We are passionate about helping you to move and feel better.
Meet Dr. Eric Keene
PT, DPT, OCS, CFMT, CSCS, CAFSDoctor of Physical TherapyOrthopedic Clinical SpecialistCertified Functional Manual TherapistCertified Strength and Conditioning SpecialistCertification in Applied Functional ScienceEric earned his Doctor of Physical Therapy degree from Long Island University’s Brooklyn Campus in 2014. Upon graduation, Eric completed a year-long residency through the Institute of Physical Art focusing on mastering an approach to treatment called Functional Manual Therapy. He passed his exam with honors and became one of only 300 CFMTs in the country. After his CFMT certification, Eric stayed on with this residency group for an additional 5 years mentoring Doctoral residents through certification and treating complex patient presentations.
An avid learner, Eric continued his learning through the Postural Restoration Institute, Spinal Manipulation Institute, the Gray Institute, the Ready State by Dr. Kelly Starrett, and the Institute of Advanced Musculoskeletal Treatments. He achieved his OCS - Orthopedic Clinical Specialist - designation in 2017. He continues to learn, teach, and collaborate with other healthcare professionals to provide the highest quality of care possible.
Eric utilizes a blend of approaches and focuses on the treatment of complex orthopedic issues such as severe arthritis, patients with multiple painful body parts, those who may have “failed” PT, and patients who are looking to get better faster than traditional PT.
Eric started Manual Physical Therapy Specialists because he wanted to focus on caring for patients with complex presentations that typically don’t respond well to traditional PT. These patients often require one on one care, collaboration with other healthcare providers, education on their diagnosis, hands on work, and specific exercise instruction. Manual PT Specialists always provides the highest level of one on one care.
Eric grew up in a Philadelphia suburb and comes from a big family. He has been an athlete his whole life and has played Hockey, Baseball, Basketball, and has practiced Gymnastics, Karate, and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. He played Ice Hockey at West Chester University of Pennsylvania and Roller Hockey for the USA Men’s Team from 2009-2011. He resides in Pittsford NY with his wife Kristie and two sons Joey and Henry.
What is Manual Physical Therapy?
Most people think of it just as massage - it’s much more than that. Manual Physical Therapy is not a treatment - it’s an approach to how to care for patients that is ultimately results driven.The approach teaches you to first listen to the patient - where do they hurt? What are they having difficulty doing?Next, you analyze their functional movements - walking, standing, running, lifting, reaching, sport movements. Does it hurt? Why? Is something too stiff or is another part of their body not doing its job? The functional movement assessment often clues the manual physical therapist into a particular body part to focus treatment on which may be the source of the problem.Then, we get into specific assessment of the site of the pain and other body parts that may be the source of the pain. Is there adequate mobility there? Is there adequate muscle activation? Strength? Endurance? Manual Physical Therapists assess utilizing a combination of art and science to get to the root cause of symptoms and lack of function.Once we’re clear on the site of pain and the source of the pain, we get into treatment. We often utilize a hands on approach to the soft tissues and joints to improve circulation, improve mobility, and down-regulate the sympathetic nervous system. This combination often pairs well to get patients feeling better faster than traditional exercise based Physical Therapy.We’ll then follow up soft tissue and joint work with manual muscle facilitation - this involves asking patients to resist against the therapist in several positions to improve mind-muscle connection to muscles that may not be doing their job on a regular basis. This pairs well into specific exercise instruction to provide support to certain areas of our body. It's like putting air in your tires - it protects the wheels. Then, we retest their functional movement - what feels different? Our goal every session is to make an impact. Patients should often leave feeling better than when they walked in. If they feel better, this clues us into an area of their body that if we focused on that it should dramatically improve their function.Last, we educate. We educate on the problem, what we can do to fix it, how long it could take, and determine a game plan together that compliments the patients life and doesn’t complicate it. It has been our experience that this approach to care helps patients who haven't seen results with traditional Physical Therapy to reach their goals and feel like themselves again.
We can help.
Education.
Patients leave their appointment feeling heard and that their questions were answered.
Expert level Manual Physical Therapy.
We have found that patients feel better faster when treatment combines manual therapy with specific exercise instruction.
Movement Improvement.
We teach patients that the benefit of certain movements are in the details. Our patients become more aware of their body and how to best organize it to move and feel better.