truly find the source of your symptoms. She will tailor manual treatments, exercises, and self treatment options to your unique case.
You may not have any of the symptoms or conditions listed above, or maybe you’ve had them in the past but it’s not a problem right now. Or maybe you’ve never gotten your pelvic floor evaluated and you just want to know if everything is ok down there–just FYI, your gynecologist is typically not trained to evaluate those muscles! If that’s the case then pelvic wellness visits are for you!
We are told to visit the dentist and have regular teeth cleanings at least every 6 months – before we have problems. Why not do the same for one of the most important parts of your body? Regular wellness visits can allow you prevent future pelvic health problems and catch any that may be developing. They can be extremely beneficial especially if you are planning on starting a family or are training intensely for a sport.
If you can answer yes to any of the questions below, there’s a good chance you may need pelvic floor therapy.
Although Dr. Sharon offers orthopedic and visceral treatments for men, she does not evaluate or treat male genitalia or offer internal pelvic floor treatment for people assigned male at birth. She is happy to refer you to qualified pelvic health practitioners who would be happy to treat you.
Visceral is another word for organs. Just like muscles and joints, organs need to move well in order to function well. Visceral therapy is a gentle way of treating organs to allow them to move and function freely. Often our abdominal health and digestion is compromised by poor movement of our organs.
When our organs are not moving properly, we can also have pain or movement problems in surrounding areas such as our back, hips, shoulders, and neck. For example, when you bend over, did you know that your liver has to fold over itself? If it does not have room to move properly, this can often cause back pain or simply not allow you to bend properly.
You may not have any of the symptoms or conditions listed above, or maybe you’ve had them in the past but it’s not a problem right now. Or maybe no one has ever worked on your abdomen before and you just want to know if everything is ok–just FYI, your doctor is typically not trained to evaluate organ movement. If that’s the case then abdominal wellness visits are for you!
We are told to visit the dentist and have regular teeth cleanings at least every 6 months – before we have problems. Why not do the same for your organs and digestive system? Regular wellness visits can help prevent future abdominal and digestive problems and catch any that may be developing. They can be extremely beneficial especially if you are involved in a high impact sport or hobbies like boxing, snowboarding, soccer, etc.
If you can answer yes to any of the questions below, there’s a good chance you may need visceral therapy.
Chronic pain is any pain that lasts longer than three months. It is not as rare as you might think! 1 in 5 Americans experiences chronic pain.
Chronic illness is often accompanied by chronic pain. It is typically an illness or condition that can last a very long time and may or may not have a cure. If you have not been diagnosed with a chronic condition but suspect that you have one, this is a good place to start. We do thorough assessments of all symptoms which can sometimes lead to a more specific direction. We can then refer you to any appropriate practitioners that can then make a diagnosis.
Chronic pain and chronic illness often require a team approach. We coordinate care with your current healthcare team or help you create a team.
People suffering form chronic conditions may never see all of their symptoms fully disappear, but therapy can reduce the number and the intensity of the symptoms so that you can return to living life and doing the things you love.
Often this looks like initially doing consistent, frequent therapy, until symptoms have plateaued to an acceptable level. For some people, they may now have a good handle on managing their condition themselves and only return for more sessions when experiencing a flare up. For others, they may need regular appointments still but can begin to spread them out to every other week, monthly, or even once every few months.
Symptoms from chronic pain and illness also typically spans multiple body systems, so we treat them all! Our symptom management of multiple systems includes the following: nervous system, visceral (organ) systems, lymphatic system, and musculoskeletal system.
Chronic pain/illness does not respond the same way as acute (has only been present less than three months) pain or illness. Most healthcare professionals are not accustomed to working with chronic conditions and treat them the same as acute conditions, which can lead to little or no improvement or even make things worse.
We address the nervous system as the number one factor in your healing. If your nervous system deems a treatment “unsafe” it can go into defensive mode and cause a flare up. We have to find out what treatments your nervous system responds to, which can vary from person to person.
Lastly, but most importantly – we are a team. You know your body and your condition the best, so we will always defer to you. We will work together to discover what works the best for you. You will always be informed what we are doing and why we are doing them, and more often than not you will be educated on how to do them for yourself.
Fertility depends on many complex factors. Some of these factors fall into the realm of physical therapy and wellness. These include:
Dr. Sharon uses a combination of orthopedic, pelvic, and visceral treatments to optimize your pregnancy. These treatments are beneficial from the first trimester right up to labor and delivery. Some of the benefits of these treatments include:
Dr. Sharon uses a combination of orthopedic, pelvic, and visceral treatments to help your body recover from pregnancy, labor and delivery. These treatments are ideally paired with prenatal treatments for a well prepared and supported postpartum period. Some of the benefits of these treatments include:
Absolutely! We recommend physical therapy to any pregnant woman, and to any woman postpartum. American standards are still catching up to other first world countries who already recommend pelvic physical therapy immediately to mothers.
During pregnancy, your OBGYN is monitoring many things, but your pelvic and visceral mobility (basically the ability of your organs to provide space for your baby and for the pelvis to open up for birth) is not one of them.
And after you give birth, at your 6 week checkup (also, that’s a long time until that checkup), your OBGYN typically does not assess your pelvic and visceral health. That includes screening for pelvic organ prolapse, diastasis recti, and pelvic floor dysfunction such as incontinence.
If you aren’t sure if you need it, scroll up to the “How do I know if I need pelvic physical therapy” section. You might want to at least get an evaluation to find out.
It doesn’t matter if your baby is already having babies of their own, come on in!
Wear something comfortable that you can move or exercise freely in. Layers are especially helpful!
The pelvic floor muscles are located at the base of the pelvis, which means that the easiest way to access them is through the vaginal canal or the rectum, or “internally”. Dr. Sharon will discuss with you if she thinks this will be beneficial to assess and treat and you will have a choice in how to proceed.
If you agree, she will used a gloved finger with lubricant, insert it vaginally or rectally and gently press the pelvic floor muscles to assess their tone and to treat them. The whole experience is typically much less invasive than a pap smear as there is no speculum involved.
If you are receiving internal pelvic floor therapy and are scheduled for an appointment while menstruating, you may choose whether or not you have internal treatment that day. Dr. Sharon is experienced and comfortable treating at any day during your cycle, but if you are uncomfortable with it, she can still use many external techniques that will be invaluable during your session.
Many patients opt to travel to Southern California to obtain treatment even if they are not from there. These are often referred to as treatment intensives, since we will attempt to provide as much treatment as possible in the duration of your stay. If this is an option for you, please fill out the contact form to request further information.
We also offer a limited number of remote consultations that can be requested using the contact form as well.
The name Kintsu comes from kintsugi, or kintsukoroi, which is the Japanese art of joining or repairing broken pottery with a precious metal such as gold. The piece transforms into a new, more beautiful work of art.
When we experience pain, disease, or dysfunction, we typically want to hide every trace of that experience. At Kintsu, we believe in turning that experience into something beautiful. We believe in celebrating who our scars have allowed us to become.
Insurance companies often deny treatment of pelvic floor conditions even with coverage and they often restrict the number of visits allowed. By going out of network, we are able to ensure that every patient is able to be treated according to what they need, not what insurance companies demand.
The rates that insurance companies reimburse physical therapists is also declining, which means that insurance based physical therapists often have to compensate by reducing the amount of time spent with patients. This means patients typically spend 20 minutes or less with their physical therapist, spending the rest of the time supervised by aides.
While this method can be effective especially with simple cases, many patients with complex cases end up plateauing or even getting worse because they are not receiving the highest quality of care. At Kintsu, we guarantee that every patient spends one-on-one time with Dr. Sharon for the entirety of their treatment time of an hour or more.