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Mikayla Kissner PTA

PHYSICAL THERAPIST ASSISTANT

I am originally from Wisconsin (Go Pack Go!), I lived in California for 6 years before settling into our new home in North Carolina. I became very passionate about physical health when I had injuries to my hip/ knee/ankle, resulting in being referred to physical therapy. I am a USMC veteran who wanted to and am now helping educate active duty members and veterans about injury prevention. This led me to pursue a job as a Physical Therapist Technician in an orthopaedic outpatient clinic. I graduated from Nash Community College, PTA program in May 2023.
I enjoy spending time playing sports like volleyball, soccer and basketball with my husband on the weekend! I also love watching the Green Bay Packers during football season! I fell in love with sports at a young age and played volleyball and basketball from 4th grade into high school. I became a first time mama to my sweet baby boy in 2022, motherhood has opened my educational interest and I am now working on becoming certified in Women’s health, in pregnancy and postpartum corrective exercise to help women who suffer from pelvic floor issues, diastasis recti and postpartum, all of which I have been recovering from myself. I understand how it feels to recover from not only pregnancy but from wear and tear on the body as a result from being a military member. I am here to tell you it is possible to recover and feel like yourself again and I can’t wait to help you with your rehabilitation journey! Take it one day at a time and give yourself grace, you got this! 
“Never say never, because limits, like fears, are often an illusion.” -Michael Jordan

DRY NEEDLING

Dry needling is a therapeutic modality utilized to treat soft tissue restrictions, lack of mobility, and pain. The needles can target "knots" or "trigger points" and provide great relief for patients. A thin needle is placed and causes a physical reaction within the body to help the muscles and surrounding tissue relax. The goal is to reduce pain, increase mobility, and allow individuals to strengthen through a greater range of motion. Dry needling is best used in conjunction with stretching and strengthening exercises thus improving overall function.

SOFT TISSUE MOBILIZATION

Soft tissue mobilization treatments involve hands-on techniques that are provided to address muscles or muscle groups that have become tight, tense, and painful feeling due to overuse, injury, or surgery. These treatments are useful for reducing discomfort in the affected areas and improving mobility of the surrounding joints. They are often used in conjunction with therapeutic exercises typically applied beforehand to allow for more freedom of movement and less discomfort while performing the exercises. This can allow for a more comfortable and effective treatment session.

CUPPING

Myofascial cupping is a soft tissue therapy that involves the application of cups either in a static or dynamic fashion on the skin and utilizing a decompressive force. This creates a vacuum effect that lifts up underlying tissues such as the fascia (connective tissue) and muscles to improve blood flow, reduce tension, and reduce discomfort in the targeted tissues.

INSTRUMENT ASSISTED SOFT TISSUE MOBILIZATION

Instrument assisted soft tissue mobilization, or IASTM, is a manual therapy technique where different types of instruments are used to aid in mobilizing the skin, fascia, muscles, and tendons to promote an inflammatory response and improve restrictions in the area. IASTM can help promote remodeling in your skin and tissues, increases collagen synthesis, and increases fibroblast proliferation. IASTM has also been found to decrease pain to the area, increase blood flow, and improve range of motion.

HYPERVOLT

The Hypervolt is a massage gun that has several different speed settings to provide a percussive deep tissue massage over large surface areas of the body. The device can be used to relieve tissue tension and increase blood flow to the area, which may increase range of motion and aid in soft tissue recovery. It has a wide variety of heads that can be utilized to target different tissues and parts of the body more effectively.

BLOOD FLOW RESTRICTION (BFR) THERAPY

Blood flow restriction training, or BFR, is the use of a specialized tourniquet that is used to partially occlude blood flow during the completion of targeted exercise. This type of training has been shown to be extremely safe with this device all while creating significant positive adaptations in muscle strength, size, and endurance. Although the use of BFR can be very challenging, there is extremely strong research supporting these positive adaptations while using weights that are as low as 20-40% of a person's one repetition maximum weight limit. For comparison, if BFR was not being used, higher loads of 65% or greater would need to be used to create the same gains we are trying to achieve. Being able to create these positive changes at a much lighter load, and sometimes in a quicker manner, can be a huge rehab and training benefit especially when we are dealing with a possible injury, post-surgical status, or other training demands that we need to balance out.

ALTERG

The AlterG is a specialized treadmill designed to reduce the weight-bearing load on the lower extremities of the body during exercise. It utilizes a pressurized chamber to uniformly reduce gravitational load and body weight by precise 1% increments. This unique feature enables patients and athletes to move unrestricted and pain free - restoring and building muscle strength, range of motion, balance, function, and fitness.

NORMATEC

Normatec is a dynamic air compression sleeve that aids in recovery from heavy training sessions to combat soreness. The dynamic air compression provided by this device surrounds the affected area and pulsates between different zones while other areas hold, improving the movement of fluid out of the limbs. This leads to faster recovery and recuperation so you can get back to the activities you love quicker. Normatec can be utilized on multiple body parts such as your arms, legs, and lower back/hips.

GameReady

The Gameready system is a clinically proven system that combines a powerful control unit with a complete range of innovative, circumferential wraps to integrate active cold and intermittent pneumatic compression therapies with greater adjustability, comfort, and convenience than ever before. The easy-to-use, portable system takes RICE (Rest-Ice-Compression-Elevation) to the next level for your injury or surgery recovery. If you would like to arrange getting one of these devices post-operatively, let us know and we can help you do so.