Movement Health
Health = Movement.
Movement = Health.
Moving well is a cornerstone for many of life’s most important experiences. I am passionate about optimizing your function and will present you the latest in evidence-based practice in as few visits as necessary. My extensive training and teaching in manual therapy, movement analysis, exercise prescription, and neuroscience, results in compassionate and comprehensive care that leaves you moving well and empowered to live well.
No matter your age or abilities, it is never too early or late to take charge of your movement health. Understanding and caring for your movement system is one of the most important things you can do to perform your best and age well, preserving your health and quality of life. Today and long into the future.
Manual Therapy
Expert hands make the difference.
Manual Therapy is the application of hands-on techniques to evaluate and treat mobility issues in the muscles, joints, fascia, tendons, ligaments and nerves. Manual therapy also refers to the highly skilled hands-on guidance used to reeducate tissue movement and improve function.
Skilled manual therapy techniques can lessen pain and improve mobility creating an opportunity for greater movement, strength gains, and healing response.
Falls Church PT and Movement Health utilizes the most current, evidence-supported practices in manual therapy helping clients manage pain and improve movement dysfunction.
Understand Pain
Pain is complex.
Many individuals enter the health care system seeking relief from pain. Pain is a useful experience when it protects us from threat or injury. The latest pain research reveals the nervous system has the ability to perceive threat even after it has passed or when threat never existed at all. This complicates how people heal and move. I specialize in helping my clients address ALL aspects of the complex experience of pain by targeting tissue dysfunction while also addressing nervous system programming so that function and movement of all kinds can be restored.
Therapeutic Exercise
Not all exercise is equal.
At Falls Church Physical Therapy and Movement Health, we view exercise as a drug. When prescribed by an expert, exercise can restore, maintain or enhance performance. Successful outcomes hinge upon performing the right exercise in the right way and for the right number of times between visits. We work to help you understand why each exercise given is an essential piece of meeting your goals.
Expert Physical Therapy
Expert care. Customized.
Providing you with unparalleled expertise and outstanding service is our goal at Falls Church Physical Therapy and Movement Health. You will always have a one-on-one appointment with Jennifer Halvaksz, Doctor of Physical Therapy. In each session, we work collaboratively to restore and enhance your movement health through the use of evidence-based evaluation and treatment as well as effective education to empower you. Each activity and intervention is selected for a specific purpose and is directly related to your goals and optimal function.
About Me
Scientist. Artist. Advocate. Educator.
Dr. Jennifer Halvaksz, PT, DPT, OCS
Hello! I am Dr. Jennifer Halvaksz, physical therapist and owner of Falls Church Physical Therapy and Movement Health, LLC.
In my 25+ years of physical therapy practice and teaching at the doctoral level, I have intentionally developed expertise in the examination, diagnosis and recovery from movement-related dysfunction and I have worked relentlessly to help other physical therapists do the same.
I am passionate about working collaboratively with my clients not only to recover from times of dysfunction, but to also preserve movement and optimize sport performance and healthy aging.
Here are a few highlights of my training:
Master of Physical Therapy degree, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA, 1997.
Doctor of Physical Therapy degree 2006, at the University of Southern California, consistently ranked the #1 physical therapy program by US News since 2004 .
In 2005 I earned recognition as a Board Certified Clinical Specialist in Orthopedic Physical Therapy and re-certified in 2015. (Approximately 4% of physical therapists have earned this credential.)
I have practiced in a number of settings including:
large university-based hospitals
client homes
ambulatory outpatient clinics,
back-stage at the Kennedy Center/Arena Stage,
Division I college athletic training rooms
Graduate of 3 year-long Manual Therapy programs
Former Academic Director of the post graduate physical therapy residency program at Johns Hopkins Hospital/George Washington University
In addition to providing direct patient care for over 25 years, I have been a physical therapy educator at the graduate level since 2004. I started as an adjunct faculty member in USC’s Doctor of Physical Therapy program and later moved into full-time academia in 2007 when I joined the faculty of the Doctor of Physical Therapy program at The George Washington University. I love being an educator and have had the privilege to direct the GW PT program course work related to musculoskeletal/orthopedic physical therapy practice, serve as Academic Director of the post graduate Orthopedic Physical Therapy Residency Program conducted with Johns Hopkins Hospital and lead university wide endeavors to improve inter-professional health care practice. In 2019 I re-joined USC’s DPT faculty as an assistant professor in the innovative Hybrid Doctor of Physical Therapy program. In this role, I helped to integrate sound education strategies while allowing students to learn in places and ways that suit them and their communities.
Moving well is a cornerstone for many of life’s most important experiences. I am passionate about optimizing function by providing you with the latest in evidence based practice in as few visits as necessary.
Contact me today for a free 15-minute Discovery phone call to learn more about how I can help you move and live well.