Your Partner in Pain Recovery and Performance in Sport and in Life
Let's work together to finally understand why you hurt and to create an effective recipe for recovery that's personalized to you so you can get back to living your life fully and doing what you love.
Why Merrill Performance?
I've practiced physical therapy in Boulder, Colorado for over 25 years. But I'm no longer just a physical therapist. In that time, I've witnessed and participated in the most important paradigm shift in our generation. My practice has evolved to reflect over 30 years of modern pain science that finally recognizes that the mind and body are intimately connected. This underscores a new understanding that physical symptoms are driven by the brain & nervous system, not structural changes, biomechanics, or injury.
While all pain is real, all pain is felt in the body, and pain can include significant physical changes as a byproduct of the nervous system's protective response; pain is rarely due to damage. Modern pain science reinforces that the body heals reliably and effectively. But our mind and body learn to continue producing pain as a protective, prediction-based response, long after healing is complete. The real changes we see in the body are a result of your nervous system trying to protect you, not a cause of pain.
With a modern approach that considers you as a person, including making sense of your unique story, you can unlearn symptoms. I synthesize manual therapy and movement-based treatment from the bottom up, with modern pain psychology to treat from the top down — including Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT) and Emotional Awareness and Expression Therapy (EAET) — so we can effectively address what's happening in your mind and body. Regardless of how long you've struggled to figure out your symptoms, I can support you in making an elegant and personalized plan for recovery.
I'm also a competitive multi-sport athlete, which means I understand the realities of being sidelined. I know what makes athletes tick, what drives them to perform at the highest level, and what holds them back. My clients include some of the best runners, cyclists, rock climbers, yoga, skiing, and fitness athletes in Colorado. I bring decades of experience teaching clinicians with my mentor, Dr. Howard Schubiner, MD — and mentoring the best up-and-coming pain coaches as a consultant with the digital health company Lin Health. If you've tried other approaches and haven't seen the progress you're seeking, I can support and empower you to change that. While recovery from pain is an inside job, we heal in relationship. Let's partner to get you back to living fully and without limitation.
What To Expect
Most important to me, and to your recovery process, is connecting with you. Hearing your story and, listening deeply, and holding your history with care and compassion. Most of the answers that provide clarity to an effective path forward become clear in this first step. If needed, I use my hands, eyes, feelings, intuition, and a wide array of treatment tools to identify and treat any physical issues. While physical factors like deconditioning and adaptive change are common, they're rarely the cause of symptoms. But getting clear on what's true about the body is step one. This frees us up to consider the other, often more important causes of symptoms.
Getting to the root of why you have symptoms takes a willingness to think outside of the box and prioritize the most relevant factors. The mind and body are one, inseparable, such that we often have physical AND psycho-social factors that are contributing to physical pain. So, it's important that we take the time to understand how these mind and body influences affect your symptoms and performance limitations. Busting myths and removing lies about your body is an important step. This allows for a shift in belief based on a new understanding of why you hurt, and why other treatments failed. We'll work together to arrive at a point where your story finally makes sense.
Once we're clear on why you hurt, and you understand modern pain science so you trust that your symptoms aren't dangerous, we'll make a plan that forms your personal recipe for recovery. Generally, a mix of bottom-up, body-based strategies early on. This includes giving you permission early to start a thoughtful gradual exposure process so you can feel safe to move again. Because all pain is influenced by psychological and social factors, I'll share the best top-down recovery strategies to ensure you recover fully. Expect that if we work together, you will take away knowledge and strategies that you can use in the future as well. A superpower that prevents future issues.
Charlie's Skill Set
Synthesizing an eclectic mix of bottom up and top down strategies, based on your needs, to create effective and lasting symptom change.
Mind-Body Therapies
Unlearn pain & other symptoms by ruling the body out as a cause, shifting belief about why you hurt, reducing fear of symptoms, reintroducing movement, and expressing & releasing emotions.
Pain Education
Learn about modern pain science based on your story to reconceptualize why you hurt.
Dry Needling
Improve the way the mind communicates with the body using skillfully placed needles and current.
Manual Therapies
Communicating with the brain and nervous system from the bottom up through joints, fascia, muscle, and other tissues to reinforce safety.
"Corrective" Exercise
Restore safety in your mind and body by moving with a new intention & mindset. Ditch the prescriptive exercises for play, fun, novelty, and move based on your goals.
Functional Movement
Re-discover confidence in your body using agentic movement that connects to your life and your athletic ambitions.
Pain Reprocessing Therapy
Paradigm shift your reaction to symptoms using mindful awareness, reassurance, and a new response. A superpower you can carry forward into your life & sport.
Sports Performance
Remove performance barriers that exist in your body and mind. Align your training with your values focusing on a novel process to achieve results you never dreamed possible.
Myth Busting
In person or virtual physical exam to get clear on what's true/not true about your body. Consultation about radiology results, scary stories you've heard from prior clinicians, and permission to let go of old school ideas that are no longer evidence based.
What people say
“I wanted to say thank you for the way you show up and share your unique talents and expertise. Working with you is making a big impact in my life. 🙏”
“I wanted to thank you for all of your support and guidance in my pain recovery. It's really lit a fire in me. Life changing skills!”