When the tests are clear but something still isn't right.

Orthopedic and Integrative Manual Physical Therapy combined with Functional Medicine to help you restore your life.

 

 

 

 

Jennifer C. Shepherd, PT, CFMT, FFMT, FAAOMPT, FMCP

 

 

SCHEDULE A DISCOVERY CALL

Our bodies were designed for wholeness

Our cells, fascia, organs, vessels, joints, and muscles all work together, guided by the nervous system, hormonal system, and other cell signaling systems to keep us balanced, moving and healthy…in harmony, like a symphony. 

Any injury, surgery, trauma-physical or emotional, stressful event, unhealthy diet, negatively impacts the bodys ability to do all of its jobs. This creates strain on the body and the need for the body to try to adapt to continue functioning. 

The more stress and strains one has accumulated, the greater burden and the need for compensations.

It’s even worse if you have underlying genetic vulnerabilities – which many of us do.

Chasing symptoms isn’t working for most

Sadly, most medical systems are only equipped to look at one part of the body and solely focus on the area of symptoms, pain, injury and or degeneration. This leads to diagnosis after diagnosis, increasing medications, and the offers of injections, surgeries, or ineffective exercises and frustration. 

A Systems Based Approach versus chasing symptoms: Treating the Whole Person

Our training in Functional and Orthopedic Manual Therapy, Visceral, Vascular, and Neural Manipulation, and Functional Medicine, along with 26 years of working with patients has equipped us with the knowledge, understanding and wisdom of how the human body desires to work efficiently. 

We unpack your story, which quickly helps us and you understand how your body as adapted (or not) to the challenges you have endured throughout life.

Functional Medicine problem solving, coupled with Manual Therapy hands-on assessment help us determine a priority list for how your body needs and wants to be treated…and often it isn’t in the place where you are suffering the most.

Your brilliant body has an order in which it would like to be treated. When we honor that order, only then the body is able to come into better balance.

(Coming soon: Learn what assessment looks like in the clinic)

Restorative care

 While there are basic concepts of health we all need to learn and implement, there is no “one size fits all” when it comes to treatment. Your body is unique genetically, what you have endured throughout life, and what your current life is like. 

Treatment is a combination of:

-Functional Medicine Lifestyle Concepts such as strategies to decrease inflammation, support detoxification, improve cellular health, sleep, and safe and efficient exercise. 

and 

-Orthopedic and Integrative Manual Physical Therapy to improve the structure and function of: joints, fascia, nerves, organs, vessels, lymph flow, pressure systems, cerebrospinal fluid flow, and reintegrate the structures back into the functioning whole – whether its through nervous system retraining, or gait and movement retraining. 

We don’t just do things to you for the sake of doing them or follow a protocol. Each treatment progresses on the work prior – all focused on restoring efficient structural and functional health and integrating back to the whole. We pretest and post test each visit, tracking your progress to ensure we are efficient and effective in helping you meet your goals. 

Who this is for

People who’ve been told their labs are normal, their scans are clean, and the only options left are medications, surgeries, more non precise therapies — or worse, nothing.

Concussion and post-concussion symptoms that haven’t resolved — in athletes, but also in anyone who hit their head. Car accidents, falls, workplace injuries. Adults and kids both.

Injuries that healed but left something behind. Surgeries, sprains, fractures, repetitive strain — where the tissue recovered and function didn’t.

Children and teens carrying the effects of birth trauma, early falls, or repeated injury, where posture, movement, or development isn’t tracking the way it should 

Cases nobody has been able to figure out — symptoms that don’t match the imaging, don’t fit one diagnosis, or don’t seem connected to each other.

And, selectively: complex chronic cases involving multiple systems and long histories. This work is slower, requires substantial change at home, and I take a limited number of these.

And people ready to do the work outside the clinic — because that’s most of it.

How care works here

Restoration isn’t one visit. Your body has been compensating for a long time. Finding what’s driving it and restoring it takes more than a single appointment.

Care begins with:

90-minute evaluation — full history, whole-body structural assessment, and our analysis of what is actually contributing to and driving your symptoms. This is where the multiple whys get found.

The Foundations for Functional Health — the online and coach guided work that moves the needle: boosting a healthy nervous system, learning how to decrease inflammatory load and simple, effective full body mobility and stability to keep organs, nerves, and joints healthy.

(coming soon: learn more)

Six visits — weekly at first, then every other week, then a month out as your body becomes less burden. 

$3,285

Payment plans available · Your $100 Discovery Call is credited toward enrollment

Continued care after that is per visit, based on what you need.


Why the home study work is critical to our work and your improvement

What we’ve learned over twenty-six years is that we can restore something on the table, and if nothing changes at home, it doesn’t hold. You come back and we are treating the same thing again. And again. That is not a good use of your money or my hands.

Not only is the goal for your body to work better, but even more so, it is to empower you to have the skills to keep it working better for a lifetime.


The goal is to need me less.

Care starts weekly and spaces out as your body holds the changes — every other week, then monthly, then as needed. Most patients end up checking in once or twice a year.

That’s the point. This isn’t a model built on seeing you twice a week forever.

Current wait for new patients: 10-12 weeks

Not ready to book?

Get 5 Reasons Your Symptoms Keep Coming Back — the five patterns I find in nearly every patient who hasn’t been able to get better.

You’ll also receive my clinical insights and stories from the clinic. Knowlege and concepts every person needs to live a healthy, vibrant life. Unsubscribe anytime.

Our Philosophy

LISTEN

Your story matters. Understanding your history helps us understand your body.

IDENTIFY

We quickly pinpoint which structures and systems aren’t functioning at their best.

PROBLEM SOLVE

We connect those findings to your history to understand the deeper relationships of your symptoms.

RESTORE

We restore mobility and function of your structures and pathways, integrating them into your whole body.

EQUIP & EMPOWER

We build on the awareness you’ve developed in Foundations with self-care that keeps adapting as your body — and your needs — change.

Why patients come to me after trying everyone else

Most physical therapists treat one joint, one muscle, one diagnosis at a time. Most functional medicine providers focus on labs and supplements. Doctors offer medications, surgery, injections.

My education, skillset, experience, and gifts equip me to assess and treat the whole body as one integrated system: musculoskeletal, visceral, neural, vascular — through the lens of functional medicine — together, in one visit.

There are fewer than 40 recognized Fellows of the Institute of Physical Art in the country. I’m the only one who also holds both certification in Functional Medicine and advanced training in Visceral Manipulation through the Barral Institute..

That means I can find connections between your symptoms, history, lifestyle, and structure  that other providers miss entirely. 

Jen Shepherd

Jennifer Shepherd, PT, CFMT, FFMT, FAAOMPT, FMCP

Fellowship-trained in Orthopedic Manual Physical Therapy · Institute for Functional Medicine Certified Practitioner
26 years in practice

REAL RESULTS

Without the therapy administered by Jen Shepherd and her team, my son would not be on National Honor Society, would not be an excellent student athlete and especially would never have been able to become a collegiate student athlete.  He went from an extremely angry soul that was not able to form a sentence to this successful and happy college student.  I’ve never seen him so happy and there are no words to remotely express the gratitude we have for our amazing fortune of having this therapy less than an hour from our home.”

-Barb Bouy, mother to Jake, 18

For years I felt sluggish and exhausted despite eating well and exercising, and another functional medicine group kept testing me for everything without ever explaining why. Jennifer looked at my whole history, including past physical and emotional traumas, to understand how I got here. She then worked on my systems in the right order, starting with my gut, where we found gluten and dairy were driving my inflammation. Once my gut was healing, we moved on to detoxification and supporting my sluggish liver, adding sauna and movement as we went. Five years later, at 48, I sleep better, have steady energy, and feel sharper and lighter than ever, because Jennifer finally helped me understand the why.

-Dan C., Graphic Designer, 48

Jen offers a uniquely comprehensive approach to movement, recovery, and function, pinpointing how multiple body systems contribute to inefficiencies in movement and stability. After just one session, I could sleep and move in the morning without the back pain I’d had for years, despite previous PT, self-treatment, and exercise. She finally found and treated “that spot” and its surrounding connections, and the change in my posture and walking was visible right away. Because she brings together the orthopedic, nervous, and vascular systems, she clears what’s actually driving the dysfunction instead of just treating the symptoms. It feels like I can finally drive my body without the brake stuck down.”

-Sally Kappan, 46, PT, CFMT

Ready to find out what is contributing to your symptoms?

Every patient starts with a Discovery Call. 30 minutes, online, $100 — credited toward your care.

For clinicians: I mentor physical therapists in systems-based clinical reasoning.

 Learn about the mentorship → For Clinicians