Physical Therapy Experience in Orange County
Built Over More Than Four Decades
Since 1982, Kim Lawler-Coyle, PT, DPT, GCFP, has built her physical therapy practice through decades of patient care, extensive postgraduate education, hands-on clinical experience, movement-based study, teaching, and continued learning.
As a result, that depth of experience allows Focus On Health to approach physical problems from more than one perspective while keeping care grounded in physical therapy, movement, rehabilitation, and function.
Connecting the Dots
For example, some patients come to Focus On Health after months or years of dealing with a physical problem that has never seemed to fully resolve. Others have experienced an injury, surgery, or series of physical problems that eventually seem to involve several regions of the body rather than just one.
In these situations, Kim’s extensive clinical background can become especially valuable. Rather than looking only at the area of symptoms, she considers whether other physical findings may also be relevant to movement, mobility, and function.
What If Back Pain Is Not Only About the Back?
A person may come to physical therapy because of persistent back pain. Yet that person may also have a history of abdominal surgery that occurred years earlier.
When appropriate, Kim may look beyond the painful area and consider physical findings such as scar mobility, soft-tissue and fascial restrictions, mobility through the abdominal region and trunk, visceral mobility and fascial relationships, joint motion, neural mobility, and movement patterns.
Another patient may have completely different findings.
Connecting the dots does not mean assuming every area or system is involved. It means having the experience to recognize when different physical findings may be related.
More Physical Pieces to Consider
More than four decades of clinical practice and advanced postgraduate education have given Kim many different ways to examine and address physical restrictions.
Depending on the individual presentation, her physical therapy perspective may include findings involving:
Restrictions, mobility, and tissue relationships
Joint mobility and physical relationships between regions
Mobility and glide of neural tissues
Mobility, restrictions, and tissue relationships considered when relevant to movement and physical function
Mobility and fascial relationships within the broader physical picture
Physical findings related to lymphatic fluid movement
At the same time, these findings are considered alongside the rest of physical therapy—including strength, joint mobility, movement, stability, body mechanics, functional limitations, exercise, and rehabilitation.
The value of a broad toolbox is not using every approach. It is being able to choose among many approaches according to what is found and how the individual responds.
Putting the dots together is an important part of the Focus On Health approach.
More Than One Way to Approach a Physical Problem
Over time, Kim’s advanced education has expanded the range of physical therapy approaches available within an individualized treatment plan.
Depending on the physical findings, functional limitations, goals, and response to care, treatment may draw from hands-on methods, movement-based approaches, exercise, rehabilitation strategies, or a thoughtful combination of methods.
Hands-On Treatment
More than four decades of clinical practice and extensive postgraduate education have given Kim an extensive hands-on treatment background, ranging from established physical therapy techniques to highly specialized manual approaches.
Movement & Control
Kim’s background includes specialized movement-based methods that provide additional ways to address quality of movement, movement awareness, strength, stability, and control.
The Standard Methods Matter Too
Specialized approaches are only part of the toolbox. Established exercise, rehabilitation, strengthening, education, and functional methods remain important when they are appropriate for the individual.
The strength of an integrative approach is not any single technique. It is having different ways to address the physical and functional problems found during care.
Specialized Experience Within a
Much Broader Physical Therapy Perspective
Kim’s work extends far beyond one region of the body or one type of physical problem.
Her clinical practice has included complex physical and functional problems involving many areas of the body. Manual therapy, movement-based methods, therapeutic exercise, rehabilitation strategies, strengthening, and patient education can all contribute to the overall physical therapy approach.
Within that much broader practice, TMJ physical therapy represents one longstanding area in which Kim has developed extensive experience.
TMJ Physical Therapy
Since 1984
Kim has worked with TMJ-related physical impairments for more than four decades. Physical therapy may address jaw-related pain, mobility restrictions, muscle and soft-tissue impairments, movement problems, and functional limitations.
Her TMJ background has been shaped by hands-on clinical experience, advanced manual therapy education, and years of professional interaction with dentists, oral surgeons, and other dental professionals.
TMJ is an important part of Kim’s experience, but it is one component of a much broader integrative physical therapy practice.
Began providing TMJ physical therapy
Faculty Member, TMJ DepartmentUnder Terry Tanaka, DDS
Integrated within a broader physical therapy perspective
Practice. Advanced Study. Teaching.
Kim’s clinical perspective did not come from one course, one treatment philosophy, or simply remaining in practice for many years. It developed through the combination of patient care, continuing education, teaching, professional collaboration, and ongoing study.
Physical Therapist Since 1982
Kim earned her Bachelor of Science in Physical Therapy from Loma Linda University in 1981 and began practicing physical therapy in January 1982.
More than four decades of patient care have provided experience with straightforward physical limitations as well as much more involved physical and functional problems.
She completed her Doctor of Physical Therapy degree in 2013 and has continued postgraduate study throughout her career.
A Broad Range of Manual Therapy Perspectives
Kim has pursued extensive postgraduate education throughout her career with many clinicians, educators, and developers of specialized manual therapy approaches.
Experience Shared With Other Professionals
From 1993–1997, Kim taught Soft Tissue Techniques in the Loma Linda University Physical Therapy Master’s Program.
Her professional education experience has also included lectures and programs associated with USC, Loma Linda University, California State University Long Beach, Chapman University, The Upledger Institute, The Barral Institute, and the Western Institute of Neuromuscular Therapy.
Teaching requires more than performing a technique. It requires understanding physical relationships well enough to explain, demonstrate, and apply them thoughtfully.
Experience does not mean doing the same thing for decades. It means having decades of clinical knowledge to draw upon while continuing to learn.
Why This Breadth Matters in Physical Therapy
A broad clinical background matters when it gives the physical therapist more ways to understand what is limiting the individual and more options for responding to what is found.
See a Broader Physical Picture
Different tissues, regions, restrictions, previous injuries, movement patterns, and functional limitations may be related rather than completely separate problems.
Have More Than One Way to Respond
Manual therapy, movement-based methods, exercise, strengthening, rehabilitation strategies, and education provide different options when the physical picture calls for something different.
Change the Plan as the Picture Changes
Physical therapy can evolve as findings change, function improves, new limitations become apparent, or the individual’s needs and goals change.
A broader perspective does not mean treating everything. It means having the experience to decide which pieces of the physical picture deserve attention.
Experience That
Connects the Dots.
A broader view of the physical picture. A broader physical therapy toolbox. An individualized approach to care.
Focus On Health provides integrative physical therapy in Newport Beach for patients from Orange County and surrounding communities who are looking for experienced, individualized, strongly hands-on care.