Joint Manipulation & Orthopedic Manual Therapy in Austin, TX

Joint manipulation in Austin, TX is hands-on treatment that restores motion to a stiff or painful joint — and in the hands of a fellowship-trained orthopedic manual therapist it is a precise technique aimed at a specific segment, not a general adjustment.

What orthopedic manual therapy involves

Manual therapy is a family of hands-on techniques, and the skill is in choosing correctly among them for the joint in front of you.

Joint manipulation is a quick, controlled, low-amplitude movement applied at the end of a joint's available range. It is what people mean when they describe a "pop," though the sound is incidental and not the point. Applied to the right segment, it can produce an immediate change in range of motion and pain.

Joint mobilization is the slower, graded, oscillating cousin — used when a joint needs range restored gradually, or when manipulation is not appropriate.

Soft tissue mobilization addresses the muscle, fascia, and scar tissue around the joint, which is frequently what is limiting it in the first place.

Neural mobilization targets nerves that have lost their ability to glide through surrounding tissue — a common and frequently missed source of pain that radiates down an arm or leg.

How this differs from a chiropractic adjustment

The techniques overlap. The reasoning does not.

Manual therapy here is one component of an orthopedic physical therapy plan, not the treatment itself. The purpose of restoring motion to a joint is to open a window in which you can retrain the movement pattern and rebuild the strength that will hold the change. Hands-on work without that follow-through is why some people find themselves going back for the same adjustment week after week for years.

The goal at Reclaim is a short course of care that ends. There is a longer comparison on the physical therapist or chiropractor? page.

What "fellowship-trained" means here

Manual therapy is a skill with an unusually wide range in practice, and credentials are the only visible proxy for where a clinician sits on it.

Basimma Hammonds holds the OCS — board certification as an orthopedic clinical specialist — and is a fellow of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Manual Physical Therapists (FAAOMPT). Fellowship is post-residency training specifically in orthopedic manual physical therapy: years of supervised, mentored practice beyond the doctorate. A small minority of practicing physical therapists hold it.

That is the difference between a technique applied where it hurts and a technique applied where the problem is.

Commonly treated

Neck and low back pain and stiffness. Shoulders that will not move freely. Hips and knees limited by arthritis or by old injuries. Ankles and mid-back segments that lost motion after an injury and never got it back. Joints that stiffened up during post-surgical immobilization.

What it costs

$195 for the initial evaluation, about an hour. $195 per follow-up visit. One-on-one, full session, every time. Cash-pay, so no deductible and no insurer deciding how many visits you are allowed.

Come in for a free 30-minute in-person consultation first and get an honest read on whether hands-on care is the right answer for what you are dealing with.

Call (512) 772-3196 or book your free consultation. Reclaim Physical Therapy · 2712 Bee Cave Rd, Ste 110, Austin, TX 78746