Testimonials
Testimonials from Patients
I would recommend that everyone work with Ginger Garner. She is without a doubt the best physical therapist I have ever worked with. She understands the human body like no one I have ever met. She is an intuitive healer and is caring, kind, and knowledgeable. Ginger genuinely wants the best for her patients. She helped me to understand my own body more effectively so I could heal from my injuries. I would drive for hours to see Ginger as a patient. All of Ginger’s techniques are backed by the latest evidence based practice. She is an inspiration to me and so many others. If you want to feel your best I highly recommend you do yourself a favor and see Ginger Garner.
She has also been a mentor for me as a physical therapist since completing her Professional Yoga Therapist training program.
Dr. Garner has been great to work with. She really listens to what the patient says. The ultrasound imaging really helps us confirm what I am feeling. She does a great job looking at the whole body vs. just the area that is hurting which is really important. I have learned a lot about how my muscles are not working well together and how to slowly work to fix this issue. This is due to Dr. Garner literally showing me how certain muscles are inhibited when I try to activate them. I am really glad that I am slowly recovering and hopefully avoiding an unnecessary surgery!
You are in excellent hands with Dr. Garner. I felt completely prepared and confident going in to my first labor experience after consulting with her, and have been equally taken care of after giving birth! She is an absolute gem and an extremely knowledgeable provider!
Testimonials from Professionals
Ginger, I am so grateful for your program. I don’t know where I would be mentally, emotionally or physically today, especially during COVID. Yoga opened doors within me that I forgot were there, and this has been a great gift I wasn’t seeking or expecting. If you ever feel in the coming days like you are talking into the void, know that people are hearing your message and appreciate you for sharing it!
I just wanted to thank you for all you have done for me and let you know just how impactful you have been on my life. The past 5 years have some of the best and most stressed I have ever experienced. Because of you and the lessons learned at PYTI, I feel totally prepared for it all.
I am practicing therapy the way patients deserve. I am happy working and the community loves MTY!
My oldest son, Robert, was diagnosed with autism this year. I feel like all the training prepared me for this and he LOVES all the asana, pranayama, and vocal toning exercises we do. He is thriving and happy.
Thank you for helping shape my life into this beautiful mess. I am forever grateful. .
Ginger is a wise and compassionate health care provider who blends medical yoga with rehabilitation programming, and she has an extensive background of patient care service. Her style is forward thinking towards patient education, empowerment, and optimization of function, and she works with other health care team members to provide a healing community of care. I highly recommend her.
I came to the Medical Therapeutic Yoga program as very yoga-curious, but perhaps also a little yoga-skeptical. A colleague had been through the program and she raved about it and used yoga in some way in nearly every session, so there was clearly something there, but I wasn’t sure what. I’ve never been one to let other people know something I don’t, so I took the leap.
And, well, now I get it.
Ginger has managed to combine the medical science that I know and love with the science of yoga in a way that was sensible, practical and compelling. Bringing in elements of functional medicine and integrated lifestyle medicine cinched the deal.
MTY makes sense. It works. It is something I can integrate into my treatment with just about everybody in my pediatric outpatient practice in one way or another.
Ginger’s program has restored my love and perspective that physical therapy is a healing ART. I had been feeling uninspired, deflated by the obstacles in the healthcare/insurance system, and was losing sight of what drew me to the healthcare field in the first place. It gave me a solid evidence based framework from which to integrate “whole person”, yogic, lifestyle medicine into my physical therapy foundation.
It has since sparked joy, creativity, and a broader perspective into my clinical practice.
Thank you for creating ALL of this amazing material, the Integrative Lifestyle Medicine & Medical Therapeutic Yoga programs, and for compiling the vast amounts of research and information for our fields in PT and OT — and for heath care people overall!
This program has been an absolutely life changing experience for me. Initially, I was drawn to the program in hopes of gaining more knowledge on how to manage clients, particularly the chronic pain population, in a more holistic manner. The concepts made sense to me and reinforced my current approach. Also, I wanted to be more precise in my use of yoga postures therapeutically. All of these superficial goals were achieved after the first onsite module, then it evolved into something much more. It cracked me open, but lead to self-realization and healing that I needed.
This is what I’ve been searching for since I got out of school 8 years ago. I have peace about where I’m going. It’s not stressful like all those other CE courses I thought I “had” to go to.
This is truly the best clarity I have had since graduating – I’m becoming the holistic physical therapist that I want to be – to take me through an exciting and successful career! I have taken continuing education like yoga for rehabilitation, nutrition in physical therapy, chronic pain management, etc. but NOTHING has put it all together and gone above and beyond like the Integrative Lifestyle Medicine program!
I wish I found it sooner – this is how people WANT to be cared for!
MTY provided me with the framework for discussing (Lifestyle Medicine) – the difficult and vague topics of depression, anxiety, stress, nutrition, and sleep quality, which were constantly influencing my patient outcomes. I could better understand when to refer patients and had a finer way of educating them on what encompassed good lifestyle habits. Since implementing MTY, I have noticed a significant shift in my ability to deliver care that is more effective and capable of providing a whole person approach. It has set the stage for much more successful outcomes with my patients across the board. The MTY method is proof that providing care in underserved populations with access to very little resources can still produce positive outcomes.
Medical Therapeutic Yoga has been an invaluable piece of my life – both professionally and personally. Finding safe community while learning to use my voice in a powerful way has probably been the most valuable thing I have learned through this training.
Partnership with Yoga in PT is a sustainable and cost effective way to deliver evidence based compassionate care. Not only has it helped my patients to feel empowered for self care, it has also infused new found enthusiasm in my PT practice, which is sustainable for my wellbeing too.
Medical Therapeutic Yoga is also beneficial for the physical therapist. This methodology teaches the patient how to heal all aspects of their wellbeing and utilizes a team approach to care, thereby decreasing the pressure of the therapist to “fix” the patient. MTY has helped me tremendously to better handle stressful situations and has actually helped with my perception of stress.
I truly believe this methodology can change healthcare and the lives of healthcare providers by decreasing burnout! Thank you so much Ginger for creating this wonderful program!
I use MTY with every patient, regardless of if they are 80 with chronic pain, an acute shoulder, or someone in an MVA with whiplash injury. The majority of these patients all have 2 things in common: pain & response to pain.
According to the American Physical Therapy Association, “PTs examine each individual and develop a plan, using treatment techniques to promote the ability to move, reduce pain, restore function, and prevent disability.” We often think of treatment techniques as being exercise, but we now know that treatment is so much more than that. It is the inclusion of pain management, nutrition, looking at the patients’ well-being…All of these are inclusive of the Biopsychosocial Model in MTY.
MTY applies to my entire life—it creates that balance between rest and activation, searching and finding, releasing and relaxing, lifting and letting go. Through discovering my own biopsychosocial model to health and wellness, I have discovered that place of intersection where my passion, my talents, my mission, and a need for my service all meet to find my dharma, “to support, hold, or bear.” I will first put on my own oxygen mask, breath for myself, forgive and love myself madly, all to be able to step into my own true essence: serving myself so that I can better serve others.
Witnessing how the biopsychosocial MTY model can have such an impact on people re-energizes me as a practitioner and I am excited to see what lies ahead. Using this model will improve our role as medical managers, helping patients navigate their way through the healthcare system. When we work from a central space of empathy, knowledge, and compassion, we influence the wellbeing of the whole self, which is the only way we can make lasting changes.
“I wish I knew then what I know now.”
How many times have we all said that? I believe that everything happens for a reason and I probably needed to be seasoned. But as a practicing physical therapist of 40 years, I can think of more than a few patients, myself included, that could have benefited from Medical Therapeutic Yoga (MTY) and a biopsychosocial approach in treatment, wellness and life.
The conventional wisdom when I was in PT school was not to discuss with patients most aspects of the 5-limbed yogic biopsychosocial model with the exception of the physical feature.
Change is necessary. The biomedical model presently used is necessary in the management of disease. When combined with the biopsychosocial model in MTY we can provide the foundation for collaboration of interdisciplinary relationships with the support necessary for active patient participation in their health care and promotion of healthy lifestyle choices.
With my training in Medical Therapeutic Yoga (MTY), I have found my professional missing link. Ginger Garner has taken the art and philosophy of yoga and looked at it through the eyes of of medical research to discern what is safe and beneficial or what is likely to cause injury. She teaches Professional Yoga Therapists to focus on stabilization of the body and protection of the spine and joints, and she uses yoga poses to create the most functional strengthening framework that I’ve seen as a PT.
MTY incorporates the ancient Ayurvedic principles around treating the whole person- building strength, teaching breathing as a tool for regulating the emotions and the nervous system, emphasizing the importance of non-violence towards others and looking at what constitutes violence in thought, word, or deed towards yourself, and knowing that food has a profound affect on health.
In Medical Therapeutic Yoga, I have a framework for helping patients learn what it feels like to have control and stability in their body- there is so much that is empowering in that feeling.
Through combining physical therapy and MTY, patients will be able to achieve a better awareness of allostasis in order to encourage a sense of equanimity. Teaching patients that certain stressors can lead to growth, but also how to reduce negative stress that leads to physical and emotional breakdown. Through MTY, both patients and providers are less likely to reach burnout stage in work or family life, are more able to determine and set boundaries, to live in balance with their community, to stop letting fear drive their behavior, and feel more content and satisfied with their daily lives.
Medical Therapeutic Yoga is beautiful tool to begin healing ourselves and our communities.
Let’s take a patient to use as an example of how I utilize MTY as a PT. This patient is a mother of two, who has been experiencing severe low back pain (LBP) & radicular symptoms for eight months. She took the traditional medical route of seeing her physician, who prescribed PT. Subsequently she completed six months of traditional physical therapy at another clinic. Her treatment was not providing her with relief. She also sought out massage therapy, dry needling, acupuncture, had an MRI, and desperately resorted to an epidural steroid injection. The patient reported no change in her symptoms, and maybe even some worsening of her symptoms following the epidural.
In just two visits, her pain has been reduced in half and she is seeing light at the end of the tunnel. Her mood & her overall energy has been elevated. She loves the home program which she is diligently completing. I have no doubt that she is on her way to a full recovery. She may shine her light once again and be the mother, wife, friend, and daughter she strives to be.
As a therapist, I am prone to “burning out” if I do not give back and take care of myself, which can lead to impartial outcomes. MTY has imparted me with a lifestyle of prioritizing self-care to stay balanced and healthy. By living and embodying what I teach, I can naturally care for and guide my patients with a balanced and compassionate approach.
I just wanted to write and tell you how much I enjoyed your six week Medical Therapeutic Yoga series!
I’m not sure if you remember me from the training in Aptos right before the world got “locked down”….but this weekly practice with you has been a huge gift. It has really helped me through this strange time and kept me inspired.
I’ve been practicing everything from your weekend Level I Certification on a (mostly) daily basis, and I have to say I feel healthier and just generally better than I have in years. And that’s during a worldwide pandemic!
Thank you for everything you’ve been doing over the past few months to help everyone in our community find the light.
You are the elixir for which the world thirsts. I find myself feeling light, refreshed, grounded, hopeful, pain free, rested, & resilient after these classes. Who knew virtual Medical Therapeutic Yoga —in the right hands, like Dr. Ginger Garner’s — could yield such profound, restorative, immediate benefits! I’m delighted, (and not easily impressed, being a nationally board-certified orthopedic doctor of physical therapist —& decades-long, certified professional yoga therapist — myself.)
You are a trusted gem in a sea of on-line unknowns, Dr. Garner, and a gift to us all. Thank you for keeping us safe, evidence-grounded, & soulfully uplifted. I have not personally experienced a more nimble biopsychosocial rehabilitation guide. I am grateful for the grace of your teachings, virtual and face-to-face. You are a restoring healer, & a true Essential Worker in these challenging times. I am eager to continue this practice.
Ginger really sets a precedent for what a holistic practitioner should be. Her command of the body on multiple levels and commitment to her clients gives her the ability to quickly zero in on the issue and precisely remedy the cause of a variety of issues. She also has a unique set of skills and experience that makes her an absolute expert in the hip region. As a seasoned physical therapist myself, who also specializes in the hip region, Ginger is one of a handful of colleagues that I truly look up to and go to for help. To put icing on the cake, her demeanor is so pleasant and she is a joy to be around!
