What We Treat

Parkinson’s treatment in Lakewood.

The handwriting got smaller. The voice got quieter. The steps got shorter. None of that is something you have to sit with quietly, and none of it is where your independence stops.

Freezing mid-step Shuffling steps Getting out of a chair Talk to a Specialist

Sound Familiar?

Does this sound like your week?

  • Your signature has quietly shrunk to half the size it used to be
  • People keep asking you to repeat yourself, and you weren’t whispering
  • Steps get short and quick near a doorway, like the floor changed on you
  • Your feet stick to the kitchen floor mid-turn and will not go
  • Rolling over in bed has become something you have to plan
  • Getting out of a low chair takes three rocks and both armrests

Two or more, for you or for someone you love? Keep reading.

Why It Happens

Parkinson’s changes the signal, not the muscle.

Deep in the brain sits the system that makes movement automatic. It sets how big, how fast and how well timed everything is, without you giving it a thought. Parkinson’s disrupts that system. The muscle still works. The automatic setting for size and speed is what fades. That is why the handwriting shrinks, the voice softens and the steps shorten all at once, while it feels to you like nothing has changed.

It also explains what helps. Movement practiced deliberately and oversized retrains the size setting. Outside cues, a rhythm to step to, a line on the floor, a count out loud, stand in for the internal timing that is misfiring. Stiffness, poor sleep and long stretches of sitting all make it harder, and that part is genuinely in your hands. You have spent decades being the capable one in the room. Staying that way is now a training problem, and training problems have plans.

A licensed physical therapist guiding a patient through cued walking and turning practice in the clinic

The Honest Truth

Parkinson’s doesn’t wait for a better week.

If you keep waiting

  • Steps keep shortening, and short shuffling steps are the ones that catch on a rug
  • Stiffness settles into posture, and a posture pulled forward takes your balance with it
  • The voice keeps fading, until phone calls and busy rooms stop feeling worth it

If you start this week

  • You learn the cueing strategies while they are still easy to learn
  • Falls become something you train for, not something you wait for
  • Fall Prevention for the balance and Functional Maintenance to hold what you gain, in one building

Nobody regrets starting too early. Plenty of people wish they hadn’t waited.

How We Fix It

The same four phases. Built for Parkinson’s.

Every phase has a job and a way to see where you are. Here’s what the four look like when the target is mobility, safety and independence.

From visit one

Pain

Loosen the stiffness.

Hands-on work and flexibility training take rigidity out of the neck, trunk and hips, so ordinary movement costs you less effort.

Early weeks

Prime

Make the movement big again.

Deliberate, oversized movement and posture work retrain the size and speed that Parkinson’s quietly turned down.

The main block

Perform

Take it into the kitchen.

Turning, doorways, uneven ground and getting out of chairs, trained with cues that keep working when we are not standing there. Strength and endurance build underneath it.

Ongoing

Prevent

Hold the ground you have.

Parkinson’s is progressive, so Prevent means keeping function and slowing what you lose, through Fall Prevention and Functional Maintenance.

Related Conditions

It rarely travels alone.

Parkinson’s tends to bring company. Here’s what else we treat.

1

Balance & Gait Disorders

Reaching for the wall on the way down the hall.

Learn More 2

Neurological Rehab

Relearning movement after a neurological injury or diagnosis.

Learn More 3

Chronic Pain

Pain that outlasted the injury and started running your calendar.

Learn More

Questions, Answered

What families ask before they book.

No, and early is the best time to be here. The strategies that keep people walking well take practice to learn, and they are easier to learn before symptoms crowd the room. Starting now also gives us a baseline, so we can see what is changing and adjust before it costs him something. Nobody regrets starting too early.

Yes, with the right supervision, and that is what one-on-one buys you. You work with a licensed physical therapist for the whole visit, at the edge of what is safe, with hands ready. Freezing is not a reason to avoid training either. It is one of the things we train, because there are cueing strategies that get your feet moving again.

This may be the most useful thing on this page. The Jimmo Settlement Agreement of 2013 obliges Medicare to cover skilled therapy that maintains a condition or slows decline. You do not have to be improving to qualify, and most families have never been told that. Our Functional Maintenance program is built on it. On visits, a plan generally runs two to three visits a week for four to six weeks before we reassess, which is a guideline, not a guarantee.

Book Your Visit

Ready when you are.

Request a time and a real person calls you back during business hours. No phone tree. No ‘someone will reach out.’ Just a plan.

  • Hours Monday–Friday, 9:00 AM–5:00 PM
  • (562) 512-3320 Prefer to talk now? Call us.
  • No doctor’s referral needed to start

We call back during business hours, Monday to Friday

Step 1 of 5

So we know who to look for when you walk in.

Visit Us

Care this good, this close.

The PT People

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