July 11, 2025

Counterstrain for Injury Prevention, Recovery, and Performance Enhancement for Professional Dancers with Dr. Miho Urisaka

55 minutes

Dr. Miho Urisaka is a physical therapist living in New York who has been practicing Counterstrain since 2014, with a special focus on dancers. In this conversation, she shares how she employs Fascial Counterstrain not only to resolve injuries but also to enhance performance and prevent future issues for professional dancers. Drawing on her clinical experience, Dr. Urisaka highlights case studies of dancers recovering from knee injuries and concussions, emphasizing how the body self-protects—often through restriction and pain—and explains why addressing root causes, rather than just downstream symptoms, is essential, especially for highly trained movers.

She discusses how treating the bones and periosteum is a unique aspect of Counterstrain that benefits professional athletes, particularly dancers. People whose careers require precise attunement to and mastery of their bodies—like dancers—often arrive with fewer compensatory patterns and heightened self-awareness, making them especially responsive to this form of treatment. Dr. Urisaka also underscores the limitations of conventional imaging in detecting interstitial inflammation and the importance of working directly with the body’s mechanics to uncover hidden, yet very real, dysfunctions.

She explains how Counterstrain can improve not only range of motion but, more importantly, quality of motion, and how optimizing tissue mobility can lead to noticeable strength gains and flexibility within just a few weeks—once tissues are given the reset they need to drain inflammation, release guarding, and restore function.

Whether you're a dancer, athlete, or someone living with chronic pain or reduced mobility, this episode offers a compelling look at how Fascial Counterstrain can be a game-changing tool for recovery, prevention, and performance enhancement.

Guest Bio: Dr. Miho Urisaka, PT, DPT, OCS

Dr. Miho Urisaka, PT, DPT, OCS is a board-certified orthopedic physical therapist and owner of Orthopedic Movement Physical Therapy in New York. With a background in treating Broadway performers and professional dancers—as well as personal experience in gymnastics, karate, and ballroom dance—she brings deep insight into the physical demands of movement-based professions. Miho discovered Counterstrain as a transformative tool not just for injury recovery, but for supporting full-body health, from sleep and digestion to brain function. She now lives in upstate New York, where she integrates her clinical practice with a passion for sustainable living, nutrition, and holistic health.

Get in Touch with Dr. Miho Urisaka: