Sometimes the best health practitioners are those that ended up in their field almost out of chance. Today Jeremy Quinby, a craniosacral therapist, chats with us on his interesting journey into integrative health. 

We talk about how manual therapy and movement are key to improving health and the importance of trauma-informed care. He focuses on pediatrics and how he uses his modalities to help children of all ages improve their development. Jeremy dives into the way he listens to his patients and uses his presence to create a space of healing.  

Jeremy Quinby, is the host of Highway to Health Podcast. For more than 25 years, he’s helped improve the health of individuals, families and communities he’s served. He is at the intersection of manual therapies, mental health support, orthopedics, functional movement, pain management, and newborn and pediatric care. He has become known for his ability to build bridges between many fields of care. He is also involved in numerous health-tech and community health projects aimed at improving care coordination and quality referrals. 

With private practices in New York and Minneapolis, his goal is to continue to educate and improve the dialogue about a more integrative approach to care and the development of actionable ways we can improve our state of being. 

Connect with him:

www.jeremyquinbycst.com

www.highwayto.health

There is more than one way to feed a baby. If you choose to pump and/or breastfeed, you better tune in! Today, we have Heather McFadden joining us on the show. Heather has over 10 years of experience as an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC). She has a thriving private practice offering home visits, virtual consults, and prenatal breastfeeding classes.

I am extra lucky to have Heather on the show because she was the IBCLC who saw me at the hospital hours after giving birth to my baby to answer all the questions I had! We talk about her journey from dance to motherhood to lactation. Heather is fiercely passionate about her work. 

She covers what to do for low milk supply, the role of an IBCLC, the reasons someone would want to end breastfeeding, and how everyone’s journey is different. In a world of information and misinformation online, it’s important to listen to your baby and your body and know that there is not a single approach to this. She loves helping every mom feel like they are doing a good job, letting them know they are not alone in their journey, as well as instilling a sense of calm in their relationship with their baby. With her dance training background, she finds it fun to observe the physical and mental connection between parent and baby, being a part of that moment when baby latches for the first time and encouraging instinctual parenting in a world driven by data and social media.

In addition to her private practice, Heather currently works as an IBCLC in a New York City hospital and teaches prenatal breastfeeding classes for Columbia University's Work/Life program. She has led breastfeeding group clinics at multiple pediatric practices in New York City. Heather has a published article in the Clinical Lactation Journal, has been consulted by Parents Magazine and Today's Parent, and was a guest speaker at the NYC Breastfeeding Leadership Council Conference of 2019. She is a proud La Leche League Leader and member of the New York Lactation Consultant's Association (NYLCA).

Connect with her:

http://heathermcfadden.com/

https://www.facebook.com/HeatherMcFaddenLactationConsultant

Pilates can look very different depending on who you talk to. When we view Pilates as a movement practice for healing the body, it nourishes the soul too!

Joining us on this episode is Brittany Crosby, a mindful movement practitioner, instructor of contemporary STOTT pilates, witchy intuitive healer, and the founder of The Co Pilates. While her roots are in teaching Pilates her focus has shifted over the years to using Pilates as a launch pad into physical, emotional, and energetic awareness for clients and herself. She focuses on sexual and pelvic health through a somatic trauma informed lens. She discusses how she works with clients from a more somatic point of view, often integrating into the body what may be verbally processed in psychotherapy, for example, allowing people to more clearly see how their body is often shaped by their internal and external environments. With a long career in working with people one-on-one, which especially in NYC is an inaccessible way for a lot of people to "work" on themselves, she is deeply interested and passionate about reconfiguring the health and wellness industry to consider the individual and collective in a more balanced way.

Brittany has been helping her clients connect the dots between their movement, discomfort, and body awareness to achieve more pleasurable movement for nearly 20 years. Her mission isn’t just to assist clients in achieving fitness results, but to invite them into a deeper connection with themselves. Brittany’s approach to movement considers the ideology, how you move in and relate to your body informs how you move in and relate to others and the world.

Connect with her:

www.thecopilates.com

FB: The Co Pilates

@thecopilates

Jaw pain, headaches, and facial pain are all common and can have a profound effect on our quality of life. Lucky for us, we have an esteemed guest speaker on the show today to break these topics down and help us understand how we can overcome this pain.

Donald R. Tanenbaum, DDS, MPH, graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1978 and then received his DDS degree from Columbia University School of Dental Medicine, and his MPH degree from Columbia University School of Public Health in 1982. He has been practicing for over 40 years, providing guidance and care to patients with temporomandibular problems, facial pain, headaches and sleep related breathing disorders. Today he reviews some of the causes and treatments for these issues and explains their biopsychosocial nature. He also discusses the importance of identifying habits that can perpetuate pain and stop or modify them. He touches on bite plates, injections, PT, posture and ergonomics as all ways to alleviate pain.

Dr. Tanenbaum has co-authored a book for the public entitled, ‘Dr, Why Does My Face Still Ache?” and continues to give lectures to dental students and residents, medical grand rounds and to numerous dental societies and study clubs. Dr. Tanenbaum currently holds several positions, including: Clinical Assistant Professor at the School of Dental Medicine at the State University of New York in Stony Brook where he is the Director of the Orofacial Pain Course given to the third year dental students.  He is also the Section Head of the Division of OrofacialPain/TMD/Sleep Medicine in the Northwell Health Department of Dental Medicine at the Long Island Jewish Medical Center; and Clinical Assistant Professor, Hofstra Northwell School of Medicine. Dr. Tanenbaum is a Diplomate of the American Board of Orofacial Pain, a Fellow of the American Academy of Orofacial Pain, and a past President of the American Academy of Orofacial Pain 

 Dr Tanenbaum currently maintains private practices in New York City and Long Island limited to the diagnosis and management of orofacial pain, temporomandibular problems and sleep related breathing disorders.

Connect with him:
www.nytmj.com

I couldn’t have asked for a better kick off this season on Fit As A Fiddle! I chatted with 2 of my dear colleagues and friends Leigh Welsh and Alicia Ferriere. What we have in common is that we are all Pelvic Floor Physical Therapists New York City, we are all business owners, and we all gave birth in 2023 to our first child! On this show, we talk about all things motherhood from our perspective having treated pregnancy and postpartum for years. With our combined over 22 years of experience as pelvic PTs, we share some things we would love for you to know!

A bit on Leigh Welsh:

Leigh is an orthopedic and pelvic health physical therapist, and she started her practice, Evexia Physical Therapy, in 2020. She does home visits, primarily seeing pregnant and postpartum people, and she also loves helping patients who are struggling with painful sex, bladder concerns, and prolapse. Leigh is also the Clinical Virtual Care Lead at Origin Physical Therapy. Origin’s mission to make pelvic health PT accessible and the standard of care for those that need it. Origin provides PT virtually in almost every state, as well as in person at a growing number of clinics throughout the country. Leigh is passionate about helping women of all ages learn about their bodies and feel in control of their physical well-being.

A bit on Alicia Ferriere:

Alicia is an orthopedic and pelvic health physical therapist and received her Doctor of Physical Therapy degree from Columbia University. Growing up with a background in dance led her to seek a career in movement and physical medicine. She seeks to treat the body and person as a whole, and prioritizes building relationships to develop a unique plan of care for each patient. She seeks to educate patients on how to stay physically healthy so they can achieve their personal goals. Alicia is certified by the Postural Restoration Institute, which seeks to understand the primary factors of postural adaptations, patterns, and kinematic movement dysfunction. She is also recognized as a Fellow of Applied Functional Science through the Gray Institute. Alicia has been featured in fitness magazines such as Women’s Health Magazine, Dance Magazine and the Daily Burn.

This week is the 1 year anniversary of the last released episode on Fit As A Fiddle! So much has happened since then, particularly the birth of little Jiya Baby in May 2023. Please excuse the coos and occasional screams of my child in the background during this season. I truly did my best to be a mom, wife, business owner, physical therapist, and podcaster.

This is a health and wellness podcast and health and wellness begins with basic human necessities. So many episodes on this show talk about a quality-of-life improving service including yoga and pilates, mental health, birth justice, mindfulness and meditation, physical therapy, acupuncture, orthotics, minimally invasive surgeries, orthodontics, or massage therapy. But we can’t really have any of that, not a single thing, unless we have fundamental human rights. We have the right to live in a world where we have a safe space to sleep, food to eat, clothes to wear, water to drink, and a roof over our heads. How can you imagine staying fit by doing a workout while you are being bombed, tortured, starved and displaced?

We are trapped in grief and immense loss throughout various ethnic and religious groups across the entire globe at the moment. I’ve held my daughter in my arms and ugly cried enough times in the last several months after witnessing genocides happening right on my phone. I recognize my immense amount of privilege when I can hold my child at night knowing she is safe in our little home in New Jersey.  It’s hard to move on sometimes, but I know I have to otherwise I am fully and entirely consumed by the grief. I sometimes even feel selfish to experience this grief when I am so privileged to be safe.

Political forces, leaders of the world, and big businesses all have monetary and religious interests which are currently destroying families all over the world. No matter what way you cut it, no matter what you have to say to justify it, no one has the right to take the life of even one single innocent person. To justify killing children is the most sinister thing ever, let alone doing it in a mass manner. In GAZA, SUDAN, CONGO, UKRAINE, and more, murder is happening on a mass scale.

I understand I’m going to lose a lot of followers and I’m beyond okay with that. I have only used my personal social media platforms to voice my opinions on the humanitarian conflicts in the world. In terms of politics, I have used Sneha Physical Therapy only to speak about reproductive justice. This relates to me personally as a woman and professionally as a pelvic floor physical therapist who treats pregnancy and postpartum. I don’t relate to the conflict particularly in Gaza. I am neither Palestinian nor Muslim. But I am human. 

I think I wanted to keep these worlds separate for fear of offending anyone. But this never was a game of who feels sorry for themselves and gets offended. This is black and white. This is good versus evil. This is right versus wrong. The only thing is, the evil side truly thinks what they are doing is right and are justifying it at all costs. Murder of innocent lives for ANY REASON, I repeat, ANY REASON, is pure evil. Those with only the blackest of the black hearts say they are defending “Their people” and that civilian casualties are expected or are being dramatized by the media. This is not a drama. These are real people with real lives.  

I pray for a world where we don’t kill each other because of what/who we pray to, the color of our skin, the language that we speak, or anything else that differentiates us. We all live in this world with the same fears and same needs. We all want to be loved and feel safe and every single person deserves that.

During pregnancy, the physical changes come in fast, and sometimes, furious! A great way to tune into these changes and create more body awareness is through “yoga asanas”, which are movements and poses from the ancient Indian tradition that promote physical & mental wellbeing. Prenatal yoga is becoming more popular these days as research and science points to the immense benefits of healthy and safe movements for birthing individuals. Not only can it help pregnant people throughout each trimester, but it can also assist in a smoother birth as well!

In the show today, we have Deb Flashenberg, the founder and director of the Prenatal Yoga Center in NYC. Deb advocates for how yoga poses can help create more balance in the body so that birth flows better and there is less obstruction for the baby. She talks about “mock contractions” in her yoga classes that help her clients prepare for 60-seconds of physical and mental challenge during labor and delivery.

Along with being a prenatal yoga teacher, Deb is also a labor support doula, Lamaze childbirth educator, mother of two and self proclaimed "birth and anatomy geek”. Deb received her first vinyasa yoga certification with Shiva Rea and then added to her education by completing the OM Yoga advance yoga teacher training with Cyndi Lee. After the challenging birth of her first child, Deb became incredibly interested in pelvic health and has since earned her Pelvic Floor Yoga Certification with Leslie Howard. 

For the past 7 years, Deb has also greatly enjoyed being the host of the podcast,  Yoga | Birth | Babies, where she speaks with some of the world’s leading experts in pregnancy, birth, breastfeeding and parenthood. Currently, Deb is knee deep in Dr. Sarah Duvall’s Pregnancy and Postpartum Corrective Exercise Specialist program and pursuing the Spinning Babies Parent Educator certification and loving every minute of it! 

Connect with her:

@prenatalyogacenter

prenatalyogacenter.com

Are you the person who finds themselves feeling the opposite of grounded and centered during a movement class, yoga, or meditation? Are you the type who can’t quite relax during a massage or a pleasant walk? You’re not alone!

Today we have Dan Rindler GCFP, P-SEP, chatting with us today on his approach to trauma which draws on Somatic Experiencing and Feldenkrais Methods. Difficulty relaxing can be manifested in many ways. He encourages bringing awareness to this feeling and understanding that one is never stuck in this state!

He talks through strategies for what one might do if they feel overwhelmed in class or what PTs and other practitioners might do when their client is having a threat response during a session.

Dan suggests ways people can redirect this feeling to be productive during sessions. He also discusses when a practitioner might refer out to a trauma specialist, or when someone might choose to try somatic trauma healing sessions.

Dan is certified as a practitioner of both the Feldenkrais Method and Somatic Experiencing, with a private practice in-person in Brooklyn, and online. Dan's focus is on supporting clients who have both unresolved trauma and chronic pain or other physical challenges or limitations. Through a weaving of Feldenkrais and Somatic Experiencing, he helps support people in their learning and healing process, moving towards more well-being, connection with others and a new-found sense of resilience.  Dan has created “The Roots of Resilience,” a 16 week trauma-aware online program for adults which helps people to feel more grounded, centered and connected.  

In addition to his work with adults, Dan created “We Grow Together,” a program for babies and new parents, which fosters co-regulation through touch and movement and has been attended by over 2,500 families. Dan’s program was the subject of a study sponsored by Vassar College, with results showing its efficacy published in the Infant Mental Health Journal. 

IG: danrindlerSEP

Facebook.com/brooklynfeldenkrais

Websites: 

www.brooklynfeldenkrais.com  (adults)

www.wegrowtogether.com   (babies)

Inflammation in the body can manifest in many ways and ultimately exists to protect us. However, excessive inflammation that lasts a long time, or “chronic inflammation”, can be associated with cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, inflammatory bowel disease, rheumatoid arthritis, and other disease states.

Robin Randisi is a functional nutritionist helping people improve their health using a holistic, root-cause approach. In today’s chat, Robin shares her personal story of how she used food to heal interstitial cystitis and how this led her to study nutrition. She talks about what inflammation is, how to incorporate more anti-inflammatory foods into your diet, and how quick-fix diets never work! She creates a framework to provide solutions to common barriers to eating a nutrient-dense diet, including: assessing your energetics, going slow, keeping it simple, emphasizing techniques and flavors over recipes, planning your meals around protein and fiber, and stocking your pantry strategically. Robin emphasizes that health is about more than just food or movement but lifestyle and mindset.

Robin’s specialties include digestion, autoimmune conditions, and what’s commonly referred to as “women’s health,” i.e. period problems, pelvic pain, hormone imbalances, fertility issues, PCOS, endometriosis, and more. She has an online private practice where she works one-on-one with clients from all over the country, of any gender. Robin is Board Certified in Holistic Nutrition and is also certified as a Functional Nutritional Therapy Practitioner and Restorative Wellness Practitioner. She believes that a truly holistic understanding of health and wellness not only recognizes and cultivates an individual’s capacity to heal, but also acknowledges the necessity of collective healing and liberation given the complex interplay between our environment and our physical, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing.

Connect with her:

www.robinrandisi.com

@robinrandisi on IG

There is a lot to think about when finding support for your baby’s birth. The first thing to understand is the different roles that people play in a birth setting. What is the difference between a doula and a midwife anyway? And what about a baby nurse?!

We sat down with Stephanie Heintzeler, a German educated midwife and acupuncturist as well as US-educated doula and Lactation Consultant (IBCLC). She is the founder of the New York Baby where she puts expecting parents/mothers in touch with doulas and baby nurses. Stephanie educated us on the importance of care by doulas and other support people during labor and delivery. She shares that doula-supported births result in 40% less rates of cesarean intervention and 70% increased likelihood of the baby being breastfed!

Stephanie is a proponent of staying educated and making decisions that are right for you, your baby, and your family. She discusses how preparing for birth with conservative treatment from PTs, acupuncturists, chiropractors, and more, allow for better births overall. She also chimes in on how things are done differently in the birth space in Germany compared to America.

Stephanie cares for women with all kinds of births- whether her clients choose a hospital birth, birthing center or home birth; she wants them to follow their own intuition about which birth place feels best. Stephanie has seen it all- breech births, many successful VBACs (Vaginal Birth after Cesarean), planned and unplanned c-sections, vaginal twin births and LGBTQ-families.

With her “former midwife-approach” her clients feel taken care of from a holistic-medical perspective. She uses breathing techniques, TENS and positions to open the pelvis as well as her acupuncture background and massage techniques to make birthing as comfortable as possible- whether it is a natural or medicated birth. Using evidence-birth-techniques she and her doula-partner Alice (who is a midwife from the UK) make sure their clients have continuous support during pregnancy, birth and the postpartum weeks. As of 2022 Stephanie has delivered over 2,500 babies and attended over 3,200 births. 

Connect with her:

@the_newyorkbaby

https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephanie-heintzeler-303a39/