When patients walk into Neil King Physical Therapy complaining of a sore shoulder or an aching hip, the therapists there often start by looking somewhere else entirely.
That’s by design.
Dr. Tina Schaffner and Dr. Becky Pace specialize in structural integration - a whole-body approach that identifies the hidden root causes of pain rather than simply treating symptoms at the surface.
“The body’s a machine. And so, we want to look at it from the ground up,” said Dr. Schaffner.
Using a framework drawn from Rolfing structural integration, therapists assess alignment from the feet up - examining how a collapsed arch, a tilted pelvis, or a tight inner thigh can ripple through the entire body and create pain far from the original problem.
Dr. Schaffner described one patient who had received repeated shoulder injections with little improvement. After a full-body analysis revealed the shoulder was being pulled out of alignment by imbalances below, therapists worked on her back - not her shoulder. “Everybody sees the puppet, but nobody sees the puppeteer. So, we’re always looking for the puppeteer,” she said.
Dr. Pace echoed that philosophy when explaining what “root cause” actually means in clinical practice.
“Root cause - we’re looking at what’s the root of the problem. So, we come in, we have pain somewhere. That’s where it starts. That’s kind of the first signal that our body’s giving us. But there’s something underneath,” she said.
Patients consistently remark on the depth of the evaluation. Dr. Pace said the feedback she hears most often is: “That’s the most comprehensive evaluation I’ve ever had. That’s the most that anybody’s looked at me.”
Education, she said, is central to the process. “I love educating patients because they need to know what’s going on so that we can fix the problem - because so much happens outside of the clinic, outside of treatments, on the day-to-day,” Dr. Pace said.
The clinic also welcomes patients who aren’t dealing with a specific injury. Dr. Schaffner said the threshold is simpler than most people expect.
“If you start to have issues that are significantly changing your life - you have to stop golfing, you have to stop walking, you have to stop running - and you’ve maybe tried a couple things at home, it’s time to come in and consult us,” she said. “It’s a no-risk situation.”
To schedule a consultation, visit NeilKingPT.com.
To watch the segment, click the video above.