About Somatic Nature Physical Therapy & Wellness

Bio

Dr. Priscilla Park, DPT, is a physical therapist and naturopath, who brings into her practice a wealth of knowledge with over 25 years of experience and passion for helping her patients heal from their injuries and illnesses naturally. She is a founding member of the ODC's Healthy Dancer's Clinic, since its inception in 1999. She was the Director for University of California Irvine's Dance Medicine clinic between 1997-1999, and has worked on Broadway shows in NYC, including Lion King, 42nd Street, Aida, Hairspray, etc.

As a dancer and yoga practitioner most of her life, she has a keen eye for even the most subtle movement compensations or malalignment that can contribute to pain and injury and/or lead to recurrent/chronic injuries. She is an expert in movement and biomechanical analysis, and can help identify your movement pattern faults, complex biomechanical problems, and muscle imbalances that are keeping you in pain and preventing you from reaching your fitness goals. Dr. Park will develop a personalized treatment plan that will address the root cause of your injury, body mechanics faults, strength and flexibility imbalances, and train proper muscle recruitment and coordination to ensure proper neuromuscular function. Not only will Dr. Priscilla help you recover from your injuries, but you will learn how to activate and strengthen your weak muscles that keep your injury at bay. Furthermore, she will teach you how to move with ease and with good body mechanics to prevent further injuries.

She is constantly expanding her skills and learning innovative physical therapy techniques and approaches from the field's most respected experts to get reliably excellent results. She has had intense and thorough training in various physical therapy fields. She has had extensive training and experience in osteopathic joint mobilization techniques, nutritional medicine, and other holistic modalities. Dr. Park incorporates a holistic and naturopathic approach to her patients' healing process, by helping create an optimal environment for healing to take place. As an adjunct to your healing process, she may recommend nutrition tools, e.g. anit-inflammatory diet, dietary supplements and herbs.

Skills

Manual treatments are an integral part of your care. Dr. Park will integrate into your treatments:

  • Soft tissue mobilization - to decrease tissue irritability and improve tone
  • Myofascial release - to treat myofascial connective tissue restrictions, in order to eliminate pain and restore motion
  • Joint mobilization (Grades 1 to 5, including high velocity, low amplitude) - to improve range of motion, to "unjam" a spinal or peripheral joint
  • Myofascial Decompression/MFD ("Cupping") - with the use of negative pressure tools, MFD increases efficiency of motion through improving fascial mobility and neuromuscular re-education
  • Strain/Counter-Strain/SCS - induces relaxation of a soft tissue or joint that"s in a guarded or in a protective posture, resulting in decrease in pain and tension in the structure involved.
  • Instrument Assisted Soft Tissue Mobilization (IASTM) - to effectively treat scar tissue adhesions, fascial restrictions, and soft tissue fibrosis, for improved patient outcomes
  • Manual traction for spinal decompression
  • Craniosacral therapy - to release pain and tensions deep in the body, with resultant improvement of whole-body health and performance

Credentials

  • Doctorate of Physical Therapy, AT Still University, 2015
  • Yoga teacher training (300 hour), 2012
  • Pilates teacher training, 2002
  • MFA Dance, University of California - Irvine, 1999
  • B.S. Physical Therapy, University of Illinois - Chicago, 1993

In her free time, she loves to dance, see dance performances, hike, and rejuvenate in hot springs.