FAQ

The Superior Wellness clinic is located in Washburn, WI at the address of 123 W. Bayfield St. (aka Hwy 13). From Ashland, take Hwy 13 to downtown Washburn (aka Bayfield St.) and Superior Wellness is in a red building on the non-lake side of the street. It’s a few buildings past Washington Ave or past the Cenex gas station. Turn into the building’s private parking lot and park there, with the front of your car facing the red building. If you do no prefer to use the stairs at the front door, you can use the back door which has no steps. You can also park right by the back door with your car parallel to the red building.

If you need to cancel your appointment, send an email to Lori at [email protected] with your name and date/time of the appointment needing to be canceled. If email is not available to you, text or call Lori at 715-600-1199. You may also cancel by hitting the reschedule or cancel button at the bottom of your appointment confirmation email or reminder email. A 24-hour notice is required in order not to be charged for your appointment with exceptions made for illness or inclement weather.  No-shows will be charged for the full appointment session cost via invoice.  

Manual osteopathic treatments are procedures that utilize the highly refined skills developed during the manual osteopathic practitioner’s intense and comprehensive education. The practitioner typically uses their hands to provide hands-on treatments in order to decrease pain, spasm, and inflammation while also improving flexibility and function. Osteopathic manual treatments are highly controlled gentle procedures that rarely cause discomfort. Treatments adapt to meet the specific needs of each patient. Patients often note positive changes in their symptoms following the first session of manual osteopathic care.

At your first session, there will be a short form Lori will regarding what issues you’d like addressed, symptoms you’re experiencing, pertinent medical history, and a signature consenting to treatment and releasing liability. Because Lori utilizes fascial counterstrain, this also involves performing motion testing of joint and the spine, including a cranial bone motion testing technique, which is an objective assessment of which body system and location within that body system are dysfunctional and contributing to your symptoms. This is done in sitting or lying down and repeated as needed to guide treatment. Hands-on methods are used for treatment and focus is on treating the cause which at times may be in a different location from where you are feeling the pain. Treatment during the session should be very tolerable as most techniques used are gentle and not meant to increase your pain during the session. Plan to wear comfortable clothing and you will stay dressed for the entire treatment. There is an air purifier in the room, mask usage is encouraged if you are coughing or still in a recovery period from an illness. Dr. Lori has completed her Covid-19 vaccine series.

No. Superior Wellness noes not work with or provide information to insurance companies and has no relationship/coverage with any insurance company. However, patients have been able to successfully submit invoices for treatment to be covered by their HSA (health savings account). This may vary depending upon your personal benefit plan. You may request an invoice/receipt from Lori which can then be sent to you by email. The invoice is the only type of documentation that is able to be provided to you – no exceptions.

If you have been involved in an accident or injury and you are planning on submitting Superior Wellness receipts to an insurance company or lawyer to have your care covered due to the accident, then no, you will not be able to be seen at Superior Wellness – no exceptions.  This is due to the extensive amount of paperwork and phone/email communication time required and is not able to be accomplished without having office staff.  Dr. Lori will not be able to respond to any emails or phone messages sent by a 3rd party regarding your treatment at Superior Wellness.

Starting in January 2025, payments are done in person at your appointment.  This includes the options of cash, check, credit card, or PayPal.  Checks can be made out to Superior Wellness.

Yes! Gift certificates are available upon request and can be picked up in person or emailed. The gift certificate is in PDF format when emailed for you to print out and give to your recipient. Email Dr. Lori at [email protected] for more information.

Manual therapy treatment sessions are offered Monday-Friday 8am-11:15am and 1:30pm-5 or 6pm with exception no appointments on Friday afternoons.  There is also one premium “no-wait” appointment available once a week outside of normal business hours.

A treatment plan is always customized based on your condition. The hands-on nature of the manual osteopathic care is essentially what requires patients to visit the manual therapist more than once to achieve the desired results. A manual osteopathic practitioner may provide acute, chronic, and/or preventive care, so the number of visits will vary. If you have not yet achieved a maintenance level, attending sessions within a 7-21 day period is recommended in order to continue to make positive gains. Once maintenance is achieved, frequency of a visit every 4-8 weeks is common which can be helpful to prevent injuries, maintain wellness, and reduce the build-up of strain that daily life puts on our bodies.

You may experience soreness after a session due to your body having to flush out toxins released during the session or due to your body adjusting to the changes that occurred. Do not be concerned if this does occur as it should resolve within 1-2 days, however in some cases could last longer. Some people may also experience fatigue, temporary increase in pain, or other symptoms. Drinking water, resting, and using ice or heat after sessions will aid in alleviating any soreness or post visit symptoms. Recommend avoiding strenuous activity for 24-48 hours after a session.

Lori has a Diploma in Osteopathic Manual Practice, is a Doctor of Physical Therapy, and is a Certified Health Coach. Can you call her Dr. Lori? Yep, you sure can 🙂 She has attended all available fascial counterstrain courses and one Counterstrain Academy course along with numerous continuing education courses for a variety of musculoskeletal impairments for all parts of the body.

You can find a fascial counterstrain practitioner in your area on the counterstrain.com website. There is a clinics & practitioners tab where you can type in your state and a list of practitioners nearby will populate for you to scroll through to find the one closest to you.

Chiropractic has originated from osteopathy and most chiropractic techniques (such as spinal manipulation) are essentially originally osteopathic techniques. Dr Daniel David Palmer, founder of chiropractic was one of the first students of Dr. Andrew Taylor Still, the founder of osteopathy.

Doctors of chiropractic may utilize direct force spinal manipulation (also known as grade five mobilization or high velocity low amplitude (HVLA) techniques) in treating patients.

Osteopathic manual practitioners instead tend to use gentle, low force, repetitive techniques such as osteoarticular mobilization, muscle energy technique, balanced ligamentous tension, lymphatic drainage, oscillatory, myofascial release, strain/counterstrain, fascial counterstrain, soft tissue therapy, cranial osteopathy, visceral manipulation, Still’s, manual mechanotherapy, and positional facilitated release. These techniques use minimal force and are repetitive and gentle in nature. In manual osteopathy, being gentle is essential. Spinal manipulation (HVLA technique) is not commonly used by osteopathic manual practitioners in North America.

In the USA, Osteopaths are medical doctors who are osteopathic physicians who can also prescribe medications and perform surgery. This is also knows as American style osteopathy. 

Osteopathic manual practitioners do not practice osteopathic medicine and instead use only hands-on techniques for treatment. This is also called European style osteopathy or manual osteopathy.