What is Yoga Physical Therapy? Yoga Physical Therapy combines the principles and practices of Yoga and Physical Therapy to achieve your desired outcomes, whether it is to heal from surgery or injury, to improve your posture and overall strength, to stretch tight or tense muscles, or simply to relax your body, your mind and your emotions from the stresses of everyday life. A unique approach, Yoga Physical Therapy is a way to help you heal from pain, injury, stiffness or surgery. We do this by combining mindful breathing with targeted exercises to stretch, strengthen and heal the body. Sharon has a unique way of blending the scientific and the creative. M. Quan Who benefits from Yoga Physical Therapy? Just about anybody can benefit from Yoga Physical Therapy, whether you have a chronic pain condition, an injury or you feel stiff and achy and just want to feel better. People with the following conditions have benefited from this work: back pain neck pain shoulder sprains, tears and tendonitis frozen shoulder following shoulder surgery postural pain and dysfunction myofascial pain breast cancer knee sprains, injuries or after surgery hip injuries and surgeries gait disorders following a stroke heart conditions multiple sclerosis osteoporosis arthritis Click here to learn about the Role of Posture in Back Pain. As a Physical Therapist, Sharon is expert in evaluating the source of pain or injury. She brings many years of study and experience in Physical Therapy and Yoga to help you heal from pain, injury and stress. She works gently and carefully to help you unlock the doors of healing. Sharon brings over 18 years of experience as a Physical Therapist and over 25 years of study in the movement arts, including Yoga and Mindfulness Meditation. After becoming certified to teach Yoga in 2000, Sharon began working with individuals and groups, successfully helping them to recover from pain and illness using Yoga Physical Therapy. Yoga Physical Therapy combines the best of the sciences of anatomy, kinesiology and Physical Therapy with the ancient practices of the healing art and science of Yoga. Sharon works with people of all ages. Using this delightful and innovative approach, she has had surprising results in helping people to recover from pain and injury, including chronic back pain. With Yoga Physical Therapy you can learn to move from the inside out. You can learn to use your breath to relax your body. You can learn to use your breath to support stretching and strengthening exercises. Using the breath in this way, with intention and mindfulness, exponentially increases the effectiveness of positions and exercises. It allows you to go deeply into the muscles and the source of pain, thereby relieving pain and tightness. An expert in evaluating the source of pain and injury, Sharon also had the knowledge to guide your healing. Through specific manual techniques, including Myofascial Release and Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation, she knowledgeably releases tight and painful tissues. Next, she constructs a series of carefully selected therapeutic exercises. These therapeutic exercises, incorporating mindful and targeting breathing, are key to supporting your body's innate healing capacity. Discovering how to feel and knowledgeably use your breath fosters deep healing. When you learn to work in this way, the muscles, body and mind respond profoundly. You begin to heal and find a new balance within. In addition to Myofascial Release, and PNF (Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation), Sharon uses massage, Strain-Counterstrain and joint mobilizations to help you to heal.