Shoulder Pain

Alternative Therapy Without Surgery or Drugs, a "Hands-on" Approach

Treatment methods for shoulder pain vary significantly. Many people do not obtain pain resolution after conservative treatment such as traditional physical therapy and medications. While most physicians agree that surgery is a treatment of last resort, a percentage of people do not obtain pain relief even after one or more surgeries.

Our shoulder treatment plan is unique. Our therapy team designs a "one on one, hands-on" treatment plan specific to your particular case. We begin with a "hands-on" approach to discover and treat the causes of your pain and symptoms.

Our goal is to decrease your pain first, then restore your function. We work to restore alignment, balance and mobility to the shoulder and neighboring structures. We may actually begin by addressing the support structres for your upper body. These include your hip and back muscles, sacrum, thoracic and lumbar spines, connective tissues, and abdominopelvic organs. Within a few minutes, we will be directly addressing the muscles, joints and connective structures of the shoulder with gentle, site specific treatment designed to decrease restrictions that are causing your symptoms.

We have been successful helping many shoulder pain sufferers who have been unable to find pain relief with other methods. We treat difficult, persistent shoulder pain with unique treatment methods. From your first visit, we use a "hands-on" approach to treat your symptoms and discover the cause of your pain. We begin by treating tight and dysfunctional areas in your body. When shoulder patients try to avoid pain, they can complicate the original injury with compensatory movement patterns.

Our directors spent years studying techniques and developing protocols to restore patients’ bodies to a state of balance, harmony and increased function. Our treatment sessions are individualized and last approximately one hour based on individual needs. Treatment is one-on-one, and is in private treatment rooms. From your first visit, we use a "hands-on" approach to treat your symptoms and discover the causes of your pain. We begin by treating tight and dysfunctional areas in your body.

A few minutes into your first treatment, our therapists will be providing a gentle stretch for a sustained period of time to areas of your body where we feel abnormal tensions. This has been very effective in decreasing and frequently resolving pain symptoms. Our goals of treatment may include restoring alignment, balance and mobility to your body's support structures,- the pelvis, sacrum, thoracic and lumbar spines. Then we move up to your shoulder and address that area completely. Treatment goals include decreasing pain and restoring range of motion. We work with you to improve your function, your tolerance for physical activity and return you to an active, productive lifestyle.

Patients generally discover within three treatments if our work will be effective in decreasing shoulder pain and other symptoms. As pain decreases and function begins to return, we educate in a lifelong preventive and restorative exercise program to improve flexibility, strength, lifting ability and endurance levels. Enhancement of personal and professional life generally follows as a result. We work hand in hand with your physician, although physician referral is not required in the state of Florida for our work.

What should I expect from treatment?

The best way to determine if this work will help you is to schedule two or three visits. After three visits, most patients find their pain level noticeably improved. After six visits, they begin to notice significant structural and functional improvement in their bodies. Our goal is to help you achieve a pain free, more functional and productive life, with all your goals met.

If you have questions, we can schedule a personal consultation in one of our clinics or over the telephone. If treatment appears indicated, we will send you all necessary paperwork including a medical history questionnaire and release of medical records. We may request clearance from your physician for the very few conditions which would prevent us from treating you. These include diseases such as HIV and active cancer which could possibly worsen with treatment. Other contraindications are hemophilia, abnormal cysts and active infection.

Your treatment is always conducted in a lovely, private room. The first treatment includes an initial evaluation, and lasts up to 1½ hours. Thereafter, treatment sessions are generally 45 minutes of uninterrupted manual therapy. As manual therapists who often work on delicate areas, we are sensitive to your physical and emotional comfort level. We feel you should be fully informed in every step of treatment. We take the time to explain our theories and techniques while we are working with you. Your personal privacy is respected. Patient gowns are available each session for those who would like to use them.

Treatment feels similar to massage but calling our work massage is like calling the space shuttle an airplane. Our work is a very "site specific" slow and deep body work to the soft tissues of your body. We use our hands to locate abnormal tensions in and around the organs, muscles, connective tissues and support structures of the body. We then apply gentle, specific sustained manual forces designed to reduce adhesions and encourage normal mobility, tone and function. Most patients say they find treatment sessions interesting, informative and relaxing. Most patients with pain complaints usually begin to notice pain reduction or relief after the first two or three sessions.

Therapist Qualification

Therapist qualifications are a significant part of your comfort level. We invite you to visit our "About Us" page. Belinda Wurn is a physical therapist with more than 20 years experience. Larry Wurn is a massage therapist with more than 10 years experience. Both are nationally certified body workers who have performed literally thousands of manual therapy treatments. They are therapists trained and licensed to practice manual ("hands-on") therapy in Florida in their respective fields of physical therapy and massage therapy.

Following licensure, they both attended extensive continuing education courses, as well as many courses on manual pelvic, urogenital and abdominal therapy treatment in America. They furthered their education by studying manual urogenital therapy at an osteopathic medical school in France. Their goal is to provide a quality and level of service which is unavailable anywhere in our area. Clear Passage Therapies’ staff is committed to give our patients the finest one-on-one treatment available, in a relaxed and healing setting.