Born and raised in Great Falls, Montana, Dr. Jodi Knable brought her business, Finesse Physical Therapy, to The Electric City in 2014. Knable studied biology at Portland State University, MSU tech and the University of Great Falls for an undergrad. Afterwards, she was accepted into the physical therapy program at Loma Linda University and later earned her doctorate in 2006 from the university. She is also the mother of two teenage daughters.
Knable specializes in visceral and neural manipulation, which is manual therapy using light, gentle touch or force to help encourage normal mobility when physiological movement has been impaired.
“So they come here, we just plot it using tension. That’s really all it takes. I put my hand on their head, and just this body loading, makes them move to protect what hurts. And that’s where I start. So if we can get that spot moving again, their pain goes down a lot,” Knable said.
One of Knable’s defining factors for starting his practice was the technique his physical therapist used for his own chronic pain before he even started physical therapy school.
“I said, ‘oh my God, what did you just do?’ Knable told his physical therapist. “It was so deep. I was looking for it for the rest of the time. I was out of PT school before I found the instructions for it, and they came to Bozeman, so I took my first class [and was] blown away and I never stopped. So I kept taking classes until I could absorb all they had.”
Knable said her work isn’t your average physical therapy, and she encourages everyone to try the style, especially patients who have been told their pain may be “all in their head” or who seem run out of other options.
“Generally the patients I see are women in their 30s and 50s and I think it’s just because they’re the ones who are fed up and looking for an alternative. I have treated babies as young as 18 months old. I treated one in the womb. It was awesome. And then I treated a 96-year-old man, so I don’t care if you’re in pain, you deserve relief.
Knable said lifestyle plays an important role in the healing process for patients. Because lifestyle education is integral, Knable has been able to build relationships with counselors, fitness instructors, and physicians to steer his patients toward specific needs.
“I do a lot of life education. So it’s about teaching people how to eat better, how to choose,” she said. “Choose better. Which doesn’t just mean food. I’m talking about relationships. I’m talking about your thoughts. I’m talking about your daily activities. Just make better choices, more positive choices. So you don’t have to come back to this point.
“Because an interesting part of this technique is that, as I frequently deal with trauma, prior trauma arises, simply because our bodies tend to store trauma because we don’t know how to deal with it otherwise. [It] there comes a time when we can no longer store it. We have to get rid of it. And that is why the pain sometimes appears. And as I process, many of these stories will come out. And then I immediately refer to a counselor and say, look, I’m doing this part. You do this part. And it works much better if people do both. At a time.”
She practices what she preaches by also seeing a physical therapist, consulting her counselor, praying and participating in all kinds of outdoor activities and will even bring her daughters along for fun.
His overall goals are to educate his patients so they can take care of themselves, help with pain relief, and grow his business.
“I believe it’s a gift from God and I want to be able to share it with those in need. It’s truly unique and I hate to hear stories of people who have been hurt by the medical profession, in part though I hate to go, but if I can ease some of this pain, why not?”
You can follow Finesse Physical Therapy and contact her through her website at finessephysicaltherapy.com or her Facebook page, Finesse Physical Therapy. She welcomes everyone. Finesse Physical Therapy is a supplier for Blue Cross Blue Shield, Allegiance, Aetna and Pacific Source.