Certified Hand Therapy Services

Hands For Life Therapy provides a wide array of services for your hand, wrist, elbow, and shoulder.  If you are looking for preventative health services, please refer to preventative health services page so I can educate you about how to prevent pain from disrupting your life.  I strive to work individually with each client to ensure you get the exact therapy experience you need and deserve.

Hand Treatments Wrist Treatments Elbow Treatments Shoulder Treatments Questions Insurance Forms Privacy Policy

Hand Services

Trigger thumb/finger – “painful clicking finger”

Does your finger click and/or get stuck in a closed position? This painful condition occurs when the tendon that bends your finger gets too swollen to fit through the small tunnels it must pass through during the bending process.

Other conditions may include:

  • Arthritis
  • Finger fractures and dislocations
  • Extensor & Flexor Tendon Laceration
  • Amputations
  • Burns and frostbite
  • Post-surgical conditions

Wrist Services

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome – “numbness & tingling in my hand”

If origin of pain is at the wrist and causes numbness/tingling with pressure over palmar side of wrist that travels into thumb, index and middle fingers when gripping, keyboarding, etc….then there is a good chance you have carpal tunnel instead of or in addition to neuropathy that starts higher up on the arm.

Wrist Tendonitis – “dull or sharp pain in the wrist at rest and/or with activities”

Dull achy pain that spans across the back of the wrist and may start at the base of the thumb or from the small finger side. Pain typically increases with weightbearing or lifting heavy items.

Elbow Services

Elbow Tendonitis (Tennis/Golfers Elbow) – “pain in my outer or inner elbow”

You will feel dull or sharp achy sensation at the outer or inner aspect of your elbow that will increase with gripping and lifting items with your hand. You may also feel tenderness when you press on the bony areas of your outer or inner elbow areas.

Cubital Tunnel Syndrome – “numbness & tingling in my elbow and hand”

You may feel electrical pain in the elbow that is very sensitive to hard surfaces or causes numbness/tingling to travel to your ring/small fingers. This will increase when you fully bend or extend your elbow. You may feel weakness in your grip and drop things often.

Shoulder Services

Thoracic Outlet Syndrome –“numbness & tingling in both hands”

You may feel a pulling, burning, traveling pain that also makes your whole arm feel like its swollen.

The pain is often worse at night, and you may feel ongoing numbness/tingling in both or one of your hands.

This causes you to feel weak, drop things, and be unable to manipulate small objects or tie laces.

Rotator Cuff Tendonitis – “pain in my shoulder and upper arm”

You may feel a dull, achy pain at rest and/or when reaching overhead, behind the head, or behind the back. The pain feels like it travels down along the outside part of your upper arm…not at the shoulder joint itself.

Common Questions About Hand Conditions

Why is swelling necessary and how can I help control it?

After any type of injury, swelling immediately occurs.  Swelling is the way our bodies react to injury in order to heal.  If controlled early on, this swelling will resolve and allow the rest of the phases of healing to occur.  Sometimes, as with many elbow, wrist and hand injuries, this swelling is not as easy to control.  Swelling in a hand and wrist is especially hard to see once the first few days after the injury have passed.  Gradually, you notice that as your injured elbow, wrist or hand gets less swollen on the outside, it is still hard to move.  This is because a good portion of the swelling is still under the skin and within the joint.

That’s when a Certified Hand Therapist can help! I am specially trained in the use of techniques and tools to help get rid of this swelling quickly and efficiently.

What are splints, braces and support wraps and how can they help me?

As a Certified Hand Therapist, I am specially trained to not only recommend elbow, wrist, and hand splints/support wraps…I can actually custom make them to fit your specific needs! I use moldable materials that conform to your unique anatomy so that wearing it is comfortable as well as functional.

What exercises can I do to help my hand/arm problem?

Once the muscles are relaxed and the area of injury is less painful, it is time to teach the injured arm how to move the way it used to so you can return to performing your daily life activities.  Sometimes this can be done by breaking down each task into basic steps.  Once you are able to master each step, the brain has an easier time remembering how to put all the steps together.  Often you do not need to do a lot of resistive or repetitive exercises…you just need to incorporate these steps into your daily schedule.

If you need help adapting to doing your daily activities in an easier way (until you fully heal from your injury), then you’ll be happy to know that a Certified Hand Therapist is just the person to help you do that!

How can manual therapy and massage help me?

Because your muscles and joints tighten up after an injury, it is important to make sure they return to their normal resting length to reduce pain and your tendency to protect the injury.

Certified Hand Therapists are trained to massage and mobilize your muscle tissue in specific ways to achieve relaxation and pain relief.

What arm/body positions are best for me at home, work and leisure?

Whenever your body suffers an injury to any part of your neck, shoulder, or rest of your arm…the muscles immediately tighten up to protect the area from further injury and pain.  This is also a normal response for the body to have in the beginning, however, you do not want those muscles to stay that way for too long.  The reason is because the longer your muscles are in protective mode, the longer it takes to get out of it.  For instance, if you fell and broke your wrist, your brain will immediately tell your arm to stay in a position of being close to your body and your upper shoulder and neck muscles will start to bear the weight of your whole arm as you are not using that arm and hand to do your normal daily activities.  Suddenly, you start to feel pain and tightness in your neck, shoulder, and upper arm.  This can eventually lead to neck and shoulder stiffness and loss of motion…and sometimes even numbness and tingling if the nerves get irritated from not moving.  The point is, after an injury, your brain forgets how to normally move that arm again.

This is where a Certified Hand Therapist can help.  We can teach you how to safely position and move your arm after an injury or surgery so that it doesn’t have to negatively affect your entire life and daily activities.

Are scars important for healing?

As the injury to your elbow, wrist or hand continues to heal for a few weeks, the scabs fall off and the swelling goes away.  Often you are left with a scar that is lumpy and sensitive to the touch.  This is also a normal part of healing, although some people may scar more heavily than others.  Being able to calm down the sensitivity and soften the scar is very important to the skin, muscles, and joints.  A scar that is left lumpy can actually get in the way of the muscles and joints that move beneath it.

As a Certified Hand Therapist, I am trained to educate you on how to manage this scar.  I am also trained in sculpting this scar to allow for better movement.

Certified Hand Therapy Insurance Coverage

For Certified Hand Therapy Services, we participate with the following health insurance plans:

  • Blue Cross/Blue Shield
  • Geisinger Health Plan
  • Medicare
  • Worker’s Compensation
  • Auto

*We offer a 30% discount off the price of insurance company fees if you choose to privately pay for services.

Contact us for more information on your insurance questions at 570-820-5900

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