Weeks 1–2
Pain
Calm the overworked tissue.
Hands-on work and better positioning settle the muscles that have been braking your joints all day.
What We Treat
Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome treatment in North Liberty.
Joints that go too far. Injuries that come too easily. And physical therapy that has hurt you before. Getting stronger with hEDS takes a therapist who knows where your end range actually is.
Sound Familiar?
Does this sound like your body?
- A joint slipping out and back in while you are just sitting there
- Waking up sore from sleeping, in a joint you never used
- Standing with your knees locked back because it takes less effort
- Bruises you cannot account for and scars that spread
- Being called flexible by people who never see the aftermath
- Leaving a course of physical therapy in worse shape than you arrived
Two or more? The longer joints work at the end of their range, the more the tissue around them pays for it.
Why It Happens
Your joints are not loose because you are weak.
In Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, the connective tissue that should limit a joint is more elastic than it should be. Ligaments give a little further than they are meant to. Your muscles end up doing the braking all day long, and they get tired and sore doing a job they were never built for.
That changes how therapy has to be built. Position matters more than load. End range is off the table. Proprioception, your sense of where a joint sits in space, has to be trained before strength means anything at all. Natalie Johnston is a Fellow in Pain Sciences and a Therapeutic Pain Specialist with 24 years of experience, and complex and chronic pain is her stated specialty.
You have already read everything, and you have already had someone push you past a range you cannot control. That is exactly the kind of patient who does well here.
The Honest Truth
Waiting doesn’t make it wait on you.
If you keep waiting
- The rest of your body starts compensating, and the compensations start hurting too
- Flare-ups get closer together, and take longer to settle each time
- You move less to avoid the pain, which weakens the exact things that were protecting you
If you start this week
- Visit one is a cause-first evaluation, and you leave knowing what we found
- Hands-on treatment starts the same day, not after a second appointment
- You get a plan with an endpoint: a real one, not an open tab of visits
Nobody regrets starting too early. Plenty of people tell us they wish they had come in sooner.
How We Fix It
Four phases that respect your end range.
Every plan has an endpoint. Here’s what the four phases look like when your joints move too far.
Weeks 2–6
Prime
Find the middle of the range.
You learn where neutral is and how to feel it, so joints stop parking at the very end of their travel.
Weeks 6–10
Perform
Build the brakes.
Strength and control work stays in mid-range, so muscle takes over the stabilizing job your ligaments cannot do.
Weeks 10+
Prevent
Protect it for the long run.
Bracing, pacing and daily mechanics get set up, so a good stretch of months does not end in another subluxation.
Natalie is the very best Physical Therapist my family has ever had. We suffer from Hypermobility Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (hEDS) primarily for PT services. She addressed all of our health concerns with empathy and knew how to help without causing our bodies further injury which is a huge problem for EDS’ers. We highly recommend her services for everyone! Thank you!
Brenda E. · Family with hEDS
Today: physical therapy is something you are afraid of, for good reason
The goal: getting stronger without paying for it in new injuries
Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome
Pain to Prevent
Questions, Answered
What people ask before booking for Ehlers-Danlos syndrome.
Because with hypermobility, position and dose matter more than load. We stay out of end range, train joint control before we add strength, and back off the moment a joint stops holding itself. You are one-on-one with a licensed physical therapist every visit, so nobody is loading a joint they have not watched you move.
No, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something. It is genetic, and it is yours for life. What changes is how much control you have over it: stronger stabilizers around the joints that give way, fewer subluxations, smarter pacing, and a real feel for your own end range so the next injury does not happen.
A full plan for Ehlers-Danlos syndrome runs through all four phases, Pain, Prime, Perform, and Prevent, and how long that takes depends on which joints are giving you trouble. Either way, you get a plan with an endpoint: you’ll always know which phase you’re in and what’s left, not an open-ended string of appointments.
Book Your Visit
Ready when you are.
Request a time and a real person calls you back. No phone tree. No ‘someone will reach out.’ Just a plan.
- Hours Mon-Fri: 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
- (319) 382-2743 Prefer to talk now? Call us.
- No referral needed in Iowa
4.9 · 79 Google reviews
Typical response: under 2 business hours
Step 1 of 5
Request sent.
That’s the hard part done. We’ll call during business hours to lock in your time.
Visit Us
Care this good, this close.
Motion Matters Physical Therapy and Wellness
- 660 West Cherry St. Suite 2, North Liberty, IA 52317 (opens in a new tab)
- (319) 382-2743
- Fax: (319) 359-4114
- natalie@ptmotionmatters.com
- Mon-Fri: 8:00 am - 5:00 pm