HYPERMOBILITY CARE ​

Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome

 

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Physical therapist, Kim Poehlmann understands the frustration, fatigue and pain living with hypermobility spectrum disorders. As an experienced clinician, treating Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) for over a decade, she understands how lost patients can feel with a diagnosis of a whole-body connective tissue disorder.

 

Who can help me? What do I do next? Who can understand the varying symptoms and challenges of this misunderstood and limiting condition?

Kim understands that patients with EDS use up much of their daily energy trying to manage their chronic symptoms, and how that can destabilize the body which interferes with daily activities and personal goals.

At CBPT we are pleased to have the benefit of the years of Kim's clinical experience in guiding those struggling with joint pain, subluxations and injuries from EDS. Kim knows from her own personal journey with EDS how frustrating this condition can be. Additionally, her background in neuroscience allows her to understand and focus on how the brain interacts with the particular symptomology patients are experiencing.

Kim knows the common refrain that patients have of feeling "stuck" in their bodies, and how they feel challenged in moving in space at any given moment. It's called proprioception and EDS patients struggle with it much of the time. EDS patients tend to overutilize or engage the larger muscle groups when in movement, while under-utilizing the weaker appropriate small muscles.
This, in turn, shuts down proper motor patterns generating more pain and fatigue.

At Central Bucks Physical Therapy, your one-on-one care begins with a customized protocol for your EDS symptoms. Kim evaluates how each patient currently deals with this whole-body connective tissue disorder. At CBPT we do not push for a set of generic goals from a purchased set of orthopedic guidelines that patients are forced to meet. Kim emphasizes stability over flexibility, with controlled low-load strengthening/proprioception retraining exercises and closed-chain isometric work with careful pacing. She guides patients in energy conservation in a calm, low-pressure environment with real-time cueing to prevent hyperextension. This means patients' brains and bodies can eventually achieve greater alignment.

Kim's goal for herself and her patients is to nourish the awareness of the brain-body connection
- particularly for bodies in motion. With this alignment, strengthening and coordination increase, without overloading joints or leaving opportunity for poor motor patterns to emerge.

Kim's guidance is ....BRAIN meet BODY... now shake hands.

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At CBPT we know that many patients worry that therapy will make their symptoms worse. They wonder if no one has helped them before how will treatment here be any different? At CBPT we begin where it makes sense for each patient to start therapy, that is, treatment is customized to achieve balance for each individual. There is no routine protocol that fits everyone, as EDS spectrum bodies, for example, require different treatment strategies. All physical therapy at CBPT is one-on-one with adapted daily treatment programs for each individual patient's needs; whether for EDS, orthopedics, Belly After Baby or pelvic floor dysfunction; and if coming into the clinic consistently for treatment proves too difficult there are alternatives like the CBPT Wellness Program that can be achieved remotely.

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