How it works
What actually happens, from the first photo to the last exercise
Posture therapy isn’t something done to you. It’s a sequence you’re taught, built from what your own body is doing. Here is the whole process, with nothing held back.
The idea underneath it
Your body compensates long before it complains
Your joints are built to sit in particular relationships to one another. When one drifts out of position, the rest don’t stop working — they adapt around it. That adaptation is silent, often for years.
Eventually something in the chain carries more load than it was designed for, and that is the part that starts to hurt. Which is why the painful spot is so often the last place worth treating.
The symptom is where the compensation ran out. The cause is usually somewhere quieter.
What that looks like in practice
Nancy’s right-side back pain started at her left hip
Nancy came to us with pain in her right lower back. Functional testing showed that her left hip flexors were underactive and weak.
To avoid loading that weak left side, her upper body had shifted to the right. The right side of her body had been absorbing the extra work ever since — and her right lower back was the first part to complain about it.
That back was never the cause. Treating it would have relieved the symptom for as long as the treatment lasted, and no longer. Correcting the left hip is what changed the loading.
The process
Four steps, repeated until the change holds
01 Posture photos
We photograph you from the front, the side and the back. Those photos show in plain view where your body is sitting out of position — and you look at them with us, rather than being told about them afterwards.
02 Functional tests
Movement tests show which muscles have stopped doing their job and which ones have taken over. This is what turns a photograph into an explanation of the pattern.
03 Your own sequence
A set of specific positions and exercises, in a deliberate order, built from what the photos and tests found. Simple, no special equipment, done at home.
04 Re-test, then adjust
We re-photograph and re-test as you go, and your sequence changes as your alignment changes. That last part is what a generic routine can never do.
What to expect
What a session is actually like
You’ll be moving, not lying on a table. Expect to be walked through positions, corrected as you go, and asked how things feel — that feedback is information, not small talk.
Sessions run in person at our Boston, Newport and Los Angeles clinics, or over video from anywhere. Virtual works precisely because the work is yours to do: your therapist is watching, correcting and adjusting either way.
Between sessions you do the sequence at home. Twenty to forty minutes is typical. This is the part that makes the change stick — and the part that asks something of you.
Being straight with you
Who this works for, and who it doesn’t
A good fit if
- Your pain keeps returning after treatment that targets the sore spot
- You’ve been told your imaging looks normal, but something still hurts
- You want to understand what your body is doing, not just have it handled
- You can give twenty to forty minutes most days to the sequence
- You’re looking for change that outlasts the appointment
Probably not, yet, if
- You have an acute injury or new symptoms that need a medical assessment first
- You’re after passive treatment — something done to you while you rest
- Daily work at home isn’t realistic for you right now
- You want symptomatic relief only, rather than addressing what is causing the symptoms
If you’re in the second column, we’ll tell you so on the consultation. That call is genuinely diagnostic for us as well as for you.
Start with a conversation and an assessment
One free session, thirty minutes. You describe what’s going on, we analyze how you’re standing and moving, and you leave understanding your own posture better — whether or not you go further with us.