Receive expert intervention from the person who teaches others

Walt Fritz, PT, has been in private practice for over two decades and has been educating health professionals through person-centered manual therapy intervention since 2007. More recently, he has taught this work to speech-language pathologists and voice professionals to aid them in their interventions with patients dealing with voice and swallowing disorders, as well as the vocal performer. Walt now offers personalized, one-on-one treatments to people with specific vocal, swallowing, and related issues, along with more general physical therapy concerns, in his Lima, New York clinic (near Rochester, NY). Walt and the thousands of therapists he has trained worldwide are helping improve the quality of life with everyone, from those most seriously challenged secondary to surgery, injury, or post-radiation changes to the highest level of elite vocalists. You can now receive treatment directly from the person who has trained these therapists in his approach.

Many treatment options are available for people traveling out of town for specialized help, including intensives (more than one session per day). For more information, please click here to be taken to Walt Fritz’s practice page.

Specific areas addressed may include:

Muscle tension dysphonia
Voice disorders
Vocal performance concerns
Breathing limitations
Oral motor dysfunction and delays
Tongue limitations
Swallowing problems (dysphagia)
Neck pain or loss of movement
Issues from a broader range of traditional physical therapy concerns.

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As a physical therapist (PT), I see the value in movement to stay healthy and restore function. However, movement takes many forms. The traditional PT view of movement is typically formalized exercise under the guise of or need for strengthening. “We need to make you stronger so that you have better stability,” and other phrases are often used to explain this belief. Such descriptions are popular beliefs on pain and movement disorders but lack credibility when looking at the evidence. “Am I in pain because I’m weak? Do stronger people have less pain?” is a great way to examine this dilemma. While strengthening can work at times to reduce pain, it often misses the needs of many people.

I’ve used manual therapy as my primary intervention for decades, first as a standalone treatment and now as one blended with functional movement and performance. While I have recently moved on from “myofascial release” as the descriptor of what I use in my PT practice and what I teach health professionals, I continue to use that gentle, sustained stretch style. The reason for moving on from that description involves insufficient background science to support myofascial release. Having evolved from explanations that speak to fixing “issues in the tissues,” touch-based manual therapy is now seen as a broader form of intervention, where touch is viewed as a means of communication that allows the patient to have input into their issues and recovery. 

My approach to physical therapy is to address areas that concern you the most or those most limiting to you through manual therapy work. Then, we try to craft a movement and exercise program that, along with home self-stretching strategies, improves the quality of life.

My physical therapy practice is here for you, whether you are a local resident or someone traveling in for more specialized and experienced care. Contact me for more details. 

Walt Fritz, PT