Local physical therapist combines technology and holistic approach

Almost two decades ago, physical therapist Cindy Powers began to think of refining the way she could meet her patients’ needs.

“We couldn’t get them to cross the finish line,” said Powers. “Patients were not making progress.”

Powers attributed that patients’ stalled progress was a result of a shift away from hands-on treatment for physical therapists. She said the volume of patients and time constraints, many hospitals and clinics found intensive, hands-on therapy to be dubiously unprofitable.

Powers, however, said she believes this led to a Band-Aid approach to pain caused by illness or injuries.

“We’re looking at injuries the wrong way,” she said. “We’re looking at it after the fact. We need to look at the root causes all the time.”

Then, in 1997, Powers opened her own small practice, Power in Motion. Because she has always kept it a low-volume clinic, Powers said she and her staff can devote their full time and capacity to individual patients by addressing not just the area of concern but the body as a whole.

“We do all the hands-on work, which is really hard to find,” she said. “What I began to see was that many patients were getting better faster,” she said. “It didn’t have anything to do with me. It had to do with hands-on intervention.”

This type of intervention, she explained, involves working with the body’s nervous system to determine any alignment issues. Powers said she found this to be a very effective form of treatment.

“Your left knee isn’t separate from your left shoulder,” she said. “If you find the root cause, you can treat the shoulder and the knee. It’s restorative and preventative. It improves the body’s full capacity.”

In addition to sports-related injuries, Powers said she had also worked with newborns with neck injuries and with professional musicians who sustain muscle pain. Organ transplant patients and those with migraines can also be treated by Power in Motion’s unique approach.

Powers explained that according to studies, a trauma can imprint itself on the body within 72 to 96 hours after the traumatic event. For instance, she said, whiplash begins in the pelvis even though the pain usually travels to the head and neck, so in that instance, she would start with the pelvis, or root cause.

“You can activate the body’s self-correction mechanism,” she said. “The work is very efficient and very effective. It can address anything and everything that is wrong with the body.”

Power in Motion also offers Bitec (Bio-Integrative Therapies for Every Competitor), a whole-body camera laboratory that measures a patient’s movements using eight intersecting cameras. Once the data is collected, Power in Motion staff can evaluate the report and begin treatment based on that information.

“The cameras capture all the joint motion and measure it,” said Powers. “This can identify defects. We can see where the person has problems because by looking at the alignment of the body.”

Powers said she sees clients from throughout Illinois and Wisconsin. She said she enjoys helping a broad range of patients.

The great thing about this work is that it crosses all lines, young and old,” she said. “It doesn’t matter if you are a day old or if you’re a centenarian”

In fact, Powers said, many of her patients who suffered injuries come back to her reporting that they felt even better than they did prior to the injury.

“The great benefit of this work is that it helps the body reach it’s full potential,” she said.