Excelsior’s practitioners are manual therapists and coaches who banded together to bring the science of Functional Range Systems® to Lancaster County. Our own experiences with injury and illness led us to seek long-term health solutions beyond traditional models. We specialize in Functional Assessment and Release, Functional Range Conditioning, Kinstretch, and the Internal Strength Model.
A few years ago I struggled with severe neuropathy in my feet and legs. I was completely numb from the ankle down and my calves often cramped so tightly I couldn't walk. None of the doctors I consulted had any relief or even any answers for me. My condition was a result of months of chemotherapy. I was thankfully alive, but the quality of my life was severely compromised. Somewhat out of desperation, I made an appointment with a manual therapist.
By the end of the session I felt my toes for the first time in years. I cried real tears of joy. Before I got home I had decided to pursue this knowledge, to learn the techniques and study the body in hopes of being able to help others in the way I had been helped. I can't promise you an experience as transformative as mine, but I'm nearly certain that together we can find you some relief and begin the process of unwinding inhibiting patterns, finding more space and strength in your body.
Before becoming a manual therapist, I spent more than a decade in service work alongside refugees, women on the margins, and struggling families. I moved across roles as varied as mothering youth, farming, graphic design, sports coaching, and advocacy. I was deeply impacted by what I witnessed others endure. Being targeted myself through trafficking, assault, and coercive control left a mark.
For years, I believed being strong meant powering through — until a fluke exposure to an environmental toxin made that impossible. I was left facing neurodegenerative autoimmune symptoms: pain and numbness, loss of motor control, and 30 lbs of muscle wasting. Excelsior became part of a last-resort effort to turn my health around.
The clinic and gym became the place I began to redefine strength. No miracles, no hype, no trying to be unbreakable. Just precise joint, motor, and tissue work within a community striving to be and feel better, from pro athletes to retirees.
I experienced outcomes I’d been told were impossible—gradual returns of sensation and control that accumulated over time. That process allowed me to return to decades-long goals I’d nearly given up on. Today, my own work here is part of a response to all I’ve lived and witnessed. I care deeply about helping others build both the body and the person within it.
