Archives: Practitioners

Elizabeth Gibbons, PT, DPT

Elizabeth earned her Doctor of Physical Therapy degree from Saint Catherine University in 2019, and she began formally studying Fascial Counterstrain shortly after graduation. She has also been trained Myofascial Release, Trigger Point Therapy, Transverse Friction Massage, Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation, and Pain Neuroscience Education. However, she finds Fascial Counterstrain to be the most effective treatment approach in her toolbox for treating both acute and chronic conditions. Elizabeth is licensed to practice Physical Therapy in Wisconsin and Minnesota.

Patients come to Elizabeth for her compassionate, whole-person, functional approach to physical therapy. As an Outpatient Physical Therapist, Elizabeth is passionate about guiding people through the healing process, helping them return to activity, and empowering them to be as independent as possible. She applies a biopsychosocial approach to assessing and treating patients, acknowledging that we are mind-body beings; our bodies and minds influence each other. Elizabeth pairs her skills in Fascial Counterstrain and other manual therapy techniques with exercises for correcting muscle length, strengthening, and normalizing muscle activation and control of movements. She takes time to clearly answer patients’ questions about their conditions and the healing process. She is committed to building trusting relationships with patients.

Elizabeth’s passion for Physical Therapy comes from her attractions to learning, teaching, lifelong activity, and health and wellness promotion. Outside of work, Elizabeth enjoys spending quality time with her husband and young son, biking, hiking, playing music, and actively developing authentic community with her church.

YENCHI LIAO, PT, JSCC

廖彥齊治療師,
2012年,中華民國專利證書新型第M442149號 中醫電針機之微型化電路結構,專利創作人之一。
2013年,高雄醫學大學物理治療學系畢業。
2014年,內政部消防署 初級緊急救護技術員 第 130 梯次 。
2015年,參與Strain Counterstrain繁體中文版翻譯。
2016年,擔任Strain Counterstrain在臺灣授課之前導課程操作示範。
2017 年,開啟多次飛往美國學習 FCS的旅程,親身體悟到Fascial Counterstrain 不只是一項治療技術,更是值得投入畢生的專業追求,決志要讓更多夥伴們可以認識並學習這個劃時代的突破。
2019年,擔任中華傳統整復推拿協會副理事長。
2020年,高雄醫學大學醫學影像暨放射科學系碩士在職專班肄業。
2022年,考取瓊斯機構認證成為第一位取得認證資格的臺灣人。
2023年,成立康體釋痊和居家物理治療所。

Karen Custance, Physiotherapist, Grad Dip Phys (UK)

Coming from a physiotherapy background with over 30 years experience, I’m passionate about helping people with pain to get back to living and enjoying their life.
I specialize in treating chronic and complex conditions of the body using Fascial Counterstrain. This multisystem approach is a gentle, yet powerful hands on therapy which helps to create the right environment for the body to heal itself.
Combining this with Dru Yoga helps empower the individual and enhances their personal healing experience.
Out of the clinic, I enjoy being active, out in nature, travelling and spending time with my husband, two teenage boys and rescue greyhound.

Alec Hercik, LMT

Alec Hercik, LMT practices Fascial Counterstrain (FCS) with the mindset of providing value and serving others. Suffering from his own chronic illness, Alec tried countless modalities and treatment methods, traveling all over the United States attempting to alleviate his chronic dysfunction with minimal success.

Breakthrough finally came when he was referred to internationally renowned Fascial Counterstrain originator Brian Tuckey, PT, OCS, JSCCI and his team at Tuckey and Associates Physical Therapy. After committing to FCS as his primary treatment method and working closely with Brian and his team, Alec found his health and quality of life progressively restored and in many ways found himself better than ever. After experiencing such life changing results, Alec committed to learning FCS so he could likewise help others.

Alec enjoys working with patients of all kinds, anyone and everyone from high level athletes to chronic pain patients and complex cases. In his spare time Alec enjoys outdoor recreation of all sorts, working out, being active in his local church and spending time with family, friends and his black lab, Gator.

Alec now works full time at Tuckey and Associates Physical Therapy in Frederick, Maryland but maintains his Pennsylvania license. Private appointments in the SWPA area are available by individual requests, however they are subject to schedule and availability.

Evan van Driel, ND

Dr. Evan van Driel, BSc, ND is a Naturopathic Physician specializing in the treatment of trauma, mood disorders, and chronic pain.

He graduated from Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine in 2014 with a doctorate of Naturopathic Medicine and has since pursued post-graduate studies in neuro-emotional technique, muscle physiology, psychoneuroimmunology, and regenerative medicine, including certification from the International College of Applied Kinesiology and multiple certifications in injection techniques and the application of ozone.
When he was a child, Dr. Evan had severe asthma. He couldn’t get through a full gym class without having to use his inhaler. Not being able to breathe and having to rely on medications made Dr. Evan feel as though he had no say as to what his body would do. This was extremely scary and left him feeling hopeless. Luckily, about halfway through middle school that he grew out of it. After that, he had allergies and chronic upper respiratory tract infections. This experience made him very curious about how the body worked, why people got sick, and what to do about it.

During middle school, Dr. Evan spent a lot of time around a close family who battled chronic infections, extended hospitalizations, and years of pain and self-destructive behaviour. Though it seemed to have been a car accident that caused the initial broken bones, the 10 year of suffering that eventually ended in that family member’s passing was in no way a due to the trauma alone.

In high school, he started to have hip pain that prevented him from doing activities that he loved like skating, rugby, and badminton. After finishing high school, Dr. Evan was accepted into a university level engineering program, which he soon found wasn’t for him. Though it offered the opportunity to learn and understand how the physical world worked, it wasn’t quite inspiring and engaging enough. Part of the way through this first year, naturopathic medicine was brought up in the form of a career aptitude test. Though he had been exposed to the idea of supporting people with health problems in the past, his experience with doctors turned him away from the pursuit of a career in medicine. After 20 minutes of research, he decided to change course and embark on the journey towards learning and understanding about the human body, mind, and spirit.
Putting into practice the things that he learned in school, Dr. Evan became stronger and more fit than he had ever been. He also found answers in abundance for his friends and family’s chronic health concerns. He continues to learn more about the human body every day, and he feels blessed to have found a profession that he enjoys and have a passion for. Now he shares what he has learned with others to build them up so that they can live without symptoms and enjoy the activities that they love.

Dr. Evan’s mission is to help people to be stronger so that they can handle more. By helping people to reduce pain, improve their mood, and re-wire their brains after trauma, Dr. Evan has noticed that people can be more themselves and show up differently in life. He sees the nervous system as innately intelligent, adaptable, and having a high degree of plasticity. Being able to leverage his knowledge of this fact structurally, biochemically, and mentally/emotionally means that what people experience doesn’t have to be what they experience.
Dr. Evan loves to be out in nature and frequently embarks on multi-day backpacking trips with his friends. On the other extreme, he also loves reading any book about psychology or anatomy that he gets his hands on.

Stan Kupchenko, DPT, CMPT

Stan received his Doctorate in Physical Therapy from Touro College in 2018 and is currently a partner at Physiofitness Physical Therapy in New York City. Stan is a NAIOMT Certified Manual Physical Therapist (CMPT) and a staunch supporter of treating all parts of the body as they are all interconnected. This belief is why he was initially drawn to Fascial Counterstrain. He immediately recognized that this gentle, soft tissue technique would elevate his practice and could be the solution for significantly improving outcomes for even his most difficult patients. Stan has completed multiple FCS courses through the Jones Institute and has had success with both difficult orthopedic conditions as well as systemic conditions like fibromyalgia. Being able to gently remove painful, reflexive tissue contractions from the body in a way that is often overlooked when treating musculoskeletal conditions has been a game-changer for his practice.

Henry White, PT

Henry graduated from the University of Utah in 1996 and has been practicing in Salt Lake City ever since. He is also a member of the PGA of America which gives him a unique insight into competitive sports. Henry is a proud grandpa to presently four grandsons which he loves being with.