Have you ever met someone that glows from within? When you meet Kaitlin, you immediately sense the inner strength and peace she carries. This in turn creates that inner glow. Spend a few minutes talking with her and you’ll see the radiance that surrounds her. 

But where does this inner brightness come from? Well, to understand that we’ll need to dig deeper into her story.

Kaitlin is a Wisconsinite through and through. Born and raised around Neenah, Wisconsin. Kaitlin credits her parents, and especially her mom, with providing her morals and values. In addition, Kaitlin’s mom gave her three additional pieces of advice that stays with her to this day:

•Being respectful to all
•Being kind
•Being the type of person that will commit, and follow through

All these attributes have served Kaitlin her whole life. But her one absolute constant? Her faith in God. As Kaitlin likes to say, “God is greater than all the highs and lows. His Grace is a humbling reminder of who we are.”

Kaitlin carried her faith and beliefs with her as she attended Concordia University in Milwaukee. They continued to serve her well as she focused on a degree in exercise physiology. However, with her belief in service to others, Kaitlin decided to specialize in exercise physiology with an emphasis in cardiology.

Here, Kaitlin takes the cardiologists diagnosis and then prepares the necessary stress tests or develops a specific program to suit the individual and their needs. She loves this occupation because she gets to work with people and help them move to a better state of wellness.

Oftentimes, a client may not always feel great when they visit. Or they may become a little querulous when working with Kaitlin. This is when Kaitlin pulls on, what I call her “magic glow.”

This comes out naturally because Kaitlin knows that everybody becomes a patient at some point or another. Therefore, her purpose is to treat everyone respectfully and with a cheerful outlook. I believe she actually thrives on this type of person because it shows them how much she cares. Plus, if she can get a smile out of just such a patient, her day just skyrockets.

With God as her guiding force, Kaitlin tackles each day with a renewed desire of being a good servant to all she meets. In fact, she hopes that people will think of her as being a person with “a genuine disposition and a positive light for all.”

Dr. Erica Folker is a Doctor of Physical Therapy and Athletic Trainer in the greater Green Bay, Wisconsin area. When you listen to Erica explain her career, the passion she brings to her work is evident. Erica helps people to reclaim mobility so that t hey can regain the control and freedom in their lives they once possessed.

As a Performance Physical Therapist, Erica is eager to guide a client to a healthier life. On the initial visit Erica seeks to understand the primary reason for the client visit. Erica’s extensive training has shown her that everyone is different: some people may be able to explain the problem succintcly while others may find it difficult to express. Having exceptional communication skills plus being compassionate lends itself well to building trust with a client. Once this is accomplished, then the true work can begin.

Erica develops a plan based on each new client’s goals and needs. She will closely study the movements her client performs daily. Sometimes it’s a specific job, or a repetitive movement that is the root problem for the injury. However, never far from the back of her mind is…what/where is the true cause of the pain?

Once the culprit is identified there will still be further study. For example:

How many body parts are constantly being overworked or underworked?
Are the joints only being exhausted or is the tissue surrounding these joints contributing to the problem?
What can be done with manual therapy?

For Erica this is an ever-changing puzzle which brings out her best investigative skills.

Erica is a huge advocate of using a combination of manual therapy, therapeutic exercise and neuromuscular re-education. Educating her clients to the importance of this concept is critical. When this goal is achieved, Erica is better able to serve her clients. Her approach then shifts to building on techniques and movement patterns. Experience has shown her that not only will this restore the chronic condition, it also builds stronger more effective muscles, nerves, tendons, and joints.

To sum it up, Erica is outstanding in her understanding and practice of Performance Physical Therapy. She seeks to understand the reason for an injury and then goes about returning the body to its peak efficiency.

You might say that Dr. Erica Folker fine tunes for optimal performance.

You could describe Trevor Folker as an Athletic Trainer, but this barely covers the surface. Trevor was introduced to functional movement when a professor at Concordia University treated is chronic shoulder injury successfully. this became Trevor’s “Aha moment” in Athletic Training and in life. From that moment on, Trevor submersed himself in functional movement therapy.

Often you will see an Athletic Trainer use textbook methods to help a client. What sets Trevor above this description is his fresh approach to:

Viewing the client’s injury and then,
Healing/Dealing with the injury

Trevor believes in using the body’s natural biomechanical and functional movements to treat an injury. First, Trevor looks for patterns within the body. Oftentimes, there is a root cause for the injury. This may lead to one or more body parts compensating to correct itself for firing incorrectly. Only then can he get to the core of the injury and begin rebuilding from within.

Additionally, Trevor is fascinated with nutrition and the effect it has on healing both mind and body. Couple this knowledge to his functional practice and you see a bold new way of looking at this Athletic Trainer. Trevor’s driving passion is to help people live pain free so that they can enjoy life to the fullest.

As Trevor likes to say, “I’m Different, But in the Right Way.”