Allison Suran, PT, GCFP, TPS

Therapeutic Pain Specialist

Healing Bridge Physical Therapy

Allison has spent her career learning about people, movement and pain. After graduating with her physical therapy degree in 1987 she furthered her studies with Cranio-Sacral therapy, Therapeutic Touch, Manual therapy skills and eventually found The Feldenkrais Method®. This 4 year, 800+ hour training became the basis for Allison’s approach to human beings and human movement which incorporates the inseparable body/mind relationship. 

Allison has continued to study whatever she could find to help those struggling with chronic pain. In 2016 she completed a 6-month intensive training to become a Certified Therapeutic Pain Specialist. Additionally, she has continued to attend advanced trainings in Feldenkrias, courses to advance her physical therapy skills, Advanced Mindfulness Trainings, Certification in the Sounder Sleep System, Compassionate Communication and she became a Spiritual Director in 2001 in order to understand how to support her clients spiritual beliefs to allow them to deepen their sense of support and surrender to a higher power through the challenges of living with pain. 

She started her private practice, Healing Bridge Physical Thearpy, in 1998 and realized early on that she preferred supporting people with challenging chronic pain experiences rather than acute and sub-acute orthopedic injuries. Science has since shown that people who experience complex persistent pain have a brain and nervous system that has physiologically changed (through the miracle of neuroplasticity) and continue to create hypersensitivity to many things which exacerbate the pain experience. 

Many of Allison’s clients have felt discounted by the medical community because the emphasis has been to find the mechanical problem and FIX IT. However, when the mechanical issue has been addressed, or none can be found, and pain continues to persist, people in pain are often left to fend for themselves. 

In a medical system that is increasingly complex, confusing and expensive, this can be a daunting task for people when their pain has started to seem like it has taken over their lives. 

Allison’s goal:

• Help decrease the roller coaster of their pain experience.

• Understand the physiology of pain, particularly how the brain and nervous system participate.

• Teach and coach independent strategies for pain self-management. This includes:

  • Relaxation, Breathing, Mindfulness practices

  • Feldenkrais: hands-on and independent movement practice

  • Pacing and graded exposure to return to a fulfilling lifestyle.

  • Listening and believing! Your pain is real.

  • Compassionate accountability – helping you find ways to follow through with the skills you now know will help you.

• Receive the healing touch and movement experience of Feldenkrais (called Functional Integration®).  

• Learn the difference between Pain vs. Suffering; Although there may always be pain or discomfort, people can learn to minimize the suffering associated with it. 

Click here for a full list of Allison’s Training and Education: