About Jenny

I am the owner of Balance From Within and have been working in the health care field for the last 38 years.After receiving my Associates Degree in Applied Sciences at Illinois Central College in 1977, I spent 22 years as a Physical Therapist Assistant (PTA). For 11 years in Illinois, I managed a physical therapy department in two geriatric facilities. Another position I held there was as Quality Assurance Coordinator for Professional Therapy Services out of Belleville, IL. In 1988 I moved to Arizona and have been employed in skilled nursing facilities, hospitals, private practices owned by various physical therapy companies, and also a work hardening clinic.

While in the hospital setting, I not only treated patients, I excelled in wound healing and aquatic therapy. I was published during that time on one of the Physical Therapy (PT) Private Practice Section’s journals on Medicare Documentation. I also had the opportunity and invitation to speak in Arizona, Illinois, and Oklahoma; teaching PT’s PTA’s, and nurses the anatomy and biology of wounds and how to heal them with various therapeutic modalities and the use of appropriate dressings.

I discovered healing hard-to-heal wounds was my passion.

In 1993 I was honored by the American Physical Therapy Association and featured in one of the Private Practice Journals as 1 of 5 “PTA’s Paving The Way in the United States. There are currently 60,000 PTA’s in the United States.

As the years passed and limitations were placed on me as to how much time I was allowed to spend with a patient based on how much reimbursement was received from insurance companies. I began to have personal, moral, and ethical issues with this. Interestingly enough, I also began experiencing a great number of chronic upper respiratory infections, fatigue, and simply not enjoying going to work as much. It had nothing to do with the patients or the actual work. I loved every minute of my time as a physical therapist assistant.

Meeting license requirements for continuing education units (CEU’s), I started taking classes on myofascial release as taught by John Barnes P.T.

Both of these techniques allow the body to guide and heal itself with slow and gentle sustained holds. For those who feel they need on a table and experience the pain of an elbow buried into a muscle to the point of tears, I am not the therapist for you. Now if you want to know you’re being touched at the deepest level humanly possible, give me the opportunity to assist you.

These past 15 years have been some of the most incredible years of my life. I have continued to study and grow personally in many ways. For 3 years now I have been studying with Internationally known author and teacher Caroline Myss, Ph.D. in Chicago at the Caroline Myss Education Institute (CMED), and have learned that there are many more reasons and causes for poor health, illness and dis-ease.

While in my very first class, I had an emotional epiphany. I knew my life was about to take a very different direction. When I returned to work after the 3 day class, I immediately began to implement the myofascial release techniques. Patients began to respond to this therapy in such a favorable way with me that other PT’s and PTA’s were asking me to assist them with their patients. At that time I was working with geriatric patients where most of the population struggles with incredibly debilitating disabilities. I knew if this technique worked for them, it would work with anyone and I became very excited about my practice again. In my opinion, 20 minutes with a stroke patient was still not enough, therefore my frustration continued internally. To say there was an occasional reprimand due to the length of time I was taking to treat my patients based on their individual need, was an understatement.

My personal disillusion with the bureaucracy had not lessened and I began to entertain the idea of getting a massage license and leaving the physical therapy profession. This indeed would change my life. I would be leaving the security of full time employment, and benefits, as well as the profession I so dearly loved. On the other hand, it would allow me the freedom to spend the time needed with someone. I’d also be honoring my intuition that told me to walk away from the frustration and answer what I felt was a deeper calling to serve in a different capacity.

With a certain level of fear, I turned in my resignation and began searching for a space to rent, believing all the while I’d be led to just the right place. I was terrified at the responsibility of signing a 3 year lease, however I trusted that this move was indeed the right thing to do and the direction I was meant to go. It took me 3 weeks to get the space ready as it had been empty for 5 years…very dusty and in need of carpet and paint. I opened my practice on May 19, 1999 and it’s called Balance From Within.

My studies continued in myofascial release and while attending a more advanced course, John Barnes P.T. began to speak of and teach another modality called craniosacral therapy. I felt this technique would yet be another incredibly healing modality to pursue, so I continued on with The Upledger Institute in Florida.

Both of these techniques allow the body to guide and heal itself with slow and gentle sustained holds. For those who feel they need on a table and experience the pain of an elbow buried into a muscle to the point of tears, I am not the therapist for you. Now if you want to know you’re being touched at the deepest level humanly possible, give me the opportunity to assist you.
These past 15 years have been some of the most incredible years of my life. I have continued to study and grow personally in many ways. For 3 years now I have been studying with Internationally known author and teacher Caroline Myss, Ph.D. in Chicago at the Caroline Myss Education Institute (CMED), and have learned that there are many more reasons and causes for poor health, illness and dis-ease.

Remember me mentioning the upper respiratory infections at the end of my PT career? My studies at CMED enabled me to realize that the incongruence of our hearts and heads do indeed lend individuals to experience chest, upper back, neck, throat, thoracic inlet, and shoulder issues. I could go on here, however this Bio was designed to assist you with getting to know me. There are other places here on the website that you can go deeper into the techniques and the anomalies that can be helped with them.

One more thing I would like to share with you is that I have had the opportunity to do some humanitarian work in Bolivia, South America. I have been on 3 different 10 day trips which gave me the opportunity to work with infants and children that were born in the Amazon without medical assistance or follow-up care. Their first bath was in the river and their parents had to go back to work in the fields or fish in order to survive. Many babies were therefore cared for by other young children and unfortunately, were often dropped on their heads. Many miracles were witnessed and unexplainable healing took place on a daily basis.

If I ever had any doubt of my calling, or if I questioned the effectiveness of myofascial release and craniosacral therapy, those questions were answered with a resounding, “Yes.” While on those humanitarian trips my life and heart were deeply touched and on many levels and completely changed Oh, if you were still wondering about those chronic upper respiratory infections and issues? They are resolved. I have had only 1 episode of bronchial pneumonia in 15 years and attribute the reduction to the fact that my heart and head are indeed congruent in the knowledge that I am here to serve you.