How We Help Musicians
How Treatment Works
The short version: we watch you play, figure out what's actually going on, and build a plan that keeps you on your instrument while you heal.
The longer version is below — but the through-line is always the same. Every tool we use, every exercise we prescribe, every conversation we have in the clinic is oriented toward one goal: getting you back to full playing capacity, as efficiently and sustainably as possible
It Starts With Understanding How You Play
Most providers will ask where it hurts. We start there too — but then we ask you to play.
Watching you at your instrument is one of the most important things we do. Posture, bow arm mechanics, hand position, breath support, how you hold tension during a difficult passage — these aren't incidental details. They're often the difference between an injury that resolves and one that keeps coming back. No amount of hands-on treatment will hold if the underlying demands of playing are still loading your body the same way that got you injured in the first place.
So before we talk about treatment, we talk about your instrument, your practice schedule, your repertoire, and what's actually on the line for you — an upcoming audition, a performance you can't miss, a practice routine you've built over years. That context shapes everything about how we approach your care.
Hands-On Treatment: Manual Therapy
Once we understand what's happening and why, hands-on work is usually where we start.
Manual therapy is not massage. It's a precision-based set of techniques applied to joints, muscles, nerves, and connective tissue — and it requires advanced training beyond a standard PT degree. We hold a certifications from the North American Institute of Orthopedic Manual Therapy, one of the most rigorous manual therapy programs in North America, and we’re ABPTS Board-Certified Orthopedic Clinical Specialists.
Depending on what you need, we may use joint mobilization or manipulation to restore range of motion, soft tissue work to address muscle and fascial restriction, neural mobilization for nerve-related symptoms like numbness or tingling, or manual lymphatic drainage for swelling management. For musicians dealing with chronic forearm, wrist, or hand tendinopathies — the kind that haven't responded to standard treatment — we also use Astym, an evidence-based instrument-assisted technique that stimulates the body's own healing response in stubborn or disorganized tissue.
The important thing to know about manual therapy: it opens a window. What you do in that window — the exercise that follows — is what makes the change last.
Exercise: Built for Your Body and Your Instrument
Every exercise program we design is specific to you. Not your diagnosis — you. Your assessment findings, your instrument, your schedule, your body's current capacity, and where you are in recovery right now.
For musicians, this means exercise that addresses the actual demands of playing. If you're a violinist dealing with left shoulder pain, we're not just strengthening your rotator cuff in the abstract — we're building the capacity your shoulder needs to sustain hours of playing, in the positions playing actually requires. If you're a pianist with forearm issues, we're loading the tendons progressively in a way that rebuilds tissue tolerance without blowing up your practice schedule.
Your home exercise program is a core part of your care, not an afterthought. What happens between appointments matters just as much as what happens in the clinic. Programs are updated as you progress — we don't hand you the same sheet for six weeks and hope for the best.
Understanding Your Pain
One of the most useful things that can happen in PT is leaving with a clearer picture of what's actually going on in your body — not just a list of things to avoid.
Pain is more complex than most people realize. It isn't simply a readout of tissue damage — it's produced by the nervous system based on a wide range of inputs, including sleep, stress, beliefs about recovery, and movement history. Two people with identical MRI findings can have completely different pain experiences. Understanding this changes how you relate to pain during recovery, and it's one of the strongest predictors of how well people do.
For musicians specifically, there's often an additional layer: the fear of what the injury means. For your career, your identity, your ability to keep playing. That fear is real and worth addressing directly — not dismissed, but understood. Pain that's driven partly by a sensitized nervous system responds differently than acute tissue injury, and knowing the difference helps us treat it more effectively.
We'll help you understand what your pain is actually telling you, how to distinguish between discomfort that's a normal part of recovery and signals worth heeding, and how to stay as active as possible — on and off your instrument — without setting yourself back.
Interested in getting back to pain free playing?
If you've been dealing with an injury that affects your ability to play your instrument, we'd love to assess your situation and talk through whether our approach is right for you.